appunti di Inglese su Charles Dickens; Oliver Twist and Hard Times, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica appunti di Inglese su Charles Dickens; Oliver Twist and Hard Times e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Charles Dickens LIFE Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth (south England). He didn’t have a simple childhood, in fact his family constantly moved to follow the father who was a clerk in a navy office; his family also had money troubles, for which Charles was forced to leave school at the age of 10. When they moved to London in 1824, his father was sent to the Marshalsea Prison for debt, and everyone except Dickens had to go there. Instead Charles, who was 12 years old, was sent to work in a polish factory (blackening f.) in London where he was bullied and lived traumatic experiences. The financial situation improved and Charles returned to school, and by 1832 he was a very successful journalist and parliamentary reporter, as well as newspaper reporter; his pen name was Boz. In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth; they had 10 children 8 of whom survived into adulthood. Charles and Catherine also embarked on a five months lecture tour in the USA, because he became a novelist while still continuing his journalistic career. At a certain point Charles fell in love with Ellen Turner, but he couldn't actually divorce so he and his wife separated and never saw each other again. In the same period, near 1860, he took public readings. But in 1870 he had a stroke and died the next day. He is now buried in Westminster Abbey. LITERARY PRODUCTION Dickens first workes were published from 1836, they were stories about a group of people who meet to tell each other their adventures; the title is The Pickwick Papers. Between 1837 and 1857 he published sixteen novels in the form of serial publications. SOme of these are: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Hard Times. In this period he also published short stories such as A Christmas Carol, the most famous. His late novels, thought, were characterised by a condemnation of Victorian society and situation, and they also were characterised by the combination of different plots, genres and emotional moods; some of these works are Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friends. THEMES AND OBJECTIVE Charles Dickens main objective was to educate the society about its failings, in particular he wanted to catch the attention of the comfortable people who had the power to change things. This could have been possible by being seductive about serious things so readers didn’t get annoyed; he also wanted to use his own experience to get people to feel interested in to the plight of others by making them see what it would be like for them living that situation. We can deline some of the main themes of his novels that he chose in order to report the horrors of the society. Some of these are the evils of industrializing society, child labour, the working conditions in factories, viscious social snobbery and the inneficiency of government’s bureocracy. But we can also find another more positive theme which is the pleasures of home. OLIVER TWIST (1837-39) Oliver Twist was first published serially and then was published in a three-volume book. The novel was the first of the author’s works to realistically picture London’s underworld and to illustrate his belief that poverty leads to crime. the plot. Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse and he’s orphan since birth. He spends 9 years in the orphanage with too many children and too little food. He is then transferred to a workhouse where one day he asks for more soup after eating his first portion. Mr Bumble, the parish beadle, offers money to anyone who can take the boy out of the place but he manages to escape to London. Oliver soon finds himself in the presence of the Artful Dodger, who tells him to stay at the house of an “old gentleman” (named Fagin) with a number of other boys. Oliver learns that these boys are trained pickpockets. On an outing, Oliver witnesses the boys take a handkerchief from Mr. Brownlow, an elderly man, which prompts Oliver to run away in fear and confusion. The man mistakes Oliver’s behaviour for guilt and has him arrested. However, after learning more about Oliver, Mr. Brownlow realises his mistake and offers to take care of him at his home. Oliver assumes that he is now rid of Fagin and the pickpockets, but his knowledge of their crimes causes them to seek Oliver out. Nancy, the girlfriend of one of Fagin’s men, Bill Sikes, is sent to take Oliver from Mr. Brownlow back to Fagin. She does that and Oliver is sent on a burglary mission with another member of the group to the countryside around London. During this task, Oliver is shot in the arm and then is taken in by the family (the Maylies) that he attempted to rob. While he is there, Fagin and a man named Monks plot to get him back. Rose Maylie, while on a trip to London with her family, meets with Mr. Brownlow to talk with Nancy, who has slipped away from Sikes to explain the plans made by Monks and Fagin to get Oliver back. She describes Monks and tells them when he might most easily be apprehended. Unfortunately for Nancy, news of her betrayal reaches Sikes, and he beats her to death. The Maylies reunite Oliver with Mr. Brownlow, who forces Monks to explain himself. The reader and Oliver are then informed that Monks is Oliver’s half-brother and that Oliver is entitled to a large fortune left by his mother. He also learns that their father was unhappily married to a rich mother and had a love affair with Oliver’s mother, Agnes Flaming (this is why Monks was looking for him). Another discovery states that Rose is Agnes’ younger sister, and that makes her Oliver’s aunt. He receives his share of the money, Fagin is hung, and the Maylies, Oliver, and Mr. Brownlow move to the countryside where they spend the rest of their days together. the themes. This novel criticises the system of the workhouses and the general Victorian policy towards the poor: this is why Dickens chose that particular setting. Dickens also criticises the charity organisations established with the Poor Law for which poor could receive assistance only if they moved into workhouses. But workhouses, as we can see in the novel, were horrible places where children were separated from their families and put into forced labour, people had rationed food which often wasn’t enough; the principle on which workhouses were based is that poverty is caused by laziness. People who ran workhouses thought that this system would improve poors’ situation, but we know it wasn’t like that. In Oliver Twist there’s an evident contrast between the urban and the rural life: the city is a place of horrors, violence and injustices, while the rural reality is idealised and it seems to cure the vices of the city and purify the thoughts. So the novel describes the criminals in a realistic way, without romanticising that. But Dickens also uses Oliver’s character to reject the idea that poor and criminals are born evil and prove that this is actually connected to the corrupt environment. Although Oliver’s purity is idealised, it seems to appeal Victorian readers’ sentiments because at the end of the novel they discover he is a disinherited member of the middle class; this way Dickens is able to challenge their prejudices toward poor and criminals. JACOB’S ISLAND