B.A .Thesis Chapter 1 Novel?s Writing Background
the change and development of the great novelist?s artistic style. (陈嘉, 1983)
Charles Dickens? miserable childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as well as have a definite impact on his literary career. There are shades of young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and of course, Great Expectations? Pip. Like Dickens, all three of these characters came from humble beginnings and were able to rise above their respective circumstances to achieve success. Similarly, Dickens? literary success is owed in large part to his unhappy childhood experiences. He did not merely overcome his past. He triumphed over it by mixing it into his best-selling works of art.
Charles Dickens? childhood and young adulthood was definitely filled with enough drama to base a novel upon. Born on February 7, 1812, to John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and his wife Elizabeth, Charles spent his earliest years in the English seaport town of Portsmouth. The first years of his life were comfortable enough, although the family did have an interest for living beyond their means. Even his birth announcement gives evidence to this, reporting the birth “On Friday, at Mile-end Terrace, the Lady of John Dickens, Esq. a son” (Peters, 1998:8). This is a pround pronouncement coming from a lowly government employee, with neither money nor title to lay claim to. Due
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B.A .Thesis Chapter 1 Novel?s Writing Background
to this, Charles “considered Friday his lucky day, needing to believe he had been born with great expectations and the talent and will to realize them” (Peters, 1998:10).
When Charles was ten years old, the family was transferred yet again, this time to London. The more expensive place, followed with the decrease in pay. His father suffered for no longer being stationed “outport” did not sign well for the family, who still “had not learned the value of money management” (Peters, 1998:12). To Charles?s dismay, he was not to be enrolled in a London school, instead being send to do odd jobs around the house. Kaplan believes the termination of Dickens? education have been a major blow to his ego, as “he had already imagined himself a man with a profession, enjoying success. He would be a gentleman by talent and achievement” (Peters, 1998:18).
To help pay off the family?s outstanding debts, James Lamert, a family friend, secured Charles a post at Warren?s Blacking Warehouse, a shoe polish factory. The job, which consisted of pasting labels onto pots of shoe polish, was a tedious and disgraceful one for Dickens, especially when his boss moved him to a window at the front of the warehouse for all the passersby to see.(Peters, 1998:22) It was also a time that Charles would never be able to forget. His situation only worsened when it became clear that the extra money Charles brought home from his income would not be enough to save his father from debt. On February 24, 1824,
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B.A .Thesis Chapter 1 Novel?s Writing Background
his father was arrested and sent to a debtor?s prison for failing to pay his creditors.
Just this experience let Dickens write Oliver Twist, and Oliver is Dickens in the novel. By the portrayal of Oliver?s miserable experiences in the workhouse and Fagin?s den, Dickens gives a bitter accusation to the corrupty and degradation of the capitalist society. Through the portrayal of Fagin?s evil, Dickens exposes the darkness of London?s underground. And, by the portrayal of Nancy?s final regaining of goodness, Dickens shows his belief that evil can never prevail over good and the eternal existing of goodness in the human nature. All in all, Dickens? thoughts and experiences contribute to the writing of Oliver Twist.
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B.A .Thesis Chapter 2 Analysis of Oliver Twist
Chapter 2
Analysis of Oliver Twist
2.1 The Portray of Oliver Twist
The hero of this novel was Oliver Twist, an orphan, who was thrown into a world full of poverty and crime. In spite of the fact that he was born and brought up in the workhouse and suffered enormous pain, such as hunger, thirst, beating and abuse. He remain wants to be loved. Oliver is not a believable character, although he was raised in corrupt surroundings, his purity and virtues were absolute. Throughout the novel, Dickens use 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. At the same time, Oliver?s incorruptibility undermines some of Dickens? assertions. 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. Oliver?s moral considerations about the sanctity of property seem inborn in him, just as Dickens? opponents thought that corruption is inborn in poor people. Furthermore, other children use rough Cockney slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper King?s English. His grammatical rigidity is also unexplainable, as Oliver is not well-educated.
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B.A .Thesis Chapter 2 Analysis of Oliver Twist
Even when he is abused and manipulated. Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person mixed with good and evil, instead he is purely good.(鲍文, 2003: 13- 15)
Even if we might feel that Dickens? social criticism would have been more effective if he had focused on a more complex poor character, like the Artful Dodger or Nancy. The readers for whom Dickens was writing might not have been receptive to such a portrayal. Dickens? Victorian middle-class readers were likely to hold opinions on the poor that were only a little less extreme than those expressed by Mr. Bumble, the beadle who treats paupers with great cruelty. In fact, Oliver Twist was criticized for portraying thieves and prostitutes at all. Considering the strict morals of Dickens? readers, it may have seemed necessary for him to make Oliver a saint like figure. Because Oliver appealed to Victorian readers? sentiments, his story may have stood a better chance of effectively change their prejudices.
2.2 London’s Influence on the Character Formation
Before discussing Oliver?s separation from the city, we first must look at how he is introduced to London and examine the role that the city plays in Oliver?s life as well as in the lives of Dickens himself. “Although both boys, Dodger and Oliver, are of a similar age, the Dodger appears
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