309 AMERICAN Journal of Language, Literacy and Learning in STEM Education www. grnjournal.us AMERICAN Journal of Language, Literacy and Learning in STEM Education Volume 03, Issue 06, 2025 ISSN (E): 2993-2769 “From Caricature to Critique: Satirical Portraits of the Upper Class in Martin Chuzzlewit” Olimova Mahzuna Oybek qizi Bachelor: UzDJTU (English Language and Literature) Master: Webster University in Tashkent (MA TESOL) Email: mahzunaolimova4@gmail.com Tel. number: +998938419098 Abstract. Attempts to study the description of caricature to criticism: satirical portraits of the upper class in Martin Chuzzlewit its structure have been undertaken for a long time. At the same time, research thought sometimes moved away, sometimes approached the understanding of the essence of this phenomenon. This is explained by only two circumstances. The first of them is that the phenomenon itself, called the novel, was formed historically, the genre is the memory of literature. It was constantly changing and modifying, enriched with new features. This prevented researchers from capturing and designating its unchanging contours, i.e. some stable, repeating features that are now commonly called typological. The second circumstance depends to a greater extent on the methodological positions of researchers, which are also constantly changing and updating, sometimes promoting, sometimes hindering scientific knowledge. Key words: poetry; masquerade motif; mask; lyrical hero; harlequinade; buffoonery; historically, structure, criticism. Introduction Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one of those writers whose fame never faded, either during their lifetime or after their death. The only question was what each new generation saw in Dickens. Dickens was the master of the minds of his time, signature dishes and fashionable suits were named after his heroes, and the antique shop where little Nell lived still attracts the attention of numerous London tourists interested in the inscription on a modest dilapidated house in the center of the British capital: "An antique shop made famous by the famous Dickens." Dickens' critics called him a great poet for the ease with which he mastered words, phrases, rhythm and image, comparing him in mastery only to Shakespeare. The keeper of the great tradition of the English novel, Dickens was no less a brilliant performer and interpreter of his own works than their creator. He is great both as an artist and as a person, as a citizen who advocates justice, mercy, humanity and compassion for his neighbors. He was a great reformer and innovator in the genre of the novel, he managed to embody in his works a huge number of ideas and observations. Dickens still adhered to the ideas of a global resolution of the most acute contradictions of our time. Meanwhile, these views are combined in the novel with a clearly expressed criticism of Malthusianism, Benthamism, which asserted the leadership of egoism and green action, bringing 310 AMERICAN Journal of Language, Literacy and Learning in STEM Education www. grnjournal.us material benefits. The titles of the parts of the novel ("Sowing", "Harvest" and "Gathering in the Granaries") highlight the author's idea of bringing out all bourgeois political economic theories in action. Caricature (Italian: caricatura, from caricare — to load, to exaggerate), a method of artistic typification, the use of caricature and grotesque means for critically targeted, tendentious exaggeration and emphasizing the negative aspects of life phenomena or persons; in C., which constitutes a specific area of manifestation of the comic in the visual arts, satire and humor serve to criticize, expose, ridicule any social, socio-political, everyday phenomena. In the broad sense of the word, C. is understood as any image where a comic effect is consciously created, the real and the fantastic are combined, the characteristic features of the figure, face, costume, behavior of people are exaggerated and sharpened, their relationships with the environment are changed, unexpected comparisons and comparisons are used. . Materials and Methods Having its own socially revealing tasks and its own figurative specificity, caricature also bears the ideological and artistic stylistic features of the art of its time: the principles of classicism are found in many caricatures of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, the influence of the "modern" style - in magazine caricature of the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, a connection with expressionism - in a number of German caricaturists of the 1910s - 20s, etc. At the same time, caricature presents those aspects of the art of its era that are most directly addressed to the social urgency