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Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

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Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. ----- Charles Dickens

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Dickens Life Experience

Born into a lower middle class withgenteel pretensions ( his father being fond of living beyondhis means, was imprisoned);

child labour at a blacking warehouse

The strenuous – and often cruel – work conditions made a deep impression on Dickens, and later influenced his fiction and essays, forming foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions.

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Dickens’ Life Experience

Junior clerk in a lawyer’s office at 15 (familiarity with lawyers & criminals);

journalist at the age of 20 (better knowledge of the society)

Pickwick Papers seralized in 1836- 37

death out of overwork in 1870

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Oliver Twist , 1838 The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840-1841 Dombey and Son, 1846-1848 David Copperfield, 1849 Bleak House, 1852 A Tale of Two Cities, 1854 Great Expectations, 1860

Dickens’ Major Works

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•Exaggeration in character portrayal (innocent, kind, honest, ready to help) • Exposure of social evils;• Coincidences (Oliver Twist);• Vigour & humour– rewarding the good & punishing the bad•Life of Children in Cities•Poisoning of the soul by money/ selfishness

Three Phases of Dickens’ Writing

a. Early period (1836- 45): spontaneous flow of imaginative power

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Dombey and Son (1846- 48): criticism of arrogance & coldbness (money)

b. The middle period (1846- 57): Integration of experience & imagination

David Copperfield (1849- 50): autobiographical, child’s psychology, character portrayal; Bleak House (1852- 53): delay of law, gloomy tone Hard Times (1854): class struggle– mutual help; Little Dorrit (1855- 57): bureaucracy

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A Tale of Two Cities (1859): selflessness;Great Expectations (1860- 61): praise of honest labour;Our Mutual Friend (1864- 65): criticism of corruption & selfishness in the society

c. The later period (1858- 70): exploration of man’s inner conflicts

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Features of Dickens Novels

a. Character sketches & exaggeration -- vivid outward portrayal (1,900 characters in his novels);

b. Broad humour & penetrating satire (Qian Zhongshu learned from him in this)

c. Complicated & fascinating plot -- major plots+ minor plots// parallel major plots, suspense & mystery, happy ending (esp. earlier works);

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Features of Dickens Novels

d. The power of exposure novel as instrument of morality & justiceThe publication of Oliver Twist helped improve the living conditions of the workers in London)

e. Advocation of humanism (love, tolerance, mercy & romantic realism )

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a. Dickens was praised for having described London “like a special correspondent for posterity”. b. Dickens’ role in the development of Victorian novel: he was more dramatic than realistic (his heightening & stylization)-- “Every writer of fiction, although he may not adopt the dramatic form, writes, in effect, for the stage.”

Significance of Dickens’ Novels

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• Controversy over Dickens as a novelist a revolutionary writer? a proletarian writer? a middle-class writer?

(Actually Dickens is mainly concerned with the middle class. He is not radical, and his social criticism is confined to moral and ethical issues. His wish for social reform is more related to the improvement of social morality than the change of social structure – and the middle class plays the major role. Dickens is rather dubious about

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Dickens is rather dubious about the labour union and revolution. He emphasizes education, but does not propose any concrete plans.• Dickens’ political, racial thought: Some believe that Dickens pays no attention to politics, and does not have racial and imperialist ideas, but it’s not true.

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• Novelists in early 20th C. mostly followed George Eliot & led the current – underestimation of the Victorian novels;• Thackeray’s comparison of himself with Dickens at death: “I am played out. All I can do now is to bring out my old puppets… But, if he live to be ninety, Dickens will still be creating new characters. In his art that man is marvelous.”

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Great Expectations

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It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first publishedin serial form in the publication All the Year Roundfrom 1 December 1860 to August 1861.

Great Expectations

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Pip as an Orphan

Parents passed away.

Pip was raised up by his sister and brother-in-law.

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Pip’s Sister

She is not satisfies with her marriage with a blacksmith, so she hoped Pip might lead a more decent life.

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Joe, Pip’s brother-in-law

blacksmithSilent and Kind-hearted man

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Magwitch and Pip

Pip is an orphan while Magwitch is an convict

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Pip’s benevolence towards Magwitch

Pip took some food from his sister’s house and brought it to Magwitch in the graveyard.

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Magwitch was caught by the police and sent away.

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 Miss Havisham

a lady abandoned by her fianceeShe asked Pip to visit her house with the hope of favoring him

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Pip as Blacksmith

Pip was not favored by Miss Havisham, and became a apprentice to Joe.

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A Magical Change

Pip was funded to become a gentleman by one who would not like to reveal his name.

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Empire and Convict

Convicts were considered dangerous for the society, so they were sent away to overseas colonies, never to be back to the home country.Austrilia, as a colony for the settlement of convicts

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An English Dream to be Gentleman

Orphan

blacksmith

gentleman

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Pip as a disillusioned man

In the novel, Pip asended the rungs of social ladder, it seemed that he had little chance to better his life.

Without the financial support from the colony, he would never be a gentleman.

Pip’s dream was broken when Magwitch returned to England and was arrested by the police.