Charles Dickens David Copperfield

The story deals with the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity and deals with issues of child labor. David Copperfield – the protagonist; later called "Trotwood Copperfield" by some ("David Copperfield" is also the name of the hero's father, who died before he was born).

Edward Murdstone – Young David's cruel stepfather who caned him for falling behind in his studies. David reacted by biting Mr Murdstone, who then sent him to Salem House - the private school owned by his friend Mr. Creakle. After David's mother died, Mr Murdstone sent him to work in a blacking factory. He appeared at Betsy Trotwood's house after David ran away. Mr Murdstone appears to show signs of repentence when confronted with Copperfield's aunt but later in the book we hear he has married another young woman and applied his old principles of "firmness".

James Steerforth – A close friend of David of a romantic and charming disposition; though well-liked by most, he proves himself to be lacking in character by seducing and later abandoning Emily. He eventually drowns at Yarmouth with Ham Peggotty, who was trying to rescue him.

The Pickwick Papers

The novel's main character, Mr. Pickwick, is a kind old gentleman, the founder of the Pickwick Club. Mr. Pickwick travels with his friends, Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, and Mr. Tracy Tupman, and their adventures are the chief theme of the novel.

Bleak House

The plot concerns a long-running legal dispute (Jarndyce and Jarndyce) which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. Dickens's assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk. His harsh characterization of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave voice to widespread frustration with the system, helping to set the stage for its eventual reform in the 1870s.

Esther Summerson — an orphan

Caddy Jellyby — a friend of Esther

Nicholas Nickleby

The lengthy novel centres around the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies. His Uncle Ralph, who thinks Nicholas will never amount to anything, plays the role of an antagonist.

The tone of the work is burlesque, with Dickens taking aim at what he perceives to be social injustices. Many memorable characters are introduced, including Nicholas' malevolent uncle Ralph, and the villainous Wackford Squeers, who operates a squalid boarding school at which Nicholas temporarily serves as a tutor.

Great Expectations

Pip – an orphan, and the protagonist. Pip is to be trained as a blacksmith, a low but skilled and honest profession, but strives to rise above his class after meeting Estella Havisham.

Joe Gargery – Pip's brother-in-law, and his first father figure. Joe represents the poor but honest life that Pip rejects.

Miss Havisham

Estella [Havisham] – Miss Havisham's adopted daughter,

Hard Times (1854)

The book is one of a number of state-of-the-nation novels published around the same time, another being North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which aimed to highlight the social and economic pressures some people were under. The novel is unusual, in that it is not set in London, as is Dickens' usual wont, but the fictitious Victorian industrial town of Coketown.

Dickens' novel follows the classical tripartite structure of novels, and the titles of each book are related to the proverbial aphorism, 'As you sow, so shall you reap'. The interpretation of this quote being, what ever is effected upon or done in the present will have a direct effect on what happens later. Book I is entitled 'Sowing', Book II is entitled 'Reaping', and the third is 'Garnering'. These titles are a deliberate motif used, and have to be bared in mind when reading the book and analysing its narrative and content.

In Hard Times it can be affirmed that there is no main protagonist. A criticism of Dickens novels is that the intricate plots and eventual denouement, mean that several characters are involved only to represent ideas of Dickens, usually at the expense of their development as human beings. Ergo, representing straw men and women.

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind Tom Gradgrind is a utilitarian who is the founder of the educational system in Coketown. 'Eminently practical' is Gradgrind's recurring description throughout the novel, and practicality is something he zealously aspires to. He represents the stringency of 'Fact', statistics and other materialistic pursuits. Only after his daughter's breakdown does he come to a realisation that things such as poetry, fiction and other pursuits are not 'destructive nonsense'.

Josiah Bounderby Josiah Bounderby is a business associate of Mr. Gradgrind. He is a bombastic, yet thunderous merchant given to peroration. He employs many of the other central characters of the novel, and his rise to prosperity is shown to be an example of social mobility. He marries Mr. Gradgrind's daughter Louisa, some 25 years his junior, in what turns out to be a soulless matrimony. Bounderby is the main target of Dickens' attack on the supposed moral superiority of the wealthy, and is revealed to be an utter hypocrite in his sensational comeuppance at the end of the novel.

Louisa Gradgrind/Bounderby Louisa is the unemotional, distant and eldest child of the Gradgrind family. She has been taught to abnegate her emotions, and finds it hard to express herself clearly, saying as a child she has 'unmanageable thoughts'. She is married to Josiah Bounderby, in a very logical and businesslike manner, representing the emphasis on factuality and business ethos of her education. Her marriage is a disaster and is tempted into adultery by James Harthouse, yet, she manages to resist this temptation.

Stephen Blackpool 'Old Stephen' as he is referred to by his fellow 'Hands' is an improvident, indigent worker at one of Bounderby's mills. His life is immensely strenuous, and he is married to a constantly inebriated wife who comes and goes throughout the novel. He forms a close bond with Rachael, a female worker. After a dispute with Bounderby, he is dismissed from his work at the Coketown mills and is forced to find work elsewhere. Whilst absent from Coketown he is accused of complicity in a crime he did not commit, and tragically, on his way back to vindicate himself he falls into a pit, and seriously injures himself. He is rescued, but dies.