T. Mitchell(1)

8/29/10 (2)

Dicken’s Hardtimes as Autobiography(3)

 

Charles Dickens is (4) one of the greatest writers the world has everknown. John Foster, author of

the first-ever (5) Dickens’(6) autobiography (7)called him “the most popular English novelist of

the century, (8) (meaning the nineteenth-century! (9)) and one of the best humorists that England

has produced. (10)” (Forster, page 1) (11). A more recent biographer, (12) called him “’(13) an

amazing man’” (14) (Michael Slater (15), Charles Dickens. (16) New Haven (17 ) and London,

(18) Yale University Press, 2009 (19); this quote is in the preface with no page number). (20) Like

all writers, Charlie (21) Dickens incorporated aspects from his own life and times into his stories

and novels. In this paper I’ll (22) try to identify some of the more interesting

biographical elements that can be found in his novel Hard Times.(23)

 

DICKENS, CHARLES JOHN HUFFAM (24) (1812—1870) (25), English novelist, was born on

the 7th of February 1812 (26) at a house in the Mile End Terrace, Commercial Road, Landport

(Portsea)—(27) a house which was opened as a Dickens Museum on July 22, 2004. (28) His birth

was announced in two newspapers: The Hampshire Telegraph and The Hampshire Courier. (29)

(30) (Slater 3).                                                                                                

“Having spent the first three years of his life in Portsmouth, (31)Hampshire, (32) the family moved to London (33) in 1815. His early years seem to have been idyllic, although he thought himself a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy" (34) .^[5](35)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens, 8-9-10). (36)

The quote in the above Wikipedia quote (37) [from J. Foster’s book] (38) is interesting because

many of the children Dickens depicts in “Hard Times” (39) are also not-over-particularly-taken-care-of. (40)

(1) (41)

Page 2 (42)

And (43) example of a “not-over-particularly-taken-care-of” (44) child in the novel is Sissy Jupe, the daughter of an alcoholic circus performer who abandons her; Dickens describes her as “very young, and she looked as if she were frightened by the matter of fact (45) prospect the world afforded.”(Jeff Nunokawa and Gage C. McWeeney, Hard Times, p. 11). (46) Sissy has been raised without the benefit of a proper education, nice clothes (47) etc. in a traveling circus. In contrast too (48) Sissy, (49) are Louisa and Tom Gradgrind- a brother and sister who are under-the-thumb (50) of they’re (51) controlling father: (52) Thomas Gradgrind senior. (53) Louisa and Tom our (54) examples of “over-particularly-taken-care-of (55) (Foster) (56) children. They’ve been brought-up (57) in the Lapland (58) of luxury but are depraved of the love and support that Sissy Jupe receives in abundance from her extended family at Sleazy’s circus. Louisa and Tom are emotionally stunted and “show signs of rebellion— (59) a feature that will be in evidence in their adulterous life” (Dickens, York Notes Hard Times, page 18). (60)

SOURCES I’VE READ & CONSULTED(61)

Charles Dickens, (61) York Notes Hard Times(62), notes by Domic Hyland. (63)

            London: Longman York Press, 2004.                                                                                                               

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times, (64) ed. Nunokawa and McWeeny. New York:

            Pearson Longman, 2004;(65)

Forster, John, (66) The Life of Charles Dickens: (67) New York: D. Appleton &

            Co., Broadway, 1880

Michael Slater (68) , Charles Dickens. New Haven and London: Yale University

            Press, 2009.

http://www.dickens-literature.com/l_biography.html(69)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens(70)                                                                                                            

(1) The placement and format of name and page is incorrect. Should be ½ “ down from top margin, and read: Mitchell 1 (flush with right margin) See MLA 7^th Ed., 117

(2) The placement, formatting and content of heading is incorrect. Should be student name, double-space, instructor name, double-space, course number, double-space, and date as 29 Aug. 2010; all flush with left margin. See item 1.

(3) Title format is incorrect. Title should be centered, and not be bold, underlined, or italicized. See item 1.

(4) “is” should be “was”. Dickens is no longer among the living.

(5) Incorrect use of hyphen. Should be: first ever. See MLA 7^th Ed., 73.

(6) Incorrect use of apostrophe. Should be: Dickens (not possessive). See MLA 7^th Ed., 75.

(7) Incorrect term. Should be: biography. (Forster, not Dickens, wrote the work).

(8) Incorrect use of comma. Not needed before a phrase in parentheses. See MLA 7^th Ed., 72.

(9) Incorrect use of exclamation point. Except in direct quotation, avoid using exclamation points in research writing. See MLA 7^th Ed., 77.

(10) Incorrect use of period. Not needed before a parenthetical reference. See MLA 7^th Ed., 214.

