Lecture 8, Dickens

nullCharles DickensCharles Dickensnull Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England in 1812. As the second of eight children in a very poor family, he lived a difficult childhood. Eventually, his father was sent to debtor’s prison, and Dickens himself went to work at the age of twelve to help pay off the family’s debt. null This troublesome time scarred Dickens deeply and left an ineradicable impression on his mind. Besides, this first-hand taste of misery provided him with substantial material for such stories as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield, in which filthy working conditions appeat repeatedly. A Time of ChangeA Time of Change The Industrial Revolution, which swept through Europe in the late eighteenth century, originated in England. The rapid modernization of the English economy involved a shift from rural handicraft to large-scale factory labor. null English cities swelled as a growing and impoverished working class flocked to them in search of work. As this influx of workers into urban centers continued, the bourgeoisie took advantage of the surplus of labor by keeping wages low. The poor thus remained poor, and often lived cramped in sordid squalor. null In many of his novels, Dickens chronicles his protagonists’ attempts to fight their way out of such poverty and despair. null Steeped in social criticism, Dickens’s writing provides a keen, sympathetic chronicle of the plight of the urban poor in nineteenth-century England. During his lifetime, Dickens enjoyed immense popularity, in part because of his vivid characterizations, and in part because he published his novels in installments, making them readily affordable to a greater number of people. one the greatest critical realistone the greatest critical realistdehumanizing workhouse & slums enslaving school legal fraud debtor's prisonOliver Twist Nicholas Nickleby The Pickwick Paper David Copperfielda large-scale criticisma large-scale criticismcorrupting money-worship greed and lust abuses of the courts economic exploitationDombey and Son The Old Curiosity Shop Bleak House Hard Times null childern as central figures Oliver Twist The Old Curiostiy Shop David Copperfield Great Expectations a master of humor and pathosa master of humor and pathos Dickens believed that life is delightful because it is at once comic and tragic. In his early works, there are constant jokes and laughter; yet he explores a more and more "bleak world", as his attacks become more urgent and passionate.strength and weaknessstrength and weaknessIt is Dickens' serious intention to expose and criticize all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy adn corruptness he sees all around him. sometimes Dickens seems so anxious to wring an extra tear from the audience that he indulges in excessive sentimental melodrama. nullOliver Twist Oliver Twist As the child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities. On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised in corrupt surroundings, his purity and virtue are absolute. null Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Oliver’s character to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment is the source of vice. Oliver is shocked and horrified when he sees the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates pick a stranger’s pocket and again when he is forced to participate in a burglary. null Even when he is abused and manipulated, Oliver does not become angry or indignant. When Sikes and Crackit force him to assist in a robbery, Oliver merely begs to be allowed to “run away and die in the fields.” Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between good and evil—instead, he is goodness incarnate. Purity in a Corrupt City Purity in a Corrupt City Throughout the novel, Dickens confronts the question of whether the terrible environments he depicts have the power to “blacken the soul and change its hue for ever.” By examin-ing the fates of most of the characters, we can assume that his answer is that they do not. nullCertainly, characters like Sikes and Fagin seem to have sustained permanent damage to their moral sensibilities. Yet even Sikes has a conscience, which manifests itself in the apparition of Nancy’s eyes that haunts him after he murders her. Of course, Oliver is above any corruption, though the novel removes him from unhealthy environments relatively early in his life. Selected readingSelected readingThe girl was lying, half-dressed, upon it. He had roused her from her sleep, for she raised herself with a hurried and startled look. 'Get up!' said the man. 'It is you, Bill!' said the girl, with an expression of pleasure at his return. null'It is,' was the reply. 'Get up.' There was a candle burning, but the man hastily drew it from the candlestick, and hurled it under the grate. Seeing the faint light of early day without, the girl rose to undraw the curtain.null'Let it be,' said Sikes, thrusting his hand before her. 'There's enough light for wot I've got to do.' 'Bill,' said the girl, in the low voice of alarm, 'why do you look like that at me!' nullThe robber sat regarding her, for a few seconds, with dilated nostrils and heaving breast; and then, grasping her by the head and throat, dragged her into the middle of the room, and looking once towards the door, placed his heavy hand upon her mouth. nullShe staggered and fell: nearly blinded with the blood that rained down from a deep gash in her forehead; but raising herself, with difficulty, on her knees, drew from her bosom a white handkerchief—Rose Maylie's ownnull—and holding it up, in her folded hands, as high towards Heaven as her feeble strength would allow, breathed one prayer for mercy to her Maker. nullIt was a ghastly figure to look upon. The murderer staggering backward to the wall, and shutting out the sight with his hand, seized a heavy club and struck her down. …nullHe had not moved; he had been afraid to stir. There had been a moan and motion of the hand; and, with terror added to rage, he had struck and struck again. Once he threw a rug over it; nullbut it was worse to fancy the eyes, and imagine them moving towards him, than to see them glaring upward, as if watching the reflection of the pool of gore that quivered and danced in the sunlight on the ceiling. He had plucked it off again. And there was the body—mere flesh and blood, nor more—but such flesh, and so much blood! nullHe struck a light, kindled a fire, and thrust the club into it. There was hair upon the end, which blazed and shrunk into a light cinder, and, caught by the air, whirled up the chimney. Even that frightened