The reputation of the much revered novelist Charles Dickens has taken another dent with the publication of letters from Catherine Dickens, mother of his ten children, to one of her sons. When Dickens left Catherine for a teenage actress, the same age as one of his daughters, in order to prevent any public fallout he claimed that he was leaving a woman who was a cold wife and an uncaring mother. Yet the letters received by their son Plorn after he moved to Australia aged 16, are warm and affectionate, written by someone who clearly misses her child.
From a 2019 post: Charles Dickens, renowned for his compassion for the poor, the suffering and the downtrodden, whose plight he exposed in his novels, appears to have been a good deal less saintly in his private life than his image suggested. Letters have emerged which tell the tale of how he tried to have his wife, mother of his ten children, committed to a mental asylum when she had lost her looks and he had started a long affair with an actress. The doctor in charge, a friend, refused to certify her and was called a ‘medical donkey’ by Dickens.
Born 7 February 1812 at 7.50pm Portsmouth, England, Dickens was sent to a blacking factory at 12 years old when he father was clapped in debtors prison. Even after the father’s release he was left there. He became a legal clerk, then a writer who soared to great success in England and the USA.
He was a cerebral Sun in Aquarius on the cusp of the hard-working 6th house trine a successful Jupiter in Gemini in the 10th. Communicative Mercury, ruler of his 10th house of career, was in his entertaining 5th house. He had a bleak Saturn in Capricorn in his 4th house of childhood in a cruel-treatment square to feisty Mars in Aries in his 7th. He did have a hard childhood but seems to have been very uncaring about his own children.
His Sun was square an independent, rebellious Uranus in the 3rd. His emotionally confused Moon Neptune was in square a passionate Venus Pluto in Pisces on the cusp of his 7th.
With intense controlling Pluto and argumentative Mars in his 7th house of relationships he was guaranteed to run into hostility in marriage. And his relationship chart with his wife Catherine was truly terrible with a composite Mars Pluto square Neptune, trine Uranus, sextile Saturn – so volcanic quantities of anger, bitterness and resentment.
Catherine, 19 May 1815, was a stalwart Sun Taurus sextile/trine a pushily-confident Pluto opposition Jupiter with a volatile Mars square Uranus. Her Saturn was conjunct his Sun which is cold and critical. Certainly not someone to be tramped underfoot.
His mistress Ellen Ternan, 3 March 1839, didn’t look easy since she was a Sun Uranus in Pisces square Saturn in Sagittarius so would be erratic and highly strung. But her Venus in Aries fell in his 7th conjunct his Mars which would help to smooth rough edges. Her Sun Uranus was conjunct his Venus Pluto which would be instant attraction but a fair amount of disruption thereafter. Her Neptune was conjunct his Sun which isn’t ideal though can give a spiritual or self-sacrificial bond. Her Saturn was conjunct his Moon which can block out nurturing feelings – so he couldn’t quite escape his 4th house Saturn and his deprived childhood.
Ellen’s Sun Uranus conjunction in Pisces collided with the composite Pluto Mars in Pisces square Neptune in Charles/Catherine’s relationship chart – the marriage was undoubtedly struggling but she was the catalyst – or arrived at the right juncture – to cause the split.
The post Charles Dickens – bleak house at home first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
