Charles Dickens' Social Exploration in Novels: Oliver Twist & Jane Eyre, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Charles Dickens' Social Exploration in Novels: Oliver Twist & Jane Eyre e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Transcendetalism Transcendetalism is the truly American literature that arises in this time To transcend=go beyond 1. The belief in an over-soul, which means that everything (every human being and every thing on earth) are linked by this soul. 2. Connected to point 1, it means that the main focus is on human capabilities. Transcendentalists believed in the power of the individual and pushed for a more independent and self-reliant individual. 3. Man has to cultivate himself and educate himself. It means that mankind’s abilities are in a position of prevalence over reason ( and so they are more important than the laws given by the State). State is subordinate to the individual=the individual comes first. 4. Man has to build a connection with nature, the place where he really could find himself and understand his potentialities. All those points were made by Ralph Waldo Emerson who published ‘Over-Soul’ in 1841 and ‘Nature’ in 1836. Henry David Thoreau followed Emerson’s beliefs. ‘Walden, or life in the woods’ in 1854. In this books he describes how he lived in the woods near Walden Pond, in Massachussets, for nearly 2 years by leading a solitary life and basing his diet on what he found and what he was able to grow. Another publication by Thoreau was ‘Civil Disobedience’ in 1849 which is directly linked to point 3 because it talked about the rights to going against the State and the laws if these two prevented men from cultivating themselves. Dickens is the most famous novelist of the 19th century. Dickens experienced early childhood labour because he started to work in a factory when he was just 12 years old, as his father was put in prison. But then he managed to study going to London and he started to work there: first as on office boy at a lawyer’s and later as shorthand reporter = stenografo in Parliament. Later he started to work as a journalist as well and started to write too. His career began as a shorthand roperter (stenografo) in Parliament and later he finally became a journalist. His main works: ‘The Pickwick Papers’ published in 1836 which gave him the possibility to be a full-time novelist. Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850, novel of formation), Hard Times (1854) and Great Expectations (1861). Main themes: - children’s exploitation and the life of poor in the slums - living conditions of both the poor and working class (always putting them in relation with the middle class. He couldn’t be against the middle class, he sympathized for them as well because his readers belonged to the middle class). He died in 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the Poet’s Corner (London), together with Chaucer, Kipling and T. Hardy. Dickens focused his novels on the most realistic class of his time: the working class, in particular characters and families that belonged to it. Dickens’s peculiarity was creating every-day characters (simple characters) like shopkeepers, housekeepers, tradesmen whose habits were exaggerated to create interest while always being ironic. In this way Dickens wanted to arise readers’ interest. He sided for the same characters that he depicted: children and poor. The presence of children characters was a common feature in his novels. Children were often opposed to (grown-up) adult characters: these adults often were the same children’s parents. Dickens showed that children had more to teach than to learn from their parents/from adults in general. Children were the moral teachers in a reversal of the natural order of things. The main aim of Dickens was to make his readers (the middle class) and the class he belonged to (the working class) understand each other, because in real life, in Victorian Age, the two classes lived separate life, as if they didn’t see each other. So, Dickens wanted to put the two class in contact. He wanted to make the ruling class (the middle class) aware (consapevole) of the social context in which their neighbours (working class) lived, without offending them (those who belonged to the middle class) because he couldn’t show that he was against his same readers. At the same time, he didn’t want to cause social unrests (agitazioni sociali) or rebellions. Dickens is considered the greatest English novelist because he could provide the most powerful descriptions of life and of people using an effective language to arise interest while always being ironic. Plot=trama OLIVER TWIST The novel tells the story of Oliver, an orphan born in a workhouse (following the Poor Laws introduced by Queen Victoria in 1834). At the beginning, Dickens spends some time describing such places and the way in