One of Dickens' major weaknesses is his portrayal of 'saintly' young women. Dora is repulsive, and so is Agnes in David Copperfield. There is something sickeningly anaemic about them.
But so many other scenes in Dickens cripple me. The bit in Bleak House, where Joe the road sweeper goes and sweeps the grave of the opium addict who has died. The man had been kind to him, and sweeping his grave is all Joe can do in return (I'm flippin tearing up as I write this!!). Or the scene where David Copperfield is living alone in London and working for a living. It is his 10th birthday and so he treats himself by going to a pub. He tells the landlady it's his birthday, and she watches him drink his beer on his own, then comes round the bar, gives him his money back, and hugs him.
I don't cry easily, and I hate mawkishness and emotional manipulation, yet Dickens makes me cry over and over again. Total mystery to me. The only other piece of literature that does that is Blake's poem The Chimney Sweep. If I read these lines out loud I cry:
And by came an angel
And with a bright key
He opened the coffins
And set them all free.
And down a green plain,
Leaping, laughing, they run
And wash in a river
And shine in the sun.