Dickens used his writings to highlight the need for Christian virtue by depicting English society as corrupt and arbitrary, arguing that true justice comes from God. Through characters like Heep in Great Expectations, who operates on deception and greed, and the unsavory underbelly of London full of con men and grave robbers, Dickens illustrates the evils and ills of Victorian England while reflecting the hypocrisy and corruption of its society.

2. He used the arbitrary and hypocritical
societies in his writings to underscore the
necessity for Christian virtue

4. In Great Expectations
Dickens argues that English
society is corrupt to the core..
That real justice comes only
from God..
Great Expectations is the least obvious
expression of Dickens’ religious views

5. A Tale of Two Cities tells
Dickens admiration of Christian
self-sacrifice and his disdain for
England’s arbitrary laws The anti-hero turned hero is
executed in a moment of self-
sacrifice
In Great Expectations
Pip represents a similar objection
to societal ills

6. Heep is one of the most corrupt
characters in all of Dickens’
works
A man who operates by
deception and lives for greed
alone

7. Heep is an example of the kind of social hypocrisy
pretending to be good and decent on the outside
but actually corrupt and fatal on the inside

8. Dickens’ London is often a
parlor where good and evil
come toe-to-toe
where good must climb over
the economic obstacles
and strive for a higher virtue
than mere arithmetic

9. It is a treacherous world in Dickens’
London and no one is safe. In fact, most
places of business, including schools, are
little more than confidence games and
everyone seems a con man

10. Whether in the bungling grave
robbers of A Tale of Two Cities, or
the pickpockets of Oliver Twist,.
The London
underbelly is full
of unsavory
characters

11. Charles Dickens loved London
But as an Artist, he was obliged
to reflect the time in which he
lived

12. Industry was not God, however, for Dickens,
and each of his works illustrates that fact with
force and imagination, serving not only as a
reflection of the arbitrary and hypocritical ways
of his society but also as an indictment of the
evils and ills of Victorian England.