Humour of the Charles Dickens or Humour in Great Expection

In Dickens novels, his most important quality is humour. He had a stupendous comic fertility. He is the creator of whole population of droll, eccentrics, grotesques and caricatures. There are hundreds of comic characters found in his each novel.

Dickens humour is chiefly humour of his characters. It’s his characters that are remembered not the book which contains them. Such as Mr. Pickwick, the Wellers, Mr. Wemmick or Pumblechook. Each one of his character has distinct mannerism and has his own distinct language. 

Two strong elements of Dickens humour is his curious childlike imagination and his amazing creative energy. The abandoned child of blackening factory never died in him. He was supreme mimic of the people. He observed the people as a child observes and sees them. For child the people are sometimes absurdly comic and sometimes terrifying.

His humour has two sides, sympathetic and satirical. Consequently, his comic characters fall into two divisions. When he rejoices in them, the result is pure humour. When sympathy is withheld, the result is savage comedy with no good nature in it at all.

Humour in “Great Expectations”

Mrs. Joe harsh treatment of her husband, Mr. Pumblechook fish like face and his hypocrisy, Mr. Wemmic mouth open like letter box and maintenance of his house like castle, Mathew Pocket’s bald head with only few hairs on it and his wife’s foolish snobbery are all examples of humour in characters.

To sum up, Indeed Charles Dickens was a great novelist and entertainer, probably the greatest entertainer in history of English fiction. He was a man of little knowledge, who had learnt from the streets of London and also from his experience as a laboring boy in blackening factory, as lawyer’s clerk and journalist. Besides that he was a great actor and orator. Having such qualities he strove to identify himself with public feelings, emotions, likes and dislikes. Suddenly, he became the conscious and the voice of his age.