Scarica Dickens' Themes in Modern Film & TV: Oliver Twist, Bleak House, & A Christmas Carol e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Pag. 294 n. 2 These are the posters of the most recent film or TV adaptations of Dickens’ novels. What do they reveal about: 1. the main themes of Dickens’ novels? 2. the element of Dickens’ novels that attract the contemporary audience? 3. the setting of Dickens’ novels? OLIVER TWIST: The novel is set in early 19th-century England where it was in force the Poor Law (since 1834) that established that all the people who could not provide for themselves had to go to a workhouse. In the first part of the novel, Charles Dickens challenges the organizations of charity run by the church and the government: the workhouses operated on the principle that poverty was the consequence of laziness and that the hard conditions in the workhouse would inspire the poor to better. The economic dislocation of the Industrial Revolution made it impossible for many to do their own jobs and the workhouses did not provide any means for social or economic betterment. Dickens then wants to underline how the officials of these workhouses violated the fundamental rights of the poor, we therefore find one of the firstthemes developed by the author: the failure of charity. The Victorian capitalists believed that society would run better if individuals looked out for their own business, so another important theme is the theme of individualism. Another of the themes that can be found in Oliver Twist is the purity of the soul in a corrupted society. the author asks himself and the readers if an obscure environment has the power to darken the soul of a person. A modern day theme of the book is the plague in the society given by organized crime and gang criminality, ofwhich the same Oliver ended up being part of. BLEAK HOUSE: Most of the action of Bleak House takes place in or near London around 1850. The London street scenes are in the Holborn District and the descriptions of the landscape are completely authentic. Many of the characters in Bleak House are involved in a notorious lawsuit known as Jamdyce and Jamdyce, which has been in dispute in the court of Chancery for several generations. Dickens uses his descriptions of Chancery and the effects that a large lawsuit like the one that Jamdyce and Jarndyce has, is able to demonstrate that the Chancery court is an outdated and corrupt institution and not an effective way of finding the truth in legal disputes. The 19th century was a period in which philanthropy was considered extremely important and fashionable. Dickens was an important social campaigner and through Bleak House he wants to demonstrate that individual acts of kindness are more effective than the philanthropic missions to improve society. A theme that can be considered actual is the theme of identity and appearance: appearances can be deceiving in Bleak House and the identity that a person presents to the world does not necessarily represent their real personality. Dickens wants to demonstrate that appearances should not always be trusted, and that inner beauty is always preferable to false sentiments. A CHRISTMAS CAROL: The story takes place in London on Christmas Eve. One of the most important themes of the novel is Social Injustice: at that time the rich had an enormously luxurious lifestyle and were able to take advantage of the latest inventions meanwhile the majority of the population was much poorer and lived on the edge of starvation and were largely ignored by the government. Dickens wanted to revive and celebrate Christmas as a “kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time” and decided to use this festivity because during the Christmas holidays people brushed aside differences in income and status that divided the entire population into rich and poor. The author deals with many other themes that can be considered actual, likew the importance of home and family or the social isolating effects of the progress of society.
