More on parents and children

More on parents and children: Dickens' fiction is full of unsatisfactory parents: absent, neglectful, harsh, self-centred and overindulgent, they often behave in ways that make them unhappy and / or resentful and inhibit their capacities to live satisfactory adult lives. Substitute parents, like Joe, who in many ways is himself childlike, sometimes do a little better, but, as in the case of Mrs Joe, they, too, can be threatening. (See also Religious/philosophical context: Dickens and the importance of childhood).

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