Notes
[1][2] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Introduction Page2& Page3)
[3][11][12][13] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Chapter16 Page98& Page99& Page100)
[4] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Chapter20 Page125)
[5] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Chapter19 Page120)
[6] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Chapter15 Page96)
[7] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Chapter39 Page245)
[8][9][10] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language
Teaching
&
Research
Press,
1992.(Chapter40
Page258&Page259)
[14] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992.(Chapter26 Page154)
Bibliography
[1] Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language
Teaching & Research Press, 1992.
[2] CatherinePeters, CharlesDickens [M].Xi‘an: Xi‘an World Publishing
Corporation,1998.
[3] Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman. History of Jewish Philosophy
[M], London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
[4] John Kichetti. The Columbia History of the British Novel [M].
Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press Columbia University Press, 2005.
[5] 鲍文. 反抗与探索——十八、十九世纪英国孤儿小说人物性格论
[J]. 安徽教育学院学报, 2003, (1): 13- 15.
[6] 胡晓华.《雾都孤儿》中的仁爱与暴虐[J]. 黑龙江农垦师专学报
2001,(2): 11- 15.
[7] 刘精香.《雾都孤儿》中南希的形象剖析[J]. 中南民族学院学报,
2005, (2): 12- 19.
[8] 黄福武、张力改译. 摩迪凯·开普兰.犹太教——一种文明[M]. 济
南: 山东大学出版社, 2002.
[9] 潘明元.《雾都孤儿》的旺盛生命力[J]. 四川师范学院学报, 1996,
(4): 35- 39.
[10] 钱青. 英国19世纪文学史[M]. 北京: 外语教学与研究出版社,
2001, 57- 69.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the people who have ever helped me in this project.
My sincere and hearty thanks and appreciations go firstly to Professor Pan Lifeng, my supervisor. It is he who made me believe that l can exert my ability to work on this study. It is he who taught me so much knowledge for this study and called attention to my mistakes. It is his suggestion and encouragement that have given me much insight into this study. It has been a great privilege and joy to study under his guidance and supervision. Furthermore, it is my honor to benefit from his personality and diligence. If this work can be of any merits, it is because of him.
I am deeply indebted and grateful to all the course teachers in the school of Foreign Languages, Professor Peng Changjiang, and others teachers‘ wonderful lectures and intellectual discussion.
Finally, I am grateful to all those who devote much time to reading this thesis and give me much advice, which will benefit me in my later study.
学科分类号 0502
本科学生毕业论文（设计）
题目（中文）：一朵开在冬天的花 — 剖析《雾都孤儿》中南希的双重性格
（英文）：A Flower Blossoming in Winter —Expounding
the Double Character of Nancy in Oliver Twist
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论文（设计）题目 作 者 姓 名 钟玲 一朵开在冬天的花—剖析《雾都孤儿》中南希的双重性格 A Flower Blossoming in Winter —Expounding the Double Character of Nancy in Oliver Twist 所属系、专业、年级 预计字数 5000-7000 外语 系 英语 专业 四 年级 开题日期 2006年12月10 日 指导教师姓名、职称 潘利锋教授 选题的根据：1）说明本选题的理论、实际意义 2）综述国内外有关本选题的研究动态和自己的见解 1.狄更斯是19世纪英国最伟大的小说家,批判现实主义的长篇小说《雾都孤儿》是其最杰出的作品之一.通过解读这篇小说中南希的形象,可以感受到作者对人物内心世界的细腻描写,以及在作出抉择时复杂的内心挣扎,同时也可以了解社会环境和人性对小说中南希双重性格形成所造成的影响. 2.狄更斯的作品《雾都孤儿》塑造了19世纪的社会形形色色的人物，反映了当时伦敦下层社会黑暗的一面，而其中南希的形象更引人深思。如刘精香副教授的：《雾都孤儿》中南希的形象剖析，从各方面对南希的性格进行了全面的分析，指出南希善良的本性，但并没剖析其性格复杂的原因。因此,本文希望通过对南希双重性格的分析,能使人们更深刻的了解人物复杂的内心活动，以及社会对人物命运所造成的影响. 主要内容： 引言：南希这一人物形象，大多研究者执否定态度。本文将对人物的双重性格进行分析，从行动描写、语言描写、心理描写等方面对南希的形象进行解读，肯定其为救奥利弗而牺牲自己的精神并对其双重性格的原因进行分析。 本文主体分为五部分： 第一部分：简单介绍作者、作品的基本情况 第二部分：南希双重性格的表现 二、 2.1 对奥利弗的态度在各个阶段不同的表现 2.2对赛客斯的态度在各个阶段不同的表现 2.3 对费金的态度在各个阶段不同的表现 第三部分：南希双重性格的成因 3.1从社会环境（外部原因） 3.2从人性本善（内部原因） 第四部分：南希双重性格中无法玷污的美德 4.1 南希对罪恶的反抗 4.2 南希对奥利弗的爱 第五部分：对本文进行小结，肯定南希的美德
