The Great Expectations and Romantic Ideals of Dickens’s Heroes

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

 

• David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

 

We are joined for this episode of Risking Enchantment by Catholic author Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Eleanor has previously published several Gothic novels including, A Bloody Habit (2018) and Brother Wolf (2021), with her latest novel Wake of Malice set to publish later this year.

 

In this episode we discuss our deep love of the novels of Charles Dickens. We explore three of his greatest works, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations, each of which follows a young male protagonist through the many adventures, triumphs and pitfalls of his life. In each case we look at the virtues and the failings of these heroes, the Romantic tropes that Dickens employs to characterize them, and the subversions of these that he uses, particularly in the case of Great Expectations.

 

Works Mentioned:

 

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

 

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

 

Dickens: A Critical Study by G.K. Chesterton

 

David Copperfield: Ignatius Critical Edition (coming soon) by Charles Dickens

 

“The Age of Cant” by Theodore Dalrymple

 

What We are Enjoying at the Moment

 

Eleanor: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

 

Rachel: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell