CHARLES DICKENS + OLIVER TWIST + plot GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica CHARLES DICKENS + OLIVER TWIST + plot GREAT EXPECTATIONS e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! CHARLES DICKENS He was born in Hempshire but his family moved to London when Charles was only 12. Here he started working in a factory 12 hours a day. His father financial situation was so bad that he was imprisoned as a debtor. Fortunately the family situation changed when Charles’ grandmother died, leaving them a small amount of money that sold their debts and let Charles’ father released from prison. Dickens obtained a formal education, then he worked as a freelance journalist. The success of his fist works published anonymously led him publish his first novels. Dickens’ most famous novels are Great Expectations, considered his best work; A Christmas Carol, the story of a cool-hearted man who become good and generous thanks to the visit of three spirits; Hard times which focuses on the oppressive effects that factory-life has on the character in the novel. Charles Dickens is considered one of the most prolific writers in English literature. His childhood poverty had a profound effect on him and his writings. This contributed to gave him an acute sensitivity towards the working class and its exploiment. Through his novels he exposed the inhumanities of his days using irony. Despite his social criticism, Dickens did not propose revolutionary changes but he suggested a moral solution as in his tales good overcome evil. Dickens’ novels are full of phatos, sentimentality and melodrama. He represents every human characteristic with a vast series of characters. For this reason he can be compared to Shakespeare but Dickens’s characters are caricatures, accentuating one specific human feature, be it avidity, pride or good. They’re called “flat” characters, they’re all good or all bad so we can say that they haven’t a psychological complexity. OLIVER TWIST Oliver Twist is one of the first novels in the English literature that focuses on a child protagonist and it was first published in 1837 in serial format. Set in the slums of London, the novel exposes the situation of the workhouses and the exploitation of children. The main themes are poverty, hunger, murder and blackmail. These are combined with moments of comic relief. THE PLOT. Oliver Twist is an orphan who lives until the age of nine in the parish orphanage but is then taken back into the workhouses where he was born to work for his food. In the workhouse, he shocks everyone by asking for more food, something never done before by any other child. Because of this, he’s sold for 5£ to work as an apprentice at an undertaker’s but this situation is no better than the workhouse so he decide to run away to London. There he makes friends with the Artful Dodger, a talented pick- pocket who takes him to Fagin’s den, in the slums of London. Fagin is who trains to these homeless boys to steal for him, helped by Bill Sikes and his girlfriend, Nancy, a prostitute. Oliver is forced to work as a thief and one night is shot trying to steal into a rich house. When the lady of the house, Mrs Maylie realises he is only a child she is shocked and decides to take care of him. Nancy visits Mrs Maylie to help Oliver and with the help of a gentleman Mr Brownlow they discover Oliver’s true identity and he is adopted by Mr Brownlow. Nancy is murdered by Bill Sikes for helping Oliver but he also dies and Fagin is captured by the police. The innocent young Oliver is saved and the villains are all punished. THE CHARACTERS Oliver is a young, good-hearted, and kind--but often mistreated--orphan who is raised in a workhouse, and finds himself indentured to an undertaker, living with thieves, and eventually taken in by the kind Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Maylie. His generosity of spirit is total, and even when faced with serious maltreatment, he never loses his sense of morality or kindness. Fagin. A very old man, with a villainous-looking and repulsive face, Fagin is the leader of a gang of boy thieves, and a very greedy and vicious man. It is Fagin who tries to turn Oliver into a thief, and who betrays Nancy to Sikes, leading to her death. Mr. Brownlow is a very respectable-looking elderly gentleman, who has had his heart broken many times, including losing his fiancee on the day of their wedding. He takes a liking to Oliver even after suspecting him of stealing his handkerchief, and takes him in, doing everything he can to help him. Nancy is a young woman and prostitute raised into that profession by Fagin. Nancy eventually betrays Fagin and Sikes to save Oliver, but she will not leave them, and pays her life for this decision