Charles Dickens' humanity in Oliver Twist从雾都孤儿看狄更斯的人道主义.doc

Charles Dickens' humanity in Oliver TwistbyA thesis submitted to School of Foreign Languagesin Conformity with the requirements for theDegree of Bachelor of ArtsQujing Normal UniversityQujing, Yunnan, P. R. ChinaMay,29,2010AcknowledgementsUpon the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my great and heartfelt gratitude to all those who have contributed to this thesis either directly or indirectly.First of all, my greatest debt of gratitude is owed to my supervisor, Mr. for his insightful advice and guidance in the composition of my thesis, for the trouble he has taken to read and revise it time and time again, for his utmost patience throughout the accomplishment of this thesis, and for his constant encouragement when I was frustrated in my work and life. Without his sincere guidance, I could not have completed my thesis.My thanks also go to the librarians in Qujing Normal University. It is due to their help that I can search for the right sources in a correct way and at the correct time. In the past two years, I have learnt a lot and expanded my horizon of thinking by borrowing books and learning online in the library. It turns out that my English competence has been significantly improved.In addition, I deeply appreciate the contribution to this thesis made in various ways by my family members, friends and my roommates, whose encouragement helped me go though many gloomy days.AbstractCharles Dickens was s prominent critical the characters he created were realist in English literature, vivid even now, Oliver Twist was one of his masterpieces in reflecting the real and terrible life of London underworld. Dickens exposes the darkness and corruption of society at that time, and at the same time he took moral as symbol of humanity, all these made his works a typical representative of the humanitarian spirit.Oliver Twist is the first novel in the English language to center on a child protagonist and is also notable for his unromantic portrayal of criminals and their pathetic lives. Dickens's vivid description creates many lifelike characters, which impress the readership deeply. (Wang Xiujuan,2009)In Oliver Twist, from the viewpoint of bourgeois humanism, Charles Dickens criticizes the Victorian English society and exposes its sordidness behind the magnificent curtain of the so-called Victorian Golden Age. By means of narration of how orphans in a workhouse were bullied, starved, Dickens champions the importance of education. With the creation of the image of Oliver Twist, he attracts readers sympathy for him and lead readers think of the humanity. Key words:Oliver Twist;Humanity;Corruption;Greedy;Literature摘要查尔斯·狄更斯是一位杰出的批判主义学者。他的很多作品中的人物在英国文学史上都具有现实的意义。雾都孤儿是他杰作之一，这部小说反映了伦敦社会中真实而又令人恐怖的社会底层生活。狄更斯将当时伦敦社会的黑暗和社会的腐败暴露出来，同时，他以人性的道德为旗帜，这使得他的作品成为了唤起人性的典型代表作品之一。雾都孤儿是第一部以孩子为主角的英语语言小说，它以对社会中某些人的罪恶的平淡写照以及对他们可怜的生命的描述而著称。狄更斯创造了许多栩栩如生的人物，深深的打动了读者。在雾都孤儿中，狄更斯从资产阶级人道主义的角度出发，批评了维多利亚女王时代的英国社会，并公开了所谓的维多利亚盛世社会的阴暗面。通过对济贫院的孤儿是如何被欺负、受饿的描述，狄更斯指出了教育的重要性。通过雾都孤儿中奥利弗·特维斯特的形象的创造，狄更斯吸引了读者的关注及同情，并使得人们对人性进行反思。关键词：雾都孤儿；人性；腐败；贪婪；文学contentAcknowledgementsiAbstract in EnglishiiAbstract in Chineseiii1.Introduction 12.Review of Oliver Twist 23.Charles Dickens's humanity in Oliver Twist 3 3.1Children ill-fed 3 3.2Children uneducated 4 3.3Greedy capitalists 54. Conclusion 7Reference 8 1.IntroductionDickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian age. It is his serious intention to expose and criticize in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptness he sees all around him(Zhang Boxiang,1999). Oliver Twist is one of the most important social novels in Dickens early works. Also , it was the first time that Dickens led readers into a very sad world. The description of the criminal slums of London that little Oliver lived brought Dickens a new class of serious readers interested in social reform. Oliver Twist was famous for exposing the dark sides of people lived out that time. It exposed the hypocritical and cruelty of parish workhouse through depicting the little orphan boy Oliver Twists childhood in it (Wang Zuoliang,1996). All he presents in front of the readers makes us aware of his humanity. So the author wants to take probe into the Oliver Twist to refound something new in the humanity of Dickens.This thesis tries to explore Dickenss probe into human nature,to explore the development and formation of his view on humanity.To achieve this purpose, the author choose to analyze the humanity that Dickens wanted to show the readers through the different roles with different destiny. With his unrelenting criticism of the distorted and ugly bourgeois society,Dickens