of the day; in this way, it also influences the general development of art, promoting its rapprochement with acute social problems. Results Social and internal reflections are quickly intertwined and introduced into the system of characters. On the one hand, the novel shows the classes of entrepreneurs and their theorists (Gradgrind and Bounderby), on the other - workers. Thomas Gradgrind was depicted by Dickens in satirical tones. He has a "square coat, square feet, square shoulders, a square finger." The theory according to which he [566] brings up all children, including good ones, is only facts. He does not see the person behind them, and it turns out that his theory is applicable to inanimate objects: "Armed with ruler and scales, with a multiplication table in his pocket, he was always ready to weigh and measure any specimen of light nature, and to determine infallibly why it was equal." Gradgrind's system turns out to be disastrous first of all for his children Louisa and Tom. But Gradgrind himself has lost everything human. It is no accident that Dickens compares him to "a cannon filled with facts, ready to knock out children with one shot, to limit their childhood." Mr. Bounderby is Gradgrind's bosom friend, they are connected by the absence of manifestation of human feelings - they are "practical people." The world in which the Gradgrinds and Bounderbys live is filled with evil caricatures. The house of Bounderby, a famous rich man, is called "Stone Shelter". This is how its coldness, the absence of family warmth and comfort are achieved. Despite the absurdity, caricature and grotesqueness of the portraits of the heroes occupying a dominant position, they do not give the impression of significance, even life-like plausibility. Dickens deliberately thickens the colors to express his attitude to the problems that destroy not only the imagination, but also the society of all human and the blockchain non-social benefit, evil and failure. A different world is presented by the worker Stephen Blackpool. A hard, hopeless life with the same, fallen, eternally drunk woman, no kindness, humanity, ability to understand people and sympathize with them. His attitude to Rachel shows what a strong and tender feeling this man who has seen so much grief has learned. Dying, he constantly repeats her name and is happy because his beloved is next to him. Dickens, with amazing sensitivity and knowledge of life, notices in the working man the absence of servility and servility in his dealings with the industrialist. Stephen showed dignity and self-respect when talking to Bounderby. In the working 311 AMERICAN Journal of Language, Literacy and Learning in STEM Education www. grnjournal.us mass writer one sees a terrible force, ready to crush everything in his path; he cannot but become the leader of the high moral standards of ordinary workers. The philosophy of facts does not stand the test of life. It is life that punishes the "wayward" Tom, who has finally ruined himself, it is life that makes Louise lonely. Dickens always drew actors and traveling comedians with great sympathy. Here, too, is presented Sleary's circus troupe, where completely different laws prevail, existing in modern philosophy and facts. Conclusion: A brilliant artistic device, entirely following from the ideological concept of the novel, is the device of bringing together and intertwining in the novel the world of gentlemen and the world of criminals, the theme of gentlemanliness and the theme of criminality. The criminal world, the world of convicts and murderers, which invades Pip's life and determines his fate, is the other side of the world of gentlemen. Dickens consistently leads his reader to the conclusion that there is no difference between a gentleman and a criminal: it is a matter of the form and degree of the crime, as well as the ability to hide it. This idea is revealed in the depiction of the convict Abel Magwitch and the gentleman-criminal Campeson. Telling the story of Magwitch, Dickens shows how a society, criminal at its core, creates criminals, cripples people, sends them to hard labor and the gallows. Reference 1. Apostle Paul. Epistle to the Ephesians // Bible. Canonical Books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. L.: Print, 1990. Vol. 2. Pp. 560-563. 2. Library of F. M. Dostoevsky. Reconstruction Experience. Scientific Description / edited by N. F. Budanova. St. Petersburg: Science, 2005. 338 p. 3. Priyma I. F. About the legacy of Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov (to the concept of B. F. Egorov) // Slavistics. Slavic Studies. 2019. Ka. XXIII. St. 2. pp. 156-180. 4. Priyma I. F. Slavic idea in the “Diary of a Writer” by F. M. Dostoevsky. St. Petersburg: Beresta, 2020. 336 p