Dickens and Fairy Tales: Critique of Child Abuse

Abstract: This essay examines Great Expectations in relation to fairy-tale, demonstrating how Dickens reconfigures familiar narrative structures in children's stories to critique Victorian attitudes toward childhood, morality, and social class. I examine the ways in which Dickens intertwines his fairy-tale motifs in his novels, particularly Great Expectations , to reveal and criticize child abuse in Victorian society. By analyzing key characters, themes, and references – e.g. the allusions to "Cinderella" and E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman," the inversion of archetypal roles, and the Doppelgänger technique – this essay situates Dickens's work at the intersection of moral instruction, social reform, and imaginative storytelling. Dickens's use of fairy tales, I argue, enables him to engage his audiences in ethical reflection while advocating for empathy and justice for victimized children.