Charles Dickens was famous for his vivid descriptions, social commentary, and use of literary techniques in his novels. He often used cliffhanger endings to end chapters since his novels were published serially. He also frequently used polysyndeton to exaggerate descriptions and employed satire to critique issues of his time like poverty and injustice. Symbolism, irony, character foils, and metaphors were some of his narrative devices, and works like Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are examples of the Bildungsroman genre.

1. CHARLES DICKENS:
LITERARY TECHNIQUES
Emma García Bértoa

2. LITERARY STYLE
Sense of
humour
Detailed
descriptions
Episodic
writing
Satire
Exaggeration
Cliff-
hanging
endings
Storytelling

3. LITERARY STYLE
Dickens was once a newspaper reporter. Actually, most of Dickens's
greatest novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in
journals. His novels are filled with real personalities and vivid physical
descriptions. Dickens is also well-known for his exaggeration.

4. LITERARY STYLE
Dickens is famous for packing his novels with social commentaries.
He targets the injustices of the nineteenth century, namely, poor
houses, boys’ boarding schools, the lack of education for women, the
tyrannies of family life, the over reliance on alcohol, and the effects
of poverty.

5. Plot
• Cliffhanger
Style
• Polysyndeton
• Satire
Theme
• Symbolism
• Irony
• Character foil
• Metaphor
Genre • Bildungsroman
LITERARY TECHNIQUES

6. CLIFFHANGER
The end of the narrative is not solved. This takes the audience to a
future episode for the conclusion.
Dickens' novels were serial novels, a popular publishing type in Victorian
times, meaning that they were published chapter-by-chapter, in magazines, over the
course of several months or years. This is why, even when reprinted in traditional
book format, each chapter's ending still ends with a new mystery or twist. (The
Book Club)

7. POLYSINDETON
To provide a sense of exaggeration Dickens uses several conjunctions
in close succession.
A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by
stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped,
and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as
he seized me by the chin. (Great Expectations, chapter 1).

8. SATIRE
A way of using humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a
person, government, society, etc. (Merriam Webster)
That, for these reasons, the jury, being a loyal jury (as he knew they were), and
being a responsible jury (as THEY knew they were), must positively find the
prisoner Guilty, and make an end of him, whether they liked it or not. That,
they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; (…); in short, that there
never more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all,
unless the prisoner's head was taken off. (Great Expectations, chapter 3).

9. SYMBOLISM
Artistic imitation or invention that is a method of revealing or suggesting
immaterial, ideal, or otherwise intangible truth or states. (Merriam
Webster).
The guillotine, (…), is one of the enduring symbols of the French
Revolution. In Tale of Two Cities, the guillotine symbolizes how
revolutionary chaos gets institutionalized. (LitCharts)

10. IRONY
The use of words to express something other than and especially the
opposite of the literal meaning. (Merriam Webster)
The medical gentleman walked away to dinner; and the nurse, having
once more applied herself to the green bottle, sat down on a low chair before the
fire, and proceeded to dress the infant. (Oliver Twist, chapter 1).

11. CHARACTER FOIL
In literature, a foil is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast
with the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the
traits of the other character. (Literary Devices).
In A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge, the main female
character, looks like a compliant and innocent grandma. However,
she is ruthless. On the other hand, her nurse, Miss Pross is
respectable and loyal.

12. METAPHOR
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one
kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness
or analogy between them. (Merriam Webster).
In a Tale of Two Cities Using the wine that spills into the streets early in
the novel as a metaphor for the blood spilled in the revolution serves a
practical purpose: the Defarges run a wine shop. The Defarges are the
hub of revolutionary activity. It all fits together neatly. (Shmoop)

13. BILDUNGSROMAN
A novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main
character. (Merriam Webster).
Oliver Twist or Great Expectations are examples of a
bildungsroman narrative.

14. BIBLIOGRAFÍA
Merriam Webster Online. Recuperado de: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
The Book Club. Literary Terms. Recuperado de:
http://www.pfspublishing.com/bookclub/literary-definitions/
Shmoop. Wine Blood in Tale of Two Cities. Recuperado de: http://www.shmoop.com/tale-
of-two-cities/wine-blood-symbol.html
LitCharts . A Tale of Two Cities Symbols. Recuperado de:
http://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-tale-of-two-cities/symbols