jenks
thread death
I’d probably say a mixture. He’s fully aware of how money saves you and secures you a position - no matter how unsavoury you might be - look at how he can’t bring himself to entirely condemn Steerforth. But more importantly despite going on about determination etc he is aware that luck and the arbitrary nature of things counts for much - he could’ve stayed in that blacking factory, by all accounts his early publishing career is full of chance encounters which work out in his favour. Even Pickwick’s success is partly down to the bad luck of the illustrator who kills himself two issues in.
His novels are criticised for the degree of coincidence and paths crossing but I think Dickens saw the hand of chance in life very clearly and knew but for luck he wouldn’t be anything other than another lower middle class clerk. A proto-Pooter.
His novels are criticised for the degree of coincidence and paths crossing but I think Dickens saw the hand of chance in life very clearly and knew but for luck he wouldn’t be anything other than another lower middle class clerk. A proto-Pooter.