研究方法： 本文通过大量文本解读、分析、归纳等方法，利用相关的理论知识就论点展开论述， 并引申出自己的观点。 完成期限和采取的主要措施： 完成期限：1）２００７年4月20日前完成初稿 2）２００７年5月10日前完成定稿 主要措施：1）在图书馆查阅、借阅各种相关书籍、学术期刊。 2）通过于导师交流，加深了解作品。 3）在网上搜索有用信息，经自己综合整理展开论证。 4）仔细品味作品，形成自己观点。 主要参考资料： [1]Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press, 1992. [2]Catherine Peters, Charles Dickens [M]. Xi‘an:Xi‘anWorldPublishinCorporation,1998. [3]Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman .History of Jewish Philosophy [M], London and New York: Routledge, 1997. [4]John Kichetti. The Columbia History of the British Novel [M]. Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press Columbia University Press, 2005. [5]鲍文.反抗与探索——十八、十九世纪英国孤儿小说人物性格论[J].安徽：安徽教育学院学报编辑部，1997. [6]胡晓华.《雾都孤儿》中的仁爱与暴虐[J] 黑龙江：黑龙江农垦师专学报编辑部，2003. [7]刘精香.《雾都孤儿》中南希的形象剖析[J].武汉：中南民族学院学报编辑部，1999. [8]摩迪凯·开普兰.犹太教——一种文明[M].黄福武、张力改译，济南：山东大学出版社，2002. [9]潘明元.《雾都孤儿》的旺盛生命力[J].四川：四川师范学院学报编辑部，1996 [10]钱青.英国19世纪文学史[M].外语教学与研究出版社，2001. [11]乔国强.从《雾都孤儿》看狄更斯的反犹主义倾向[J].北京：外国文学研究出版社，2004. 指导教师意见： 签 名： 年 月 日
hears Oliver hurt in the robbery, she says she hopes Oliver has died. Because she believes death is better than living with Fagin in such a despicable way.
When Nancy shows great irritation to her life, Fagin says to her,
“You’re drunk. ”
“Am I ?” cried the girl, bitterly. “It’s no fault of yours, if I am not! You’d never have me anything else, if you had your will…‖[14](p154)
In fact, under Fagin‘s control, Nancy always lives a drunk life. She may use wine to palsies herself. If she is clear in mind, she may realize how disreputable life she lives.
3.2 Nancy’s Love to Oliver
The girl is always oppressed to do the things she is unwilling to do. When Fagin and Sikes make a ―notable plan‖, they need a slim boy. Oliver is the very person they need. They send Nancy to take Oliver. Oliver still remembers it is Nancy saves him from Fagin‘s hand. In the gang, she is the only one who gives help to him, although she is also the one who let him be claimed. He hopes Nancy can also help him to escape from here this time.
Nancy is contradictory. It is the second time she takes Oliver to the
miserable world. She does not dare to disobey Fagin and Sikes‘ order. It is a damp, dirty room and it is very cold outside. Leave the ―damp, dirty room‖, then they will go to the another room, which is much worse than this.
There are three female characters in Oliver Twist. They are Nancy, Rose Maylie and Agnes Fleming. Rose is a young lady of good breeding and perfect chastity. Nancy, in contrast, is a girl raised on the street and a prostitute. Agnes, as a young girl of good breeding who nonetheless committed a fatal sexual indiscretion in her affair with Mr. Leeford, stands somewhere in between Rose, a model of purity, and Nancy, a model of sin. Each woman‘s social standing is closely bound to her sexual history. Nancy sacrifices her life for the sake of Oliver, a boy she barely knows. Agnes gives her life to sake her family from her own ill repute. On a lesser scale, even Rose makes a great sacrifice when she refuses to marry Harry Maylie, fearing that her dubious birth will harm his chances for career advancement. Dickens displays a thoroughly Victorian fondness for humility and self-sacrifice in women. The ideal woman, it would seem, must be prepared, and even glad, to live and die for others.