fosters a fervent aspiration for the return of pure and nice humanity.This paper will also associate the back ground of Victoria Age which Dickens lived through to translate Dickens's purpose of the writing of Oliver Twist.2.Literature review of Oliver TwistIn Oliver Twist, Dickens mixes grim realism and merciless satire as a way to describe the effects of industrialism on 19th-centry England, and to criticise the harsh new Poor Laws. Oliver, an innocent child, who is born in a workhouse and found on the street with his mother died just after his birth. (Lu Jianguo,2004)He spend his first nine years in a badly run home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse for adults.He narrowly escapes being apprenticed to a brutish chimney sweep and is eventually apprenticed to a local undertaker.Outside London, Oliver meet Jack Dawkins, a boy at his own age. With the help of Jack, Oliver found a shelter in London, the house of whose turn out to be a career criminal who trains orphan boys to pick pockets for him. After few days of training, Oliver is sent to pick pockets. Once he come across them swipe a handkerchief from an elderly gentleman, Oliver is horrified and got caught but escapes being convicted of the theft. Mr Brownlow, the man whose handkerchief was stolen, takes the feverish Oliver to his home and nurses him back to health. But good days does not last for long, Fagin's gang found Oliver and threated that if he didn't help assist them, they will told Mr Brownlow what he was doing before. Oliver can't escape from Fagin and a mysterious man named Monk, they set on recapturing Oliver. When the Maylies come to London, Nancy meets secretly with Rose and informs her of Fagin's designs, but a member of Fagin's gang overhears the conversation. Poor Nancy was murdered by them. At the end of the novel, Fagin is hung for his crimes. Finally, Mr Brownlow adopt Oliver, they lived happily in the countryside with Maylies.3.Charles Dickens's humanity in Oliver TwistOliver Twist was written when Dickens began to win great popularity among its contemporaries. In addition,Oliver Twist was created when England had just witnessed the passage of the parliamentary reform bill of 1832 and people's excitement toward the organization of Chartism had just begun.This social background necessarily brought about a positive influence on the mood of immature Dickens who was creating this novel.(Zhou Hongyan,2010) Dickens himself tells us,again in the preface to the third edition,that he wished to show,in little Oliver,the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last. Thats the writers intention of creating such an orphan image in the novel of Oliver Twist.Oliver is the symbol of“the principle of Good”sent into the world on a journey of suffering.But he is always ready to accept whatever hardships the world imposes on him.Wherever Oliver goes,evil thrives around him.But to everyone's amazement,the wretched orphan,who endures the inhuman treatment of the workhouse,and even later is trapped into the thieves' den, still remains as pure at the end as at the start.In spite of the fact that he neither receives any proper education from his birth nor gets the right moral guidance from anyone,Oliver isn't revealed as a complicated figure torn between good and evil.On the contrary,he is a simple symbol of good.In the whole story about Oliver, Dickens tried to create different kinds of people with different destiny.With the comparison of different people, he show us the humanity the good will finally exploit evil. Also he makes considerable use of symbolism. The many obstacles Oliver faces are primarily good versus evil, with the evil continually trying to corrupt and exploit the good, but the good winning out in the end. With limited study about the novel, here will take some points of the novel as example to show Charles Dickens's humanity that he wanted to show in Oliver Twist.3.1Ill-fed OliverIn Oliver Twist, Dickens created some children with bad family background. He chose Oliver as the hero of these little unfortune children, so here the author would emphasis on the portrait of Oliver Twist in the novel to show the humanity that Charles Dickens wanted to express to the readers. As we all know that Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse, and brought up "by hand" in the workhouse for a year. Then he is farmed out to Mrs Mann's farm,where sevenpence-halfpenny's worth per week is a good round diet for a child; a great deal may be got for sevenpence-halfpenny, quite enough to overload its stomach and make it uncomfortable. The elderly female Mrs Mann appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them. Oliver