Dickens

Materie:	Riassunto
Categoria:	Inglese
Voto:	2 (2)
Download:	308
Data:	06.04.2007
Numero di pagine:	2
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

DICKENS

THERE WAS A COMMUNION OF INTERESTS AND OPINIONS BETWEEN WRITERS AND THEIR READERS. THEY SHARED THE SAME FRAME OF MIND AND REFERRED TO THE SAMECODE OF VALUES: OPTIMISM, CONFORMISM, PHILANTHROPY. THE NOVELISTS FELT THEY HAD A MORAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TO FULFIL: THEY AIMED AT REFLECTING THE SOCIAL CHANGES THAT HAD BEEN IN PROGRESS FOR A LONG TIME. THE VOICE OF THE OMNISCIENT NARRATOR PROVIDED A COMMENT ON THE PLOT AND ERECTED A RIGID BARRIER BETWEEN “RIGHT” AND “WRONG”. WERE TO BE FOUNDIN THE FINAL CHAPTER. THE SETTING WAS THE CITY WHICH WAS THE MAIN SYMBOL OF THE INDUSTRIAL CIVILISATION. VICTORIAN WRITERS CONCENTRATED ON THE CREATION OF CHARACTERS AND ACHIEVED DEEPER ANALYSIS OF THA CHARACTERS’ INNER LIFE. WOMEN WERE NOT ONLY THE MAJOR CONSUMERS, THEY BECAME PRODUCERS AS GEORGE ELIOT AND EMILY BRONTË. IT IS POSSIBLE TO DIVIDE VICTORIAN NOVELS INTO THREE GROUPS. THE EARLY-VICTORIAN NOVEL CHARLES DICKENS. THE MID-VICTORIAN NOVEL EMILY BRONTË AND ROBET STEVENSON. THE LATE-VICTORIAN NOVEL AUTHORS LIKE THOMAS HARDY AND OSCAR WILDE.
VITA_ DICKENS WAS BORN IN PORTSMOUTH. HE HAD AN UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD, SINCE HIS FATHER WENT TO PRISON FOR DEBT AND HE HAD TO WORK IN A FACTORY AT THE AGE OF TWELVE. THESE DAYS OF SUFFERINGS INSPIRED MUCH OF THE CONTENT OF HIS NOVELS. HE SKECTHES BY “BOZ”, A COLLECTION OF ARTICLES DESCRIBING LONDON PEOPLE. IT WAS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICWICK CLUB, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED IN INSTALMENTS AND REVEALED DICKENS’S HUMORISTIC AND SATIRICAL QUALITIES. DICKENS’S SUCCESS CONTINUED WITH HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS, OLIVER TWIST (1838), DAVID COPPERFIELD (1849-50), LITTLE DORRIT (1857); ALL THEIR PROTAGONISTS BECAME THE SYMBOLS OF AN EXPLOITED CHILDHOOD CONFRONTED WITH THE GRIM AND BITTER REALITIES OF SLUMS AND FACTORIES. OTHER WORKS INCLUDE BLEAK HOUSE (1853), HARD TIMES (1854) AND GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1860-61), DEALING WITH SOCIAL ISSUES, SUCH AS THE CONDITIONS OF THE POOR AND THE PROBLEMS CONNECTED TO THE WORKING CLASS.

THE PLOTS OF DICKENS’S NOVELS
DICKENS’S PLOTS ARE WELL-PLANNED. LONDON WAS THE SETTING OF MOST OF HIS NOVELS. HE WAS AWARE OF THE SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL CORRUPTION OF PRESENT-DAY REALITY UNDER THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIALISM; THE RESULT WAS AN INCREASINGLY CRITICAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS SOCIETY. IN FACT, IN HIS MATURE WORKS DICKENS SUCCEEDED IN DRAWING POPULAR ATTENTION TO PUBLIC ABUSES, EVIL AND WRONGS BY MINGLING TERRIBLE DESCRIPTIONS OF LONDON MISERY AND CRIME.

CHARACTERS_ DICKENS CREATED CARICATURES, TRYING TO ATTRACT INTEREST BY DESCRIBING THE CHARACTERS, HABITS, AND LANGUAGE OF THE MIDDLE AND LOWER, OFTEN THE VERY LOWEST, CLASSES IN MODER LONDON. HE WAS ALWAYS ON THE SIDE OF THE POR, THE OUTCAST, AND ALSO THE WORKING CLASS.

A DIDACTIC AIM_ CHILDREN ARE OFTEN THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS IN DICKENS’S NOVELS. THE NOVELIST PUTTING THEM FORWARD AS MODELS OF THE WAY PEOPLE OUGHT TO BEHAVE TO ONE ANOTHER.

PLOT_ IT IS SET IN AN IMAGINARY INDUSTRIAL CENTRE NAMED COKETOWN. THOMAS GRADGRIND, AN EDUCATOR WHO BELIEVES IN FACT AND STATISTICS, HAS FOUNDED A SCHOOL WHERE HIS THEORIES ARE TAUGHT, AND HE BRINGS UP HIS TWO CHILDREN, LOUISA AND TOM, IN THE SAME WAY, REPRESSING THEIR IMMAGINATION AND FEELINGS. HE MARRIED HIS DAUGHTER TO A RICH BANKER THIRTY YEARS OLDER THAN SHE IS. TOM IS LAZY AND SELFISH, SUCCEEDS IN THROWING THE SUSPICION ON AN HONEST WORKMAN, AND IS FINALLY DISCOVERED AND OBLIGED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY.