Dickensian
Grimy Victorian poverty
Dickensian describes conditions, characters, or atmospheres reminiscent of Charles Dickens's novels—particularly the grim poverty, social injustice, and exploitative working conditions of Victorian England.
The factory's Dickensian labor practices shocked investigators.
The word can also evoke Dickens's colorful, eccentric characters or his sentimentality: a Dickensian cast of oddballs, a Dickensian holiday spirit.
Institution housing poor laborers
- gruelThin watery porridge
- debtors prisonJail for those owing money
- orphanChild whose parents died
- slumImpoverished urban district
squalor · urchin · ragged · penury · poorhouse · want · destitution · starvation
Unequal distribution of resources
- classGrouping by shared traits
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- reformImprove by correcting faults
- injusticeDenial of fair treatment
industrialization · child labor · corruption · hypocrisy · workhouse · Victorian England · oppression · social critique
Released in sequential parts
- VictorianOf a prim era
- melodramaSensational, emotionally overwrought drama
- coincidenceUnplanned matching of events
- caricatureExaggerated comic depiction
verbose · episodic · sentimental · narrative · moralistic · grotesque · satirical · picaresque
Miserly, cold-hearted person
- Artful DodgerCrafty child criminal
- Tiny TimSickly Victorian street urchin
- EbenezerHebrew name, commemorative stone
- PickwickDickensian travelling club leader
Fagin · Oliver Twist · Miss Havisham · eccentric · villain · benefactor · grotesque · memorable
workhouse
Institution housing poor laborers
- gruelThin watery porridge
- debtors prisonJail for those owing money
- orphanChild whose parents died
slum · squalor · urchin · ragged · penury · poorhouse · want · destitution · starvation · begging
inequality
Unequal distribution of resources
- classGrouping by shared traits
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- reformImprove by correcting faults
injustice · industrialization · child labor · corruption · hypocrisy · workhouse · Victorian England · oppression · social critique · philanthropy
serialized
Released in sequential parts
- VictorianOf a prim era
- melodramaSensational, emotionally overwrought drama
- coincidenceUnplanned matching of events
caricature · verbose · episodic · sentimental · narrative · moralistic · grotesque · satirical · picaresque · tragicomic
Scrooge
Miserly, cold-hearted person
- Artful DodgerCrafty child criminal
- Tiny TimSickly Victorian street urchin
- EbenezerHebrew name, commemorative stone
Fagin · Oliver Twist · Miss Havisham · Pickwick · eccentric · villain · benefactor · grotesque · memorable · archetypal
fog
Low-lying cloud cover
- gaslightDistort someone's reality
- cobblestoneRiver-smoothed paving stone
- LondonEngland's capital city
smog · bleak · gloomy · wintry · tenement · chimney · alleyway · dingy · Thames · shadowy
- Victorian povertyworkhouse, poorhouse, tenement, slum, hovel
- Victorian reformpoor laws, poorhouse, temperance movement, abolitionists, child labor
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
- EponymsDarwinian, Alzheimer's disease, Freudian slip, cardigan, Parkinson's disease
- literary termsmetaphor, character analysis, symbolism, prologue, epilogue
- AllusionsAchilles heel, Pandora's box, Trojan horse, forbidden fruit, Midas touch
Dickensianprosperous
Enjoying wealth and success
affluent · privileged · comfortable · luxurious · well-off
Dickensiancheerful
Pleasantly bright in mood
bright · sunny · joyful · lighthearted · cozy
Dickensianminimalist
One favoring bare essentials
Hemingwayesque · spare · understated · stripped-down · laconic