him, sturdy as he was; but he held the weapon till it broke, and then piled it on the coals to burn away, and smoulder into ashes. nullHe washed himself, and rubbed his clothes; there were spots that would not be removed, but he cut the pieces out, and burnt them. How those stains were dispersed about the room! The very feet of the dog were bloody. … null At times he turned with desperate determination, resolved to beat this phantom off, though it should look him dead; but the hair rose on his head and his blood stood still, for it had turned with him and was behind him then. nullHe had kept it before him that morning, but it was behind now—always. He leaned his back against a bank, and felt that it stood above him, visibly out against the cold night sky. null After murdering Nancy, Sikes flees London, only to find that his conscience will not let him escape. This passage embodies an idea that a guilty conscience is its own punishment, worse than any that the law can assign. The entire account of Sikes’s flight is also among the most psychologically sophisticated passages in the novel. nullUp until this point, Sikes has been a pure villain. In his guilt, however, he becomes more realistically human. We probably cannot sympathize with Sikes, but, in this chapter, we do see the world through his wretched eyes. Moreover, Dickens’s vivid descriptions allow us to experience Sikes’s sensation of being hunted, by both external and more horrifying internal pursuers. null A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities In a brief note, Dickens mentions the source of inspiration for A Tale of Two Cities: a play in which he acted, called The Frozen Deep, written by his friend Wilkie Collins. He adds that he hopes that he can further his readers’ understanding of the French Revolution—“that terrible time”.null It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, nullit was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. null These famous lines, which open A Tale of Two Cities, hint at the novel’s central tension between love and family, on the one hand, and oppression and hatred, on the other. This use of repetition, along with the passage’s steady rhythm, suggests that good and evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle. null I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. . . . null I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. . . . nullIt is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known. null This passage, which occurs in the final chapter, prophesies two resurrections: one personal, the other national. In a novel that seeks to examine the nature of revolution—the overturning of one way of life for another—the struggles of France and of Sydney Carton mirror each other. null In the prophecy that Paris will become “a beautiful city” and that Carton’s name will be “made illustrious,” the reader sees evidence of Dickens’s faith in the essential goodness of humankind. The very last thoughts attributed to Carton, in their poetic use of repetition, register this faith as a calm and soothing certainty. The Ever-Present Possibility of Resurrection The Ever-Present Possibility of Resurrection With A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level. The narrative suggests that Sydney Carton’s death secures a new, peaceful life for Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, and even Carton himself. null By delivering himself to the guillotine, Carton ascends to the plane of heroism, becoming a Christ-like figure whose death serves to save the lives of others. His own life thus gains meaning and value. Moreover, the final pages of the novel suggest that, like Christ, Carton will be resurrected—Carton is reborn in the hearts of those he has died to save. null Similarly, the text implies that the death of the old regime in France prepares the way for the beautiful and renewed Paris that Carton supposedly envisions from the guillotine. Although Carton spends most of the novel in a life of indolence and apathy, the supreme selflessness of his final act speaks to a human capacity for change. null Although the novel dedicates much time to describing the atrocities committed both by the aristocracy and by the outraged peasants, it ultimately expresses the belief that this violence will give way to a new and better society. The Necessity of Sacrifice The Necessity of Sacrifice Connected to the theme of the possibility of resurrection is the notion that sacrifice is necessary to achieve happiness. Dickens examines this second theme, again, on both a national and personal level. For example, the revolutionaries prove that a new French republic can come about only with a heavy and terrible cost—personal loves and loyalties must be sacrificed for the good of the nation. symbols  symbols    The wine that spills out of the cask in Book the First, Chapter 5, symbolizes the peasants’ hunger and the blood that will be shed when the revolution comes into full swing; Madame Defarge’s knitting symbolizes the vengefulness of the common people.null Considered as a whole, the novel shows effectively the novelist’s aim to point out the injustice of oppression and the justification of the revolution. In fact, the description of the great poverty of the French people in the scene of the breaking of wine barrels in the street, the episodes of the French aristocrats in their country estates and in their city palaces, nulland particularly the eye-witness account of oppression and persecution recorded by Dr. Manette, all point unmistakably to Dickens’ intense hatred for the tyranny of the ruling class, and the scenes of the revolutionists in their days of secret conspiracy and in their final triumph at the storming of the Bastille also show the novelist’s unreserved approval of the revolutionary activities and his huge satisfaction at the righting of the wrongs. null However, Dickens shows his strong criticism on the excess of bloodshed during the French Revolution, especially in his consideration of the innocent being punished along with the guilty. So he seems to think better of the wavering Dr. Defarge than of the resolute Madame Defarge, he has much sympathy and admiration for the self-sacrifice of Sidney Carton at the very end of the story.null He feels that the old ways of oppression must be changed, and that much oppression and much misery inevitably lead to revolution, but when the revolution actually comes, he thinks that it is too violent and that the less bloodshed the better. He does not disapprove of the French Revolution, but he disapproves of the extreme measures carried out at the height of the revolution.