Views on America: Charles Dickens
America in the 1800s was often understood by many countries in Europe to be a land that had finally managed to free itself of the various wrongs of the old world and institute a new era in which men were born free and died free, where all disputes were settled equitably and fairly regardless of class or wealth and where the rights of man were staunchly upheld regardless of what that man had done. . For instance the French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville in his widely influential work, Democracy in America, observes that, he had seen “the freest and best educated of men in circumstances the happiest to be found in the world…” (Democracy in America, 1832 and 1840) It was with this generalized concept of America in mind that one of this century’s best-known authors journeyed to discern for himself just what America had done right that Europe needed to copy. English novelist Charles Dickens had very high hopes in mind as he made his way across the Atlantic; He was fated to be sorely disappointed though. The polish was off the brass for Dickens almost as soon as he arrived as he experienced constant suffocating attention from the uncouth American public, which perhaps colored his criticism. But more interestingly the exact reasons why Dickens was disillusioned with America and became so critical of its society in fact reflected the writer’s nationality and particular social upbringing.
Dickens traveled to America already well versed in the available travel literature that had been produced both to help reforms at home as well as in America as each social structure was examined and compared. Prior to his departure, Dickens had high expectations for the new country as a source of information regarding how best to fix the social ills in England at that time. Prior to his first visit to America, Dickens was active in the suffrage movement as well as the anti-slavery movement, but he had changed his mind, at least somewhat,... [continues]
America in the 1800s was often understood by many countries in Europe to be a land that had finally managed to free itself of the various wrongs of the old world and institute a new era in which men were born free and died free, where all disputes were settled equitably and fairly regardless of class or wealth and where the rights of man were staunchly upheld regardless of what that man had done. . For instance the French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville in his widely influential work, Democracy in America, observes that, he had seen “the freest and best educated of men in circumstances the happiest to be found in the world…” (Democracy in America, 1832 and 1840) It was with this generalized concept of America in mind that one of this century’s best-known authors journeyed to discern for himself just what America had done right that Europe needed to copy. English novelist Charles Dickens had very high hopes in mind as he made his way across the Atlantic; He was fated to be sorely disappointed though. The polish was off the brass for Dickens almost as soon as he arrived as he experienced constant suffocating attention from the uncouth American public, which perhaps colored his criticism. But more interestingly the exact reasons why Dickens was disillusioned with America and became so critical of its society in fact reflected the writer’s nationality and particular social upbringing.
Dickens traveled to America already well versed in the available travel literature that had been produced both to help reforms at home as well as in America as each social structure was examined and compared. Prior to his departure, Dickens had high expectations for the new country as a source of information regarding how best to fix the social ills in England at that time. Prior to his first visit to America, Dickens was active in the suffrage movement as well as the anti-slavery movement, but he had changed his mind, at least somewhat,... [continues]
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