Discussion question that came to mind the other day (and seemed appropriate for the approach of Halloween!):
Dickens used ghosts and spirits and supernatural happenings freely in his shorter works, most notably A Christmas Carol . . . but not in his longer works. Occasionally in the novels you get someone telling a ghost story, as in The Pickwick Papers, and you get lots of references to God and angels and demons and their activities. You even get some events that seem caused by divine judgment, like spontaneous combustion or the fall of the old Clennam house. But not ghosts.
Why do you think this might have been? Was it by accident, or design?
And a follow-up: If Dickens had written a novel with ghosts, what do you suppose it might have been like? Very different from the novels the way they are now? Or would they have been seamlessly woven into the story?
Hmm, interesting question. I think that, though Dickens didn't put outright ghosts into his stories, he wanted to be more serious by making real people so terrible. Like think about Uriah Heep - David alternately calls him a demon and an evil spirit, and one interpretation of the "sleepover" scene is that David views him as a vampire. I think he wanted to point out the freakishness of "our own kind." Just my two cents.
Posted by: Nina | October 08, 2010 at 07:29 AM
I would say the closest Dickens came to including a ghost story as a major element in one of his novels is the annual retelling of the story of Reuben Haredale's murder in Barnaby Rudge. The spooky way something always happens on March 19 to bring the conversation around to that topic, the ritualistic way that Solomon Daisy is always the story teller, and the general belief that the murderer will be discovered on a future anniversary are all typical of a good ghost story. I suppose the regulars at the Maypole felt that the ghost of Reuben Haredale was haunting them every year on the anniversary of his murder.
I agree with Nina that Dickens generally left the supernatural out of his major works in order to be taken more seriously as a writer.
Posted by: David | October 09, 2010 at 08:20 PM
^ ^
Another similar thing is "The Ghost Walk" in Bleak House. Even though it's a short instance it factors largely into the conclusion of Lady Dedlock's arc.
Posted by: Nina | October 09, 2010 at 11:01 PM