The Life And Adventures Of Martin Chhuzzlewit
Charles Dickens’ work The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit was a serialized, satirical novel, published in monthly installments between 1843 and 1844, and was perhaps his least economically successful literary venture; however, while it was his least successful sales-wise, it was allegedly his personal favorite. It was composed following his first American Tour in 1842 “during which he lobbied for the issue closest to his heart: an international copyright,” a cause which was met with primarily negative reception in the United States (Castillo 436). However, the overarching, professed purpose of the novel was to illustrate the selfish nature of humans via the relationships between his characters, namely the wealthy supporting character
…show more content…
Old Martin Chuzzlewit, his hypocritical “friend,” Seth Pecksniff, and the elder Chuzzlewit’s disowned grandson, Martin Chuzzlewit, as well as through various other characters whose roles were reminiscent of individuals with which all his readers would have been familiar. His novel falls under the category of historical fiction due to Dickens’ inclusion of several of the era’s most notable issues—namely the threat to traditional society posed by industrialization and the social commentary on the America witnessed by Dickens during his 1842 tour.
Though the novel itself is set in the 1840s when railways dominated transportation, Dickens inspired a great deal of nostalgia in his readers by harkening back to an England characterized by personal stagecoaches and familiar, country alehouses. Concurrently, the naive Martin arrived in the backwater swamp—ironically named Eden—of the United States, which he suggested in his American Notes was, in part, deeply unpleasant because of its sense of rapid movement. Dickens’ negative view of the United States was also based upon his experience in a United States that he asserted was filthy, amoral, and deeply unequal (in direct contrast to its egalitarian …show more content…
foundations). Much of his section on America addresses the dichotomy between the values purported by the American public versus the reality of its society. In the opening paragraph of the initial American chapter, Dickens discusses the “great principles of Purity of Election and Freedom of opinion [expressed] by breaking a few legs and arms” (Dickens). Shortly thereafter, two of the first Americans that Martin encounters describe sensationalistic American journalism as just as necessary to American culture as “nigger slavery” (Dickens). Furthermore, he draws attention to the hypocrisy of America’s “egalitarian” spirit with the exchange between Pawkins’ “…degraded Help” and Colonel Diver when she refers to Pawkins as her master, to the astonishment of Diver and Jefferson Brick. The war correspondent goes on to praise the “blessings of [his] form of government” in which there are no masters; in truly scathing fashion, Martin retorts with: “All ‘owners,’ are they?” (Dickens). Additionally, Charles Dickens’ personal issue with American copyright laws and ownership of intellectual property is a likely parallel to Martin Chuzzlewit’s fictional issue with inheritance and ownership of physical and monetary property. Both Dickens and the elder Martin Chuzzlewit struggle with the concept of choosing who has a natural right to their property; in Dickens’ own life, he argued that authorial intention should allow for stringent copyright laws which were often “one of the primary means through which authors could support their descendants” (Castillo 439). In Chuzzlewit’s situation, his primary concern was with ensuring that those that would inherit his wealth would truly deserve it, as evidenced by his preventative measure of providing for Mary Graham for only as long as he lived and for disinheriting Martin when he ruined his matchmaking plans. The fact that the primary plot so closely resembled Dickens’ own personal struggles was not likely a coincidence. In conclusion, Charles Dickens’ satirical serial The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit told a representative narrative of the selfishness and hypocrisy typical of human nature, utilizing the characterization of various hypocritical characters as well as the dichotomous relationship between the values of the United States and the actions of its people.
Though Dickens’ narrative consists of both personal observations of reality and fictionalized characters, his method of storytelling allows the reader to objectively examine the failings of human nature through representative characters; he uses Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit to demonstrate those whose selfishness and hypocrisy lead to failure, and characters like Tom Pinch and young Martin Chuzzlewit, whose virtue and penitence ultimately lead to their success. Similarly, Dickens’ post-script in Martin Chuzzlewit reflects a redeemed America in which “changes moral,…[and] changes in the Press” (Dickens) had created an America that he characterized as unsurpassably polite, delicate, sweet tempered, hospitable, considerate, and unsurpassably respectful of him, a description he would stand by “so long as I live, and so long as my descendants have any legal right in my books”
(Dickens).
