How old people are described in Dickens' novels is the topic of this essay. Briefly surveying the history and the situation of the aged in England of the 19th century, I investigate the characters of the aged in Dickens' novels. I examine "the very old mother" of Mr. Wardle in The Pickwick Papers, and ugly old women in the workhouse in Oliver Twist from among his early works, in which Dickens remains a mere indifferent spectator to the aged, as he himself is young in his twenties, with little sense of reality to old people. Dr Strong is afflicted with the disparity in age of his marriage with a very young wife, while Mr. Dick is rescued from a lunatic asylum in David Copperfield, and Mrs. Smallweed in Bleak House is ill-treated due to her senility. We find awkward circumstances such as an marriage of age difference or the situation of old people with senile dementia who are enforced to go into an asylum or a workhouse without having right treatment in the Victorian era. Aged P in Great Expectations suffers from dementia, but is a charming old man and very much loved by the family. Wemmick who shows compassionate devotion to his old father, does not conceal his father's condition, but asks Pip to share the care. Here the gaze of Dickens to the aged has apparently changed. He seems to feel a sympathetic affection toward the old people, and thinks out how to cope with and furthermore to brighten one's life together with an old person, probably because some beloved one of his family might have suffered from dementia.
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