Why was Charles Dickens so important during the victorian age?

Dickens was a major player in Victorian social reform, as lots of his stories told tales of impoverished people and criticized the exploitation of the lower classes by members of the upper class. In literature and in popular cultural narrative, poorer people often go unnoticed. Their lives have historically been undocumented and left out of writing because they were not considered interesting or worthy of attention. Dickens had a rough childhood; his father spent time in a debtors prison and young Charles worked among impoverished people in a shoeblacking warehouse.

Charles Dickens believed the novel could be used as a catalyst for change by spreading awareness about social and moral ills. He was unafraid to shine a light on child abuse, unsanitary living conditions, the dangers of factory work, poor conditions for education, and the tangled Victorian legal system. Dickens not only held up the metaphorical mirror to Victorian society, he pointed out the very real flaws he saw.