The Concept of a Soap Opera

Dickens may not have heard of soap operas, but he knew what would make a good one – romance, family conflict, comical characters and villains, with plots dealing with societal issues, all these being played out within a close/closed community – e.g. ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Albert Square’ – ending with or including a cliffhanger or unresolved issue to secure the purchase of the next ‘episode’;

Dickens based his Mystery of Edwin Drood around the main street of Cloisterham (Rochester):

“Cloisterham city [is] little more than one narrow street by which you get into it and get out of it …”

This tour explores how Dickens’ Mystery of Edwin Drood connects more closely to Rochester (Cloisterham) than any of his other works. In doing so he epitomises the advice that teachers give their students – write what you know about!

Tour dates – booking essential – email eastgate.house@medway.gov.uk or phone: 01634 332700 to book

Sat. 12 Sept. @ 14.30
Sun. 13 Sept. @ 11.00
Sat. 19 Sept. @ 11:00
Sun. 20 Sept. @ 14:30

The Writing of the Mystery of Edwin Drood

This was the last novel written by Charles Dickens, which he never completed. He was working on it in the chalet the day before he died. Such was the urgency to complete part of the novel he worked a whole day, instead of his usual half day in the chalet.

It was to be a novel in twelve parts, but he only managed to complete six parts. His usual practice was to produce novels in more parts. I suspect he was aware of his frailty, as he had a clause written into the contract he had with his publisher about the financial arrangements should he not be able to complete the novel.

Dickens closely observed the people and places he wrote about. Could it be that his last novel was so closing based on Rochester, because it would have been less onerous to make his ‘observations’.

Because The Mystery of Edwin Drood is unfinished, many later readers and continuators have concentrated on solving the puzzle of Drood’s disappearance. This emphasis can obscure the extent to which Dickens’s mystery already arises from the social world of Cloisterham—from its hierarchies, prejudices, gender relations and culture of respectability.

Had Dickens completed the novel, these social relationships would probably have been developed further, although the precise balance between social commentary and the resolution of the mystery remains unknowable.

The characters Dickens introduces possess unresolved histories, concealed motives and relationships capable of considerable development. Because they inhabit the closely connected community of Cloisterham, their individual stories could be expanded into intersecting plots within the concept of a soap-opera.

The following images of the characters have been created by ChatGPT. Script ‘Rambler Made’.