Nancy and Agnes, they commit sexual indiscretions at some point in their lives, but they in one way or another redeem themselves, displaying generosity and love as well as repentance. Although Dickens goes to great
lengths to establish that these fallen women are still human being worthy of forgiveness and redemption, every one of them either dies or is transported by the end of the novel in which she appears. As with Nancy, many of these female characters are offered the chance to reject their pasts and start over, but this new beginning is never to be. It is as if Dickens advocates in principle the idea that sexually tainted women could be reconciled with respectable English society, but he cannot actually bring himself to imagine a scenario in which this social rebirth actually happens. This leads to the unavoidable tragedy on these female‘s fate.
Conclusion
In Oliver Twist, Dickens presents the everyday existence of the lowest members of English society. He goes far beyond the experiences of the workhouse, extending his depiction of poverty to London's squalid streets, dark alehouses, and thieves' dens. He gives voice to those who had no voices, establishing a link between polities and literature with his social commentary.
Throughout the novel, Dickens confronts the question of whether terrible environments he depicts have the power to \[the soul] and change its hue for ever.\By examining the fates of most of the characters, we can assume that the answer is that they do not. Certainly, 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. Most telling of all is Nancy, who, though she considers herself %up making the ultimate sacrifice for a child she hardly knows.
Although most major characters in Oliver Twist are either paragons of goodness, like Oliver and Mr. Brownlow, or embodies of evil, like Mr. Bumble, Fagin, and Sikes, Nancy‘s behavior spans moral extremes. Most other ―good‖ characters we meet are good because they have no firsthand
experience with vice and degradation. Nancy knows degradation perfectly well, yet she is good.
Nancy is like a rose blossoming in winter. It is a rose with throne. Blossoming in winter, it decides its short life. She lives in an adverse environment, which is full of crime and guilty, but she remains her goodness in such a world. In her short life, we see the rose blossoming in the end. Despite the cold weather, it blossoms then withers. Although she only blossoms for a very short time, she remains people endless respect and thinking. In this material society, we will feel puzzled when we face all kinds of attraction. We hope we can make right choice as Nancy no matter how many obstacles we meet.
Sikes has been a pure villain .In his guilt, however, he becomes realistically human. Pursued by his guilty conscience and an angry mob, he inadvertently hangs himself while trying to escape.
Nancy‘s love for Sikes exemplifies the moral ambiguity of her character. As she herself points out to Rose, devotion to a man can be ―a comfort and a pride ―under the right circumstances But for Nancy, such devotion is ―a new means of violence and suffering‖-indeed, her relationship with Sikes leads her to criminal acts for his sake and eventually to her own demise .The same behavior, in different circumstances, can have very different consequences and moral significance. In much of Oliver Twist, morality and nobility are black-and-white issues, but Nancy‘s character suggests that the boundary between virtue and vice is not always clearly drawn.
2
The Reason of Nancy’s Double Character
England in the 1830s was rapidly undergoing a transformation from an agricultural, rural economy to an urban, industrial nation. In the extremely stratified English class structure, the highest social class belonged to the ―gentleman,‖ an aristocrat who did not have to work for his living. The growing middle class had achieved an economic influence equal to, if not greater than, that of the British aristocracy. Many members of the middle class were anxious to be differentiated from the lower classes, and one way to do so was to stigmatize the lower class as lazy good-for –nothings.
Victorian society interpreted economic success as a sign that God favored the honest, moral virtue of successful individual‘s efforts and, thus, interpreted the condition of poverty as a sign of the weakness of the poor individual. The poor were naturally destined for lives of degradation and desperation. Living in such a society, although Nancy hopes some difference will happen on her, the society is hard to make her dream come true.
