Charles Dickens created some of the most memorable characters in the history of the written word. How did Dickens get the ideas for these characters? Are they purely fictional? HURRY PLEASE I HAVE A 9.6 IN ENGLISH

An extensive examination of the names of characters in

tlte works of the majority of nineteenth and twentieth century

Qovelists would obviously be of little value, for the growjng

tendency toward the commonplace in realism has necessitated

tl}e selection of neutral names or names taken outright from

a~tual persons. Though few of the characters in recent fiction

are so handicapped by inappropriate names as are many

~ople in reallife,-where, to quote a modern poet, H surnames

ever go J:>y contraries"-still, with the contemporary novelists,

there is usually nothing in a name to denote an·intimate correspondence between it.and the character towhich it belongs.

It may be that the aveJ:Sion to the grotesque or the descriptive

in nomenclature springs from a' conviCtion that the liking for

peculiar names is obsolete, and that it has passed from the

world of letters, as the brilliantly flowered waistcoat from the

pages of fashion; or it may be that it is merely an illustratioll

of loss of caste by a literary mode, which appears in succeeding

generations in varying degrees of degradation. .

discriminating writers. For,

example, the appellation imp, which no one would now consider

a respectful epithet, was applied by Shakespeare to no less a

personage than the king. Literary types often share the fate of words in loss of

dignity, for the tale of knighthood and chivalry is no longer a

theme of absorbing interest to critical readers, but it, along

with the game of tag and other recreations formerly enjoyed

by court ladies, is relegated' to' children. Such names as

appear in the morality plays and in the early Elizabethan

drama have fallen into disrepute as a feature of literature.

It was doubtless a great convenience in the ante-program"days

for the audience to be able to conjecture from the name of a

character whether to applaud him as a hero or to execrate him

as a villain. The early novelists made use, with more or less

freedom, of this custom of descriptive nomenclature, as shown

by the names of characters,strikingly in Smollett, less so in

Goldsmith~ Modern literature is marked by a nearly complete

disappearance of the names that give a clue to the occupation

or nature of the character to which they pertain; the heritage

of Ben Johnson's "humours" and the antics and clowns of

the Elizabethan stage has fallen to the comic supplement of

the daily paper.

Except for Trollope's strongly individualized portraits,

many of them catalogued with. descriptive names, the last

noteworthy appearance in fiction of names that pertinently

distinguish the characters is in the works of Charles Dickens,

especially in his early books. Frequently the personages that

he dismisses with a few words, or shows only in a sketch, are

those bearing the most clearly' descriptive .names. Probably

his familiarity with Goldsmith and Smollett is largely responsible for the presence in his works of that to which Chesterton

. refers as the "last cry of Merry England."l But it is not

alone in the non-Puritanic attitude toward religion (as mentioned by Chesterton) that Dickens brings. back the spirit of

the early days; there is something of the same rejuvenescence

in the prodigality of his genius, in the exuberance of his fancy,

in the irrepressibility of his humor, and especially in the whimsical facetiousness of the names he bestows upon his characters.

Even if he had not acknowledged his debt to Smollett and

Goldsmith in David Copperfield, his acquaintance with their books might be surmised from indications in his works. From

these authors he came to appreciate the artistic possibilities

of studies in the life of the poor, and to realize his own powers

of observation and expression. His later fondness for Ben

Jonson may have confirmed him in the use of descriptive

names, especially for the characters who had not heroic roles

to play; but he evidently owed his initial interest in nomenclature to the early influence of Roderick Random and The

Vicar of Wakefield, and to the types of names employed by

his immediate predecessors in humor, Hook and Pierce Egan.

In Dickens' works the number of characters possessing a

distinct personality is so great that one can readily understand

the amazement of the old charwoman, who, as Kitton relates,!

thought that it must have taken three or four men to write

Dombey and Son.

There must have been something in the name of the untidy

old nurse, Sairy Gamp, which was felt to be suggestive of the

disreputable umbrella she carried, for her name was retained

as a contribution to the language in order that large and

baggy umbrellas might thenceforth be designated as 'gamps'.

The skill with which Dickens' characters are drawn may have

contributed to the spell which seems to belong to their names,

but still, it is impossible to imagine a Weller masquerading as

a Jones, and unable to "spell it vith a we."

Explanation: i read some article in the past.

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