(11) Incorrect parenthetical reference, and name misspelled. Should be: (Foster 1). See item 10.

(12) Incorrect insertion of comma. Not needed. See MLA 7^th Ed., 67.

(13) Incorrect quotation marks. Does not need the extra apostrophe. See MLA 7^th Ed., 76.

(14) Incorrect quotation marks. Does not need the extra apostrophe. See item 13.

(15) Incorrect citation of author. Should be: (Slater (page number). See MLA 7^th Ed., 216.

(16) Incorrect citation of book. Should not be inserted into text, but appear in Works Cited. See item 15.

(17) Incorrect citation of publisher information. Should not be inserted in text, but appear in Works Cited. See item 15.

(18) Incorrect citation of publisher information. Should not be inserted in text, but appear in Works Cited. See item 15.

(19) Incorrect citation of publisher information. Should not be inserted in text, but appear in Works Cited. See item 15.                                                                                                            

(20) Incorrect citation of a page from a preface. Should not be inserted in text, but appear in Works Cited. See item 15.

(21) Not correct to use “Charlie” as a nickname for Charles.

(22) Improper use of a contraction. They are rarely acceptable in research papers. See MLA 7^th Ed., 74.

(23) Incorrect citation of a book. Should be in italics, with no bold or underlining. See MLA 7^th Ed., 88.

(24) Incorrect capitalization. Do not reproduce any special capitalization; should be first letters only and not entire name. See MLA 7^th Ed., 86.

(25) Incorrect citation of a dash. Should be a hyphen between the dates, and read: (1812-70). MLA 7^th Ed., 85.

(26) Inconsistent date formatting with item 28. Multiple dates should be cited consistently. MLA 7^th Ed., 83.

(27) See item 25.

(28) See item 26.

(29) Incorrect entry for a newspaper. Should be italicized only. MLA 7^th Ed., 88.

(30) Incorrect use of a period. See item 10.

(31) Incorrect entry for a geographical place. Should be in regular type, and not a hyperlink.

(32) See item 31.

(33) See item 31.

(34) Incorrect use of hyphens. Should not be used after an adverb ending in -ly. MLA 7^th Ed., 73.

(35) Hyperlink should not be inserted into text. MLA 7^th Edition does not recommend including links or URLs unless the source is difficult to locate. MLA 7^th Ed., 182.

(36) See item 35.

(37) The two uses of the word “quote” is redundant.

(38) Incorrect use of brackets. Square brackets should only be used for a quote within a quote. MLA 7^th Ed., 76.

(39) Incorrect entry for a novel. Should be italicized. MLA 7^th Ed., 88.                                                                                                            

(40) See item 34.

(41) The parenthetical (1) should not be in the document.

(42) Page number not formatted correctly. See item 1.

(43) A misspelled word. Should be: “An”.

(44) Inconsistent use of quotation marks and an apostrophe. Were not used in earlier entries of the same phrase. Also an incorrect use of hyphens. MLA 7^th Ed., 76. Also see item 34.

(45) Hyphens should have been used; should be: “matter-of -fact”. MLA 7^th Ed., 72.

(46) Incorrect parenthetical citation. Should be: (Dickens 11). MLA 7^th Ed., 214.

(47) A comma should come after “clothes”. MLA 7^th Ed., 67.

(48) Misspelled word. Should be: “to”.

(49) No need for a comma here, no independent clause to be separated. See item 47.

(50) No need for hyphens here. MLA 7^th Ed., 72.

(51) Misspelled word. Should be: “their”.

(52) Misuse of a colon. No need for one in this phrase. MLA 7^th Ed., 70.

(53) “Senior” should instead be “Sr.”. MLA 7^th Ed., 80.

(54) Misspelled word. Should be: “are”.

(55)See item 44.

(56) Incorrect parenthetical citation. Should be: (Foster [page number]).

(57) No need for a hyphen, Should be: “brought up”. MLA 7^th Ed., 73.

(58) A garbled reference. Should be: “lap of luxury”.

(59) Misuse of a dash. Should be a hyphen or semicolon. See item 25.

(60) Incorrect parenthetical citation. See item 46.

(61) Incorrect Works Cited entry. Should be: Dickens, Charles. MLA 7^th Ed., 132.

(62) Book title should be italicized. See item 39.                                                                                                             

(63) Improper citation of editor/annotator. MLA 7^th Ed., 153.

(64) Incorrect book title in Works Cited. Should be: Hard Times. MLA 7^th Ed., 152.

(65) Should be a period instead of a semicolon. MLA 7^th Ed., 152.

(66) There should be a period after “John.” Not a comma. MLA 7^th Ed., 152.

(67) Book title should not be in bold. MLA 7^th Ed., 152.

(68) See item 61.

(69) See item 35.

(70) See item 35.