When imagining the Victorian Age, royalty, fancy lifestyles, and elaborate living often come to mind. However, during this same era, other lifestyles and conditions of a completely different nature were occurring. Many of the English people lived in poverty. Charles Dickens, one of the great writers of this period, described how it was to live during the Victorian Era. Although England grew from an agricultural to an industrial society, not all citizens benefited from this change. In addition, the undesirable health and medical environment plagued both the wealthy and the poor.

Charles Dickens was a profound British writer who composed novels, short stories, dramatic works, poetry, and essays ("Charles Dickens" 1). He was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth England where he was the second of eight children (Perdue 1). His father John was a minor government official as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office: he was then transferred to Somerset House in London. The family moved to Chatham in the Medway Valley, where Charles experienced the most glorious part of his childhood (Perdue 1). After moving back to London, John Dickens had a tendency to live beyond his needs, spending al

Struggling to survive during the time period of Dickens' writing, health and medicine were at the worst in most areas of England, but had the potential for improving. Rural people usually lived longer then city dwellers: the upper classes were healthier and lived longer then the lower working classes. This was due to the different living conditions that each class had faced (Mitchell 83). Since medicine was not available for everyone, numerous diseases spread throughout the crowded towns, infesting and killing many. Most citizens relied on traditional remedies and cures like herbal medicine, homemade prescriptions, and health advice that had been passed through families and elderly women. There were many generalities made as to why certain people would get ill, or how to keep him or herself from getting sick. Some said that members of the upper class could not digest all the coarse foods that the working people ate. (Mitchell 84). It was also known that men and women were too old to work at the age of forty due to poor nutrition, working too hard for too long, and physical stress they had put on themselves. There were some theories on how to promote better health, mostly for the upper class. They were told to clean their drains and live in a house on high ground so the bad city air would stay away from them. It was said that if you seal up your house and kept it closed, that the bad air would stay out...but in reality, it actually spread the bacteria that was already inside (Mitchell 85).

Roughly two years later, he met Catherine Hogarth the daughter of newspaper editor George Hogarth. In 1836 they are married and had ten children; their marriage ended in 1858 (Perdue 1). Within two years, he was involved with Ellen Turnan, an actress he met while interested in theatre. Ellen was 27 years younger then Dickens, which represents the "happy, later life couple" Joe and Biddy, from Great Expectations ("Charles (John Huffam) Dickens" 2). This relationship was kept a secret until Dickens' daughter revealed it after his death ("Charles Dickens" 2).

Feeling hurt from his childhood, Charles still remembers how he was treated as a child, tending to forget and neglect the present.

The Victorian Era was definitely a time of growth and development, helping people and times progress into a better condition. Dickens himself brought about many characteristics during the time, having experienced first hand, both rich and poor lifestyles. Even though no major breakthroughs in medicine, or change in working environments were extremely prevalent, the transformation that did occur facilitated growth and

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Approximate Word count = 1768
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)