I am surprised that someone hasn't whacked me for not recognizing the very obvious: Dickens' characters are vehicles for his social commentary, they are
characterizations! It's so obvious...maybe that's why it's not been mentioned.
In that vein it's hard for me to be so critical. I would say if Dickens' were writing now it would not be television scripts but Doonesbury-like comic strips.
Expanding on Hamlet's comment about the number of characters and given Dickens' penchant for lengthy and repeated descriptions, imagine the length of a novel with fully developed characters.
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Forgot to mention how much the original illustrations by "Phiz" in the MR copy of BH so defly capture Dickens' various caricatures and much enhanced the reading experience for me.