DICKENS 



1791 



DICKENS 



slowly until they came more into accord with 

 his ideas; and his ideas were largely those of 

 the highest authorities to-day. Argumentative 

 treatises were not in his line he knew a better 

 way to attack abuses. The evils of corporal 

 punishment made a strong impression on him, 

 for he had gone to school enough in his own 

 young days to know what they were; so he 

 wrote Nicholas Nickleby and drew in it a pic- 

 ture of monster Squeers, almost too vicious to 

 be real, but too convincing not to be; he wrote 



GADSHILL, 



David Copperfield, and let his readers feel the 

 bite of Mr. Creakle's cane as he cut at the 

 "chubby boys" whom he couldn't resist. These 

 things and many, many more he described, 

 with the result that thinking men all over the 

 country began to wonder whether such abuses 

 really existed, and if they did, to resolve that 

 they must be corrected. To-day "Not one 

 blow in a thousand is given to a child as 

 compared with the time of Dickens' childhood," 

 and of this improved state of things Dickens 

 was not only the prophet but in a large 

 measure the promoter. 



He saw other evils, too. That of "cramming" 

 struck him as particularly serious, and he 

 wrote with satire as biting as it was interest- 

 ing of the "mental green peas," "intellectual 

 asparagus" and "mathematical gooseberries" 

 that were "common at untimely seasons under 

 Doctor Blimber's cultivation." The unwhole- 

 some restraint of children, the systematic ignor- 

 ing of their individuality, the unsympathetic 

 attitude that was adopted toward them all 

 these and more he attacked and at least par- 

 tially vanquished. Of course not every school 

 had all these evils, but many of the private 

 institutions made them a regular part of their 

 system, and parents as well as schoolmasters 

 were likely to fall into the error of looking 

 upon childhood as a troublesome time which 



DICKENS PROGRAMS 

 i. 



"No one thinks first of Dickens as a 

 writer. He is at once, through his books, 

 a friend." 



Song, The Ivy Green Dickens 



Essay, The Childhood of Dickens 

 Mrs. Jarley's Wax Works, from 

 The Old Curiosity Shop 



One child may represent Little 

 Nell, and act as showman; oth- 

 ers may be the various "wax 

 works." 



Character sketch, Little Nell 

 Essay, How Dickens' Novels Differ from 



Those of George Eliot 

 Reading, A Child's Dream of a Star.. 



Dickens 



Essay, What Dickens Thought of 

 America 



Sources: American Notes and 



Martin Chuzzlewit 



Dramatization, Sam Weller Writes a 

 Valentine 



Characters : Sam Weller and his 

 father 



2. 



The chief work of Dickens was to lay 

 bare the injustice, the meanness, and the 

 blighting coercion practiced on helpless 



children His was a noble work, 



and it was well done. Hughes. 



Dickens in Camp Bret Harte 



Essay, How Dickens Advanced Educa- 

 tion 



Dramatization, David and Little Em'ly 

 Scenes from David Copperfield 



Essay, How Dickens' Novels Differ from 

 Those of Thackeray 



Reading from Dombey and Son, conver- 

 sation about the waves, between Paul 

 and Florence. 



Song, What Are the Wild Waves Say- 

 ing Carpenter 



Character sketch, Paul Dombey 



Dramatization, David Meets His Aunt 

 Characters: David, Betsy Trotwood, 

 Mr. Dick 



Reading. The Pickwick Club on the Ice 