which children like Oliver are treated there. Oliver lives in the workhouse until the day in which he asks for more food because he is hungry. But the caretaker (the woman who runs the workhouse) refuses to give him more food and offers Oliver to un undertaker (becchino) to take him away with him. Oliver goes with the undertaker but he is unhappy there and somehow he manages to escape to the city of London. Once there, Oliver steps into a gang of pickpockets (borseggiatori) and shoplifters (ladri) led by a criminal called Fagin. He is taken into the gang and trained but Oliver is not a successful burglar and during his first attempt he is discovered by Mr. Brownlow. However, Brownlow (the owner of the house) feels pity for Oliver and decides to take care of him. But that gang is not ok with it. Oliver is followed by the gang and brought back to their place, where they start to plan a house robbery. They rob the house but something goes wrong because during the rubbery Oliver is shot and again the people he was supposed to rob take care of him. He spends some time in this house but later he is again taken by Mr. Brownlow. At the same time, the gang tries to ruin Oliver’s reputation. They do so because the find that Oliver’s has a heritage (eredità) that belongs to him. The know that because a guy called Monks has entered the gang. Monks is Oliver’s stepbrother. Knowing about the heritage they try to ruin his reputation in order to take She attends Lowood School, a strict school where her life is far from idyllic. Life at Lowood School is not as she had thought it would be. There, the headmaster is a cruel and hypocritical man who teaches a doctrine of poverty and privation to his students while using the school’s money to provide his family with a wealthy (benestante) and opulent lifestyle. Jane becomes friends with Helen at school. However, a massive typhus epidemic hits Lowood: Helen dies of consumption and the schoolmaster moves away while he is substituted by a group of gentlemen who improve life at the school. At this point, Jane is willing to remain. She spends eight more years at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher and then she decides to make a new experience: tired of her life, she accepts a governess position at a wealthy family’s house called Thornfield. Unfortunately, Jane falls in love with her employer at Thornfield, Mr. Rochester. After covering/hiding the relationship for a while, Rochester proposes to Jane, who accepts happily. They prepare the wedding but during the ceremony a man called Mr. Mason warns (avverte) that Rochester already has a wife and that he himself is the brother of that wife, a woman named Bertha. Mr. Mason claims (afferma) that Bertha, whom Rochester married when he was a young man in Jamaica, is still alive. Rochester does not deny Mason’s claims, but he explains that Bertha has gone mad. Jane is extremely disappointed and, knowing that it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, flees (scappa da) Thornfield. She finds lodging at Moor House with her three cousins: one of them is St. John, a clergyman who plans to travel to India that later proposes to Jane. She refuses the proposal because she is not in love with him: this action is very courageous for women during Victorian age. He proposes again and she is on the point to accept when Rochester goes to Moor House during night time. Jane understands that she is still in love with him and goes back to Thornfield. However, she finds that the house has been burned by Bertha Mason, Rochester’s mad wife, who also lost her life in the fire. Rochester, in the attempt to save her and the servants, has lost his eyesight (vista) and one of his hands. So, Jane travels on to Rochester’s new residence, Ferndean. At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane rebuild their relationship and soon she accepts to marry him. At the end of her story, Jane writes that they have been married for ten years and that they enjoy perfect equality in their life together. Finally, she says that after the birth of their first child, Rochester recovered from blindness (ha recuperato dalla cecità). WOMEN FELL JUST AS MEN FEEL: PAG 57 DA RIGA 42 ALLA FINE: qui viene discussa la condizione delle donne: Jane accuses the society of the Victorian Age, which considers women as inferior to men. Victorian society is led by men and it's based on a masculine mindset. This sex attitude doesn't leave any space for women who are confined to cook in the kitchen or the knit in the living room. Jane challenges this idea because she wants to do more. She thinks the women deserve (meritano) more than this. JANE AND ROCHESTER: PAG 59 DA RIGA 24 A 39 CIRCA Even if she still loves him after discovering about Bertha (his wife), she believes she can leave him because she posses her soul. It means that she posseses reason and conscience.