Charles Dickens and Arthur Miller, an esteemed writer of the Victorian Era, the latter a contemporary American playwright. Both authors found their work to be acclaimed in the spheres of academia and in the abodes of Americans. Both great men had distinct writing styles, Dickens with strongly developed satire and foibled characters juxtaposed with Miller’s use of excellent utilization of American society’s moral dilemmas to create the context and content of his works.
Charles Dickens made use of social commentary as a means of combatting the disparity in ways of life between the pauper and the aristocracy in the Victorian Era. Through use of vivid imagery and detail in works such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, Dickens opened doors for discussion on the monetary issues plaguing England at the time. It is in a very similar manner that Miller drew allusions to issues such as the American Dream in Death of a Salesman or the Red Scare in The Crucible. It seems that showing people their actions through the perspective of another is quite effective means of implementing change.
While similarities can be drawn as above, these men had very different styles of writing. Wielding the vernacular of a Victorian Englishman and metaphorical skills unparalleled, Dickens’ writing embraces and nearly necessitates his audience to introspectively analyze nearly every paragraph as there tends to be a comparison, an allusion, or some higher meaning lurking somewhere. He could take a scene lasting a literal moment in real life, and expand that into 30 pages of commentary. Arthur Miller on the other hand, uses characters with dialect more familiar and enchanting to a modern American. Their words are simple, yet are packed with meaning in their tone and conveyance. They can extract more emotion, because it can seem plausible the reader is in the Loman house in The Death of a Salesman and they nearly can hear the family argue. Perhaps that is another reason his work is so gripping to Americans, despite his works taking place a long time ago, elements such as The American Dream are still pervasive in our culture. It's amazing to hold commonalities with people 50 to 100 years ago, and Arthur Miller’s themes allow just that.
Accolades aforementioned given to Miller are not to take away from Dickens’ writing. His themes despite being placed geographically distant and nigh archaic, can still be prevalent in our society. We still experience societal upheaval and tumult, albeit for multitudinous reasons. The world still has major unjust disparities, the world still has people that want a different quo. Books like A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield can encapsulate, sadly, the condition of many people.
Speaking of people, Charles Dickens is widely regarded today for his skill in the art of melding characters into memorable ones. He created people often plagued with cognitive dissonance, infected with nihilist and idealist thought simultaneously, and so on. These characters had internal struggles that accentuated the world’s issues in the books, making them all the more interesting. So prominent they are in today’s society, even my father called my brother “Tiny Tim” the other night. These characters. Arthur Miller was no pushover in the creation of characters, either. Rather than making the overarching themes embodied in the setting, they were placed in the hearts of memorable people such as Willy Loman. The American Dream, again, is a big talking point in The Death of a Salesman. As a matter of fact, rather than shaping the struggles of them to their individual personalities, he shaped their personalities around this idea. Ben was a diamond tycoon because of his view that conquering nature and being wildly rich was of utmost importance. While in A Tale of Two Cities, each character has their own adversity to face based on who they are and more importantly, what they are.
In summary, while this meager comparison of two legendary writers might not do justice, the reality is that they had very different styles of writing. Crafted by different circumstances and thoughts, they both contributed to the world great works of literature and and unique styles of writing. Furthermore, they helped articulate the struggles of many and made them easier to understand.
1 comment:
You do a very good job pointing out the similarities and differences in two great and revered authors, Charles Dickens and Arthur Miller. Before reading your post, I did not realize there were such important similarities between two authors with such different styles and mediums. They are very similar in the way that both strove to point out the social injustices of the society they were a part of, and used their writing as a way to implement change. I liked the way that you compared their characterization, and that while they are very different both are successful in creating reasonable characters that help to point out the problems of the society they are in. I also liked the way that you showed how even when they used different strategies and literary styles both were successful in their end goal. Dickens was excellent at characterization and Miller utilized dialogue and characters actions by taking advantage of the different medium he was using. In spite of these differences, both are successful in relating struggles of the past to us, even though these struggles were hundreds of years ago. I also liked the way you implemented a personal anecdote to show just how important the authors are to our culture today. In conclusion, your post does a very good job comparing and contrasting the different aspects of Arthur Miller and Charles Dickens.
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