is systematically starved for the next eight years. At the year of nine, he was a pale-thin child. Before Oliver Twist left the workhouse, Mrs Mann gave him what he wanted a great dial more, a piece of bread and butter, lest he should seem too hungry when he got to the workhouse. Also, Dickens put some attention on the scene of Oliver's asking for more food. A hungry boy asks for another bowl of thin gruel for mere survival, thus opposing the rigid workhouse system that is firmly controlled by the utilitarian spirit. The situation evokes in the readers a strong sense of sympathy towards the boy and a strong sense of horror against the system. Dickens aims to expose the brutal facts of how small boys in a workhouse were bullied, starved, and disposed of under a callous philosophy. He mounts a direct attack on the cold impersonality of the workhouse system representing the class people with hard-heart, tyranny and hypocrisy. (Wang Xiujuan,2009)Through a description of an society without humanity, Dickens show us his inter-world of humanity.In the novel, Dickens had once focus on the description of the scene that Oliver glisten at the mention of meat. Oliver trembles with eagerness to devour it when he saw the food for Mrs Sowerberry's dog. Dickens writes: I wish some well-fed philosopher, whose meat and drink turn to gall within him; whose blood is ice, whose heart is iron; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the dainty viands that the dog had neglected. I wish they could have witnessed the horrible avidity with which Oliver tore the bits asunder with all the ferocity of famine. There is only one thing I should like better; and that would be to see the philosopher making the same sort of meal himself, with the same relish(Oliver Twist).This is the direct express of Dickens's emotions about the poor Oliver Twist. He point out the big differences between poor and rich guys in England, with the comparison of the food the poor had and the riches' dog, he point the theme of his work.This is not only a poignant attack upon the cold-bloodness of the "well-fed philosopher", but also reflects Dickens's belief that the English industrialization was making the rich richer and the poor poorer in England. The injustices toward the poor in the Victorian Age not only infuriated Dickens, but ignited his humanistic passion to appeal to the administration and the ruling class to give up the predominant policy of Laissez Faire to take specific and effective measures to cope with the issue of the social relief. 3.2 Uneducated orphanIn the age of Dickens, children from poor families of the working class can not get a good and a formal education. Even if they enter the school, on the contrary, it is a torment for the children because they can not get any knowledge from the school. In the article<< David Copperfield>>, David is sent to a school named “Salem House”, and in this school there is a teacher called “Creakle” liking to abuse students. Another example, in the article <<Great Expectations>>, Pip can not get any knowledge from the country school. Oliver has the same situation as the other children. Oliver Twist starts with a story to present the ways in which oppressive social institutions mistreated children and turn them into thieves and criminals. In this literature, there are three representatives of the English workhouse system; they are Bumble, Mrs. Corney, and Mrs.Mann. To them, Oliver is simply a tool and he doesnt have any rights to accept education. These nameless orphans have no history, no life story and they are just the expression of the unequal society. After Oliver asserts himself to ask for more in the workhouse dining room, he is reluctantly apprenticed to Mr.Sowerberry. He meets Noah Claypole there, also employed by Sowerberry. Noah thinks he is more dignified than Oliver, so he taunts Oliver about his mother. In fact, he is also a shopboy like Oliver. He should have felt sympathy for Oliver, rather than animosity towards him. The bad circumstances lead Oliver to run away, and he finds his approach to London. In London, he meets the Artful Dodger, a boy criminal. Artful Dodger is a symbol of deserted children, who lack warm family love and education, and even are deprived of the rights for a member of the English society. He takes Oliver to Fagin, a receiver of stolen goods, and an old Jew who maintains a gang of juvenile pickpockets. There four or five boys were seated round beds made of old sacks, smoking long clay pipes. These boy criminals must be neglected by their families and society and they are uneducated. The existence of them gives a threat to the stability and the security of the society.