It struck me a few years ago, when re-discovering the literature of Dickens, just how many of his villains and grotesques were older people (to use a sometimes inappropriate twenty-first century label). Why had I not noticed it before? Indeed with all the Dickens criticism, biographies and research since his death in 1870 why was there no consideration on how he portrayed age and ageing?

A literature review undertaken for me by the ever reliable Centre for Policy on Ageing identified just one reference and that of intergenerational conflict relating to ‘Scrooge’; misuse of power and the fear of those who have spent a lifetime exploiting others, in their ‘old age’, being exploited themselves (Donow 1994).

Exploitative old men and women are certainly not unknown in Dickens`s characterisations of older people – Mrs Brown (Domby and Son); Mr Bumble (Oliver Twist); Mr Dolls (Our Mutual Friend) and Arthur Gride (Nicholas Nickelby) to name but a few. In many ways Dickens’ characters were either good or bad reflecting the middle class values of the time, but portrayals ‘either wholly good or irredeemably evil’ are evident throughout literature for hundreds of years, not just the 1800’s.

Throughout the writings of Dickens (excluding his journalistic endeavours, but including the ‘Sketches of Bos’) he produced an estimated 3,560 characters of which 1,650 have been sourced ( Hawes 1988) and by my reckoning 235 were ‘old’, ‘elderly’ or 50 plus. However it is not simply the numbers of older characters that is of interest but how far so many were centred in his story lines, and plots (e.g. Fagin – (Oliver Twist); Miss Havisham (Great Expectations); Micawber (David Copperfield) and William Doritt (Little Doritt) and their relationship with the novel’s primary characters whether as villains, family members (or both), benefactors or strangers.

How far was Dickens reflecting Georgian or early / mid Victorian assumptions and attitudes to old age? In interrogating the portrayals, both in terms of 19 th Century values and from Dickens own life course, one identifies, perhaps, an emerging gerontophobia. His imagery of the old in society, their value, their contribution and their position reflects a man, in both his youth and later maturity, uncomfortable and ill at ease with his own ageing. He hated being called or considered as `old` and it is the interplay of all these factors, evident in his portrayals, that makes the study so fascinating. It could be that he was ambivalent about age and ageing and dying.

The challenge is how far the fiction of Dickens, rooted in 19 th century European beliefs, prejudices and cultural milieu can possibly have relevance to 21st century age and ageing. From the emergence of literacy gerontology and the works of historians such as Pat Thane (2000) (2005) we can arguably learn much that can shape present day policies and practice.

What do the portrayals of Samuel Pickwick (The Pickwick Papers) Fagin and Scrooge, Sarah Gamp (Martin Chuzzlewit), Mrs Garland (Old Curiosity Shop) and the Bollins (Hard Times) and others tell us about Dickens the child, boy and adult making his very successful way into the Victorian middle classes? What were his life events and transitions that shaped his views of ageing and perhaps (just perhaps) dramatically represented (and indeed illustrated) throughout his writing career?

By his own account Dickens wanted to turn his fiction ‘to good account’ and on his own terms and in his personal and historical context he probably did. What Dickens perhaps did not expect to happen was how those characters (good, bad and ugly!) would be understood some hundred and thirty plus years later and their relevance to twenty-first century Government policy on age sector public services. The problem for a researcher with a vivid imagination is that frequently when thinking about today’s Parliamentarians, a particular character of Dickens springs to mind – at that point I had better leave it:

References

Donow, H., S. (1994) ‘The Two faces of age and the Resolution of Generational Conflict’. The Gerontologist, Vol 34 No I. 73 – 78.

Hawes, D. (1988) ‘Who’s Who in Dickens’ Routledge, London

Thane, P. (2000) ‘Old Age in English History’, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Thane, P. (ed) (2005) ‘The Long History of Old Age’, Thames and Hudson, London.

Editorial Note: Mervyn Eastman is in the process of writing a detailed study of the older characters of Charles Dickens in order to address these issues and challenges. Any reader who would like to contribute their perspectives and views please write to Mervyn at Better Government for Older People 25-31 Ironmonger row, London, EC1V 3QP or alternatively by email : MEastman@bgop.org.uk.