The Old Curiosity Shop Critical Analysis

She died at only 13 years of age… The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens is a story about a young 13 year-old girl named Little Nell. She has no parents and currently lives with his maternal grandfather, whose name is not mentioned. Both live in his shop in England. The story tells about how Nell’s grandfather gambles all of his money in order to leave his granddaughter with a large inheritance but ends up losing it all to the evil Daniel Quilip. Nell’s only friend is named Kit who is a young man who worked in the shop… Throughout this story Nell seeks asylum for her grandfather. Meanwhile his brother is looking for Little Nell to take care of her. After Nell travels far and seeks refuge for her grandfather she gets ill. Subsequently this illness leads to her death and a few months after her grandfather dies. In the novel, The Old Curiosity Shop, the themes of untimely death, corruption due to class struggles and emotional neglect, all make this magnificent story a sad tragedy.

This is seen excessively not only with death but also with the economic issue of Little Nell’s grandfather considering that Dickens’ father gambled most of his money wishing to be a wealthy man eventually being arrested for debt. Consequently this forced young Charles to be a working man by the age of twelve. He had the responsibility of bringing income to his family, in the same way Little Nell had to take care of her grandfather in order to survive. That is to say that this is an examination of Dickens's social concerns as depicted by his treatment of the characters in this novel. Going back to death, Dickens was very fond of his friend Mary whom was a mother-like figure for him. She died very young this being of great impact in Dickens’ life he later put it down in written words resulting with The Old Curiosity Shop. Therefore, this turned out in the death of similar characters and the protagonist as did his