ABSTRACT
AsthewritingofDavidCopperfieldnearedcompletion,Dickens begantoplananotherproject,hisweeklymagazine,Household Words.Heknewexactlywhathewantedof it.AsJohnsonpoints out,themagazinewastoentertainbutalsofunctionas'the instrumentofserioussocialpurpose'.AndinhisPreliminary Wordtothefrrstnumber,Dickensannouncedthat'Notharsh efficiency,nottheclankingofaneconomicmachine,werethe goalofsociety,butthelovingunionofmultitudesofhuman livesingenerousfeelingandnoblepurpose.'1Dickens'saimwas toconfronthisenormousaudiencewiththoseillsofcontemporarysocietywhichhesawallabouthimandwhichateintohis mind.Hedidnotintendtowidenhispopularitybyofferinghis readersanescapefromtheirworld;onthecontrary,hewas preparedtoriskhisappealintheinterestofhammeringawayat theirconsciencesandforcingthemtolookattheworldinwhich theylived.HouseholdWords,hesaid
consistentlyopposesracial,national,religious,andclassprejudices. Itcrusadesagainstilliteracy,andinfavourofgovernmentaidfor publiceducationandfreeelementaryandindustrialschoolsforthe poor.Itcrusadesforpropersewagedisposal,cheapandunlimited watersupply,andtheregulationofindustriesvitaltohealth.It demandsthereplacementofslumsbydecenthousingforthepoor, pleadsfortheestablishmentofplaygroundsforchildren,andadvocatessystematicmunicipalplanning....Itinsiststhatindustrialistsmustnotbeallowedtomutilateandkilltheirlabourersin ordertosavethecostofpreventingaccidents.Itscandalously affirmsthatworkingmenhavetherighttoorganizeintounions,
and calls upon the working class to use its power to tum 'the Indifferents and Incapables' out of Downing Street and Westminster and force the government to remedy the ills from which poor men suffer.l
Moral vanity? Hardly. It is more an honourable determination that the artist shall use his abilities to confront the age as best he can. But how can he do that qua artist? May it not be that the abilities of the polemicist and of the artist are very different and that by confusing roles Dickens sinks into a sort of propagandizing which, if it displays a good heart, is bound to hurt the integrity of his fiction? Such a charge is not uncommon, yet it seems to me quite without foundation. For the plain fact is that both as editor of Household Words and as novelist, Dickens is the spokesman for the conscience of his age. From Bleak House onwards, the great novels have about them a fierce integrity of purpose which makes them central statements and judgements of Victorian England. They are written out ofDickens's deep and unswerving sense of responsibility, both to his art and to his audience. If my books are of no worth, David Copperfield says, 'I shall have written to poor purpose', and by worth he does not mean entertainment value. For Dickens's purpose is quite unashamedly to force his readers into an unprotected awareness of the age in which they live, to present them with issues which, as they read, will more and more impinge upon their consciousnesses. Fiction is not to be an escape or a refuge.