Old Martin Chuzzlewit, his hypocritical “friend,” Seth Pecksniff, and the elder Chuzzlewit’s disowned grandson, Martin Chuzzlewit, as well as through various other characters whose roles were reminiscent of individuals with which all his readers would have been familiar. His novel falls under the category of historical fiction due to Dickens’ inclusion of several of the era’s most notable issues—namely the threat to traditional society posed by industrialization and the social commentary on the America witnessed by Dickens during his 1842 tour.
Though the novel itself is set in the 1840s when railways dominated transportation, Dickens inspired a great deal of nostalgia in his readers by harkening back to an England characterized by personal stagecoaches and familiar, country alehouses. Concurrently, the naive Martin arrived in the backwater swamp—ironically named Eden—of the United States, which he suggested in his American Notes was, in part, deeply unpleasant because of its sense of rapid movement. Dickens’ negative view of the United States was also based upon his experience in a United States that he asserted was filthy, amoral, and deeply unequal (in direct contrast to its egalitarian …show more content…
foundations). Much of his section on America addresses the dichotomy between the values purported by the American public versus the reality of its society. In the opening paragraph of the initial American chapter, Dickens discusses the “great principles of Purity of Election and Freedom of opinion [expressed] by breaking a few legs and arms” (Dickens). Shortly thereafter, two of the first Americans that Martin encounters describe sensationalistic American journalism as just as necessary to American culture as “nigger slavery” (Dickens). Furthermore, he draws attention to the hypocrisy of America’s “egalitarian” spirit with the exchange between Pawkins’ “…degraded Help” and Colonel Diver when she refers to Pawkins as her master, to the astonishment of Diver and Jefferson Brick. The war correspondent goes on to praise the “blessings of [his] form of government” in which there are no masters; in truly scathing fashion, Martin retorts with: “All ‘owners,’ are they?” (Dickens). Additionally, Charles Dickens’ personal issue with American copyright laws and ownership of intellectual property is a likely parallel to Martin Chuzzlewit’s fictional issue with inheritance and ownership of physical and monetary property. Both Dickens and the elder Martin Chuzzlewit struggle with the concept of choosing who has a natural right to their property; in Dickens’ own life, he argued that authorial intention should allow for stringent copyright laws which were often “one of the primary means through which authors could support their descendants” (Castillo 439). In Chuzzlewit’s situation, his primary concern was with ensuring that those that would inherit his wealth would truly deserve it, as evidenced by his preventative measure of providing for Mary Graham for only as long as he lived and for disinheriting Martin when he ruined his matchmaking plans. The fact that the primary plot so closely resembled Dickens’ own personal struggles was not likely a coincidence. In conclusion, Charles Dickens’ satirical serial The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit told a representative narrative of the selfishness and hypocrisy typical of human nature, utilizing the characterization of various hypocritical characters as well as the dichotomous relationship between the values of the United States and the actions of its people.
Though Dickens’ narrative consists of both personal observations of reality and fictionalized characters, his method of storytelling allows the reader to objectively examine the failings of human nature through representative characters; he uses Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit to demonstrate those whose selfishness and hypocrisy lead to failure, and characters like Tom Pinch and young Martin Chuzzlewit, whose virtue and penitence ultimately lead to their success. Similarly, Dickens’ post-script in Martin Chuzzlewit reflects a redeemed America in which “changes moral,…[and] changes in the Press” (Dickens) had created an America that he characterized as unsurpassably polite, delicate, sweet tempered, hospitable, considerate, and unsurpassably respectful of him, a description he would stand by “so long as I live, and so long as my descendants have any legal right in my books”
(Dickens).