2.1 Social Environment’s Influence to Nancy’s Double Character Nancy has become a child pickpocket from a very young age. It is
hard to know her birth background from the novel. She may be a love child as Oliver. What makes her to seek ―help‖ from Fagin? When Oliver sees Fagin‘s act, he feels it is very interesting. In a younger age than Oliver, Nancy can‘t recognize what is virtue or evil. Both of them are subjected to the paternal authority of Fagin and are dependent upon him for their food and shelter. While such a family provides companionship and a means for survival, it is not ultimately nurturing or morally healthy. Although after writing Oliver Twist, Dickens denied that anti-semitism had influenced his portrait of Fagin, the Jewish thief‘s characterization does seem to owe much to ethnic stereotypes .He is ugly, simpering, miserly and avaricious. Constant references to him as ―the Jew‖ seem to indicate that his negative traits are intimately connected to his ethnic identity. However, Fagin is more than a statement of ethnic prejudice. He is a richly drawn, resonant embodiment of terrifying villainy. At times, he seems like a child‘s distorted vision of pure evil .He is such a conniving career criminal, who takes in homeless children and trains them to pick pockets for him. He is also a buyer of other people‘s stolen goods .He rarely commits crimes himself preferring to employ others to commit them ---and often suffer legal retribution –in his place.
Although Fagin claims to be in partnership with his associates protecting them in exchange for their loyalty, in the end, Fagin manipulates his associates, so that his own self-interest is better
served .He watches the people around him with special care and translates his information into power. A prime example of this strategy is his hope to use Nancy‘s possible love to control her through blackmail. Even more, after he knows the meeting, he reveals Nancy‘s betrayal to Sikes. But Fagin purposely does not tell Sikes that Nancy insisted that her associates not get into trouble .He describes her action in such a way as to inspire Sikes‘s murderous rage Having Nancy killed is at least as beneficial to Fagin as to Sikes, but Fagin is unwilling to make a risk of doing the deed himself. Instead he uses his knowledge about of Nancy and about Sikes character to manipulate Sikes into committing the horrible crime.
Nancy regrets her life of vice, but she refuses Rose‘s offer to help her change it. Nancy‘s love for Sikes is more crucial to her decision to return to her old life than any belief that she has strayed too far from the path of moral goodness. The different light in which society treats Nancy‘s and Rose‘s romantic attachments reveals the extent of its prejudices against the poor, it is considered a virtue when Rose is unconditionally faithful to a respectable young man like Harry Maylie. Yet when Nancy displays the same fidelity to a dreadful fellow like Sikes, it becomes ―a new means of violence and suffering.‖ This contrast demonstrates that socioeconomic status has the power to color all aspects of an individual‘s life, even the private emotions of love and sentiment.
In Oliver Twist, there is a relationship between clothing and identity.
When Nancy tries to get information from police station, she disguises herself. The wears reveals key differences between the middle and lower classes in Victorian society. Because she disguises herself as a middle class woman, the legal system, in the form of the police station, recognizes her as an individual worth hearing. In the attire of middle class, she gains both social voice and social visibility. She becomes an individual rather than a member of the penniless mob. In the later chapter, when Nancy knows the plots between Monks and Fagin, she wants to go to the hotel where Miss Maylie lives .She wears pauper‘s clothing, nobody is willing to help her to send message.
Just as Nancy assumes a middle-class identity by changing her clothing, Oliver sheds his identity as a pickpocket orphan when he leaves behind his pauper‘s cloths. Oliver and Nancy both gain a voice the moment they shed their pauper clothing like Nancy and Oliver, Bumble learns of the influence that clothing exercises upon identity. The power and dignity of privileged roles are not qualities inherent in the men who occupy them. They are, like clothing, merely purchased and worn, and they can be taken off as easily as they were put on. When Nancy wears pauper‘s clothing, it‘s impossible to live in the society.
Nancy's decision to meet Brownlow and Rose on London Bridge reveals the symbolic aspect of this bridge in Oliver Twist. Bridges exist to link two places would otherwise be separated by an impassable chasm.
The meeting on London Bridge represents the collision of two worlds unlikely ever to come into contact---the idyllic world of Brownlow and Rose, and the atmosphere of degradation in which Nancy lives. On the bridge, Nancy is given the chance to cross over to the better way of life that the others represent, but she rejects that opportunity, and by the time the three have all left the bridge, that possibility has vanished forever. Waiting for Nancy is only an endless miserable world.
