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Newly Found Charles Dickens’ Lockets Reveal Inspiration Behind ‘Oliver Twist’

By May 17, 2021Literature, News

The Charles Dickens Museum has recently acquired a pair of lockets that was at first thought to be evidence of a romantic tryst between the author and his sister-in-law.

The “highly personal and private” tokens contain a lock of Charles Dickens’s hair in one and a lock of his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth’s hair in the other.

However Louisa Price of the Charles Dickens Museum says the lockets, and the relationship between the author and his sister-in law, are misconstrued when examined through a modern lens.

“It might seem quite weird, but only from our 20th century point of view. From a Victorian viewpoint the gift of lockets and the level of affection reflected a close family bond.”

Many also assume Dickens was not happy in his marriage with Catherine as he was so vocal about her being an alcoholic and unstable later in life but Price does not agree that this means they were always unhappy.

“That view ignores the happy, committed relationship he shared with Catherine through the 1830s and 1840s. She was an incredible woman from a very musical family, and totally up for the vibrant life her husband wanted to live, travelling and raising children together. After he left, she carried on leading an active life, but there’s an inclination to accept Dickens’s version of her.”

The lockets will be included in a new show that the museum is currently running based on the time when Dickens was writing his second novel- ‘More! Oliver Twist, Dickens and Stories of the City’ examines this period between 1836 to 1837.

“We are enormously pleased to be showing these previously unseen items, which we acquired last year, for the first time,” said Price. “They tell a story that had a direct influence on at least one of his best known works – Oliver Twist – which he was writing when his sister-in-law, Mary, suddenly died.”

“Mary and Catherine were close in age and were best friends as well as sisters,” said Price. “She effectively also became Dickens’s sister with the marriage and he became extremely fond of her. They all did a lot together and Mary’s letters to relatives show she felt he was a wonderful man who had made her sister very happy.”

Unfortunately, after returning from watching a play by Dickens performed in the West End, the 17-year-old Hogarth suddenly collapsed and she died the next day.

A heartbroken Dickens wrote to tell his publisher, Edward Chapman: “My dear sir, we are in deep and severe distress. Miss Hogarth after accompanying Mrs Dickens & myself to the theatre last night, was suddenly taken severely ill, and despite our best endeavours to save her, expired in my arms at two o’clock this afternoon.”

Her death made a huge impact on Dickens and his writing. He immediately based a new character on her within Oliver Twist, named Rose Maylie, a sweet young teenager who became very ill but thankfully recovers.

“She was not past seventeen. Cast in so slight an exquisite a mould, so mild and gentle, so pure and beautiful; that earth seems not her element, nor its rough creatures her fit companions,” Dickens wrote.

Dickens’ grief was so profound that he wore a ring he had taken from Mary’s body, and said he often dreamed of her and asked to be buried with her. “Dickens’s grief became increasingly dramatic over the weeks, and even years, afterwards,” Price said.

It is also thought that Mary’s death influenced the portrayal of the demise of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop, written later.

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