CHARLES DICKENS���S PORTRAYAL OF CHILDREN IN SELECTED NOVELS

The aim of this work is to investigate and discuss the motives and rhetorical devices of Charles Dickens’s portrayal of children. This unfolds through an analysis of four of his novels which are Oliver Twist The Old Curiosity Shop David Copperfield and Great Expectations. In its first part the ongoing study has first and foremost highlighted such motives as children’s unfair relationships with their entourage made up of people who victimise them during the Victorian era an era of Industrial Revolution. It has also shown that children’s misfortunes seldom come singly. Fortunately these child characters are rescued amidst these misfortunes. The second leg of this work has consisted in discussing the rhetorical devices to which Dickens resorts in his depiction of children. Indeed to achieve its objective this research work has lightly drawn on five approaches with a focus on the formalistic approach while endeavouring to assess Dickens as a great rhetorician of modern times.