2.2 Nancy’s Human Nature Influence to Her Double Character Nancy, a prostitute, embodies for Dickens all the degradation into which poverty force otherwise good people. Rose, on the other hand, represents all the purity that comes from good breeding. Both women embody the feminine compassion that compels them to help Oliver. That feminine compassion, maternal and sisterly directed toward Oliver, is also what binds Nancy to her vice-lover Sikes. The same loyalty to a loved one that would be a virtue in Rose is a self-destructive force for Nancy .Her love for Sikes and her compassion for Oliver together compel her to sacrifice her own life. Though Dickens clearly approves of the second emotion for more than the first, it is likely that they stem from the same impulse in Nancy‘s character.
The meeting between Rose and Nancy is one of the most emotionally heightened situation in the novel. It's the first time they meet.
They come from two different worlds. One stands for virtue, other stands for vice. Before such a prefect person, Nancy feels so burdened with the sense of her own deep shame. It's a torment for her to present before such a decent lady like Rose Maylie, for it makes her imagine herself disreputable life.
\raised her eyes sufficiently to observe that the figure which presented itself was that of a slight and beautiful girl; and then, bending them on the ground, tossed her head with affected carelessness.\
She even does not dare to see Rose directly.
\a hard matter to get to see you, lady. If I had taken offence, and gone away, as many would have done.\[9](p 258)
Nancy has been familiar with harsh behavior, she understands nobody looks her as a normal girl, and is willing to talk with her. Just before she meets the girl, so many servants downstairs even are not willing to send message for her. So when she heard Rose's kind answer, she fells so surprised. It seldom happens in her life. She confesses she is the one who dragged Oliver back to Fagin's. She fells regretful for it. She says to Rose.
\and that never from the first moment. I can recollect my tyes and senses opening on London streets have known any better life, or kinder words than they given me ''[10](p 259)
It is easy to imagine that how hard times this girl have ever experienced,―……the alley and the gutter were mine, as they will be my death-bed.Nancy knows the life she lives is criminal and violent. However when she makes her decision to tell the news about Oliver, from that moment, she becomes a great person.\In you hand.\
She realizes revealing the plots to Rose maybe lead her death. However, in order to saving Oliver, a boy she hardly knows, she forgets herself, even her life. Compared with Rose, she is more respectable for she may sacrifice herself in helping Oliver, while Rose will not lose anything. Indeed, saving Oliver from such a criminal world is not an easy thing.
3
Nancy’s Incorruptibility of Goodness in Double Character
Although Nancy is a secondary role in Oliver Twist, she plays a very important role in Oliver‘s fate. Nancy has been a thief since childhood, she drinks to excess, and she is a prostitute. As a female thief in the gang, she hardly causes Oliver to become a thief in the gang. Despite her tainting behavior, however, she is incredibly virtuous where the most important matters, those of life and death, are concerned. Her decision to reveal the information to Monks‘ plot may cause her death. Nancy‘s honorable act directly contradicts Victorian stereotype of the poor as fundamentally immoral and ignoble. Her character comprehends virtue and evil. In the end, the virtue prevails over the evil. She is a noble person in the novel.
3.1 Nancy’s Resistance to Crime
When Oliver was taken to Fagin‘s den, he tries to escape. Sikes sends his vicious dog on him.
“Keep the dog; he’ll tear the boy to pieces.”
“The child shan’t be torn down by the dog, unless you kill me first.”[11](p 99)
When Sikes sends his dog to pursuing the boy, the girl cries. In that moment, Nancy forgets herself safety. Sikes is such a hot-tempered housebreaker. It is hard to predict what he will do next minute. When Fagin wants to give a clobber to Oliver, Nancy stands out and stop it.
“I won’t stand by and see it done, Fagin,” cried he girl,
“You’ve got the boy, and what more would you have? Let him be- let him be, or I shall put that mark on some of you, that will bring me to the gallows before my time.” [12](p100)
In order to save Oliver, Nancy neglects her own safety. Facing with such vicious people, where does courage come from? It not only comes from her sympathy to Oliver, it rather comes from her wrath to the criminal life. She can‘t bear the mean and dirty life any more. When she cries,
“……I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as this!” pointing to Oliver ,“I have been in the same trade ,and in the same service for twelve years since .”[13](p 98)
She thinks all of her misfortune is Fagin‘s fault. If he does not cheat her and make her become a thief, she may die in a young age. When she