Ill-treatment of children in Dickens's novels: A comparative analysis of Great Expectations and Hard Times

In the present paper efforts are being made to have a comparative analysis of the kind of exploitation in Hard Times and Great Expectations. The children are exploited by the parents themselves and the society as well. The early novels of Dickens expose the miserable plight of children in society. David Copperfield and the Great Expectations recount what Dickens himself experienced in his childhood. They are the most autobiographical of his novels. Even his later novels include children in the main cast. No other novelist has created so many children, in so many ways, so variously and so well.