Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty

Many of Dickens’s works include characters with disabilities, such as Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol and Phil Squod in Bleak House. How does Dickens’s characterization of Barnaby and his disability compare or contrast with that of his other characters with disabilities? In what ways does Dickens conform to, or diverge from, stereotypes about disabilities common in Victorian England?

The past often repeats itself within the novel. How is the past’s influence in the present depicted? What are the costs of ignoring the past for the various characters? How, and to what extent, can prior mistakes and misdeeds be corrected by the characters in the present?

Dickens incorporates many elements of the Gothic genre into Barnaby Rudge. What are some of these elements? What is the wider significance of these elements in the novel in terms of setting, characterization, and/or themes?