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Victorian era literature
Victorian era literature
Victorian era literature
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Literature, readers and context (culture), the three research keys that shape knowledge. This knowledge is acquired by having the ability to suggest, deduce and interpret. In the process of this interaction, an English learner is met with a set of decoded textual lines that have a specific language ‘English’. The learner may lack to identify what the point is discussed in. For that, context is the needed piece to solve the puzzle. The question of whether to contextualize or texualize leads to a diversion in ideas, different theories were put into practice to synthesize the ideas in certain literary works. Moreover, in some cases, those texts hold a unique beliefs or ideologies. Learners are facing a more complex situation in which more …show more content…
Thus our aim is to analyze it to in order to detect and answer the major questions related to the study; to investigate how Charles Dickens’ ideology reflects his writing. In addition to that to seek how Dickens‘cultural values of Victorian are represented in Oliver Twist. Our study focuses mainly on the thematic feature and how the social values during 19 century exists and portrays in the novel referring mainly on social factors that influence Dickens’ experience, such as politics, economy, and social aspects in which we identify the real conditions at that …show more content…
To what extent can the reader’s cultural background foster the comprehension and interpretation Oliver Twist novel? Purpose of the study By presenting the significance of the prior knowledge especially the cultural schemata in reading comprehension.. Ultimately, our aim is to shed the beam on the importance of cultural knowledge in understanding and interpreting literary text to achieve high comprehension for the novel. Aim of the Study The objectives for conducting this study: To evaluate the extent to which cultural background can help in interpreting Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. To encourage readers to consider the cultural aspects in reading a literary text in order to increase their personal cultural awareness. Research Hypothesis Based on the research question mentioned above, we state the following hypothesis: The Victorian values have an impact on the cultural aspects introduced in” Oliver Twist” and the reader’s prior knowledge. Cultural Schemata enhance and increase the comprehension of the literary text.
reader creates “supplementary meaning” to the text by unconsciously setting up tension, also called binary opposition. Culler describes this process in his statement “The process of thematic interpretation requires us to move from facts towards values, so we can develop each thematic complex, retaining the opposition between them” (294). Though supplementary meaning created within the text can take many forms, within V...
Understanding the experiences of one’s past may inspire the decisions that will lead the course of one’s life. Charles Dickens’s childhood was overwhelming and had many difficult phases. It is truly impressive for a young boy to support his family, mostly on his own, and be able to maintain a suitable education. These hardship episodes may have been difficult for him, but it made him who he had always wanted to be. Eventually, he had been known as one of the most significant writers since Shakespeare.
Set in the Victorian era, Sense and Sensibility and Oliver Twist, parallel but also contrast in many key elements. In both movies, mannerisms, class distinction, and the child's role in society were reflected by both writers. Through these analysis, I was able to achieve new insight into the conditions of the Victorian era.
middle of paper ... ... Understanding the relationship between environment and morality—indifference and depravity—Dickens evaluated what the system does to a person, how it classifies, how it deforms. Fagin manages the underworld, connoting corruption as an entertaining, enjoyable, and artful game not only because of his intrinsic craftiness, but also because it is the only way he knows to survive. Exploiting his audience's attitudes, Dickens shaped a character with religious stereotypes to ensure that his readers could recognize the absolute evil it had bore through its ignorance and apathy--poverty is a product of a societal environment. Work Cited Dickens, Charles.
Charles Dickens used Great Expectations as a forum for presenting his views of human nature. This essay will explore friendship, generosity, love, cruelty and other aspects of human nature presented by Dickens over 100 years ago.
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last novel, exposes the reality Dickens is surrounded by in his life in Victorian England. The novel heavily displays the corruption of society through multiple examples. These examples, that are planted within the novel, relate to both the society in Dickens' writing and his reality. In order to properly portray the fraud taking place within his novels, Dickens' uses morality in his universe to compare to the reality of society. He repetitively references to the change of mind and soul for both the better and the worst. He speaks of the change of heart when poisoned by wealth, and he connects this disease to the balance of the rich and the poor. This is another major factor to novel, where the plot is surrounded by a social hierarchy that condemns the poor to a life of misery, and yet, condones any action that would normally be seen as immoral when it occurs in the aristocracy. It expands on the idea that only an education and inheritance will bring success in society, with few exceptions. Lastly, Dickens expands his opinions of society through his mockery of ...
In conclusion, I would say that the power of literature is connoted exactly in this unparalleled symbolic order of language that can never produce or pin down a definite meaning but nevertheless passes on "the desire and curse of meaning”. It is what the transcendent signification of the text that leaves the reader always anticipating and curious and at the same time delighted from the pleasure this play of the authors brings to her/him. On the other hand there is always this uncanny component of meaning that cannot be clarified or rationalized but nevertheless is an intrinsic part to our reading experience.
Charles Dickens is a Victorian author and literary genius known for writing many classics, creating memorable characters, intriguing storylines, and rendering thought-provoking themes and messages in his novels and short stories; to many, he is even considered as one the greatest authors of all time. “Dickensian” is a term used to describe anything that is reminiscent of Dickens or his writings. Dickens is admired for his social criticism, realism, writing style, unique characterizations, linguistic creativity, comedy, and continues to be widely popular today, leaving an incredible legacy behind.
Great Expectations and Oliver Twist are representative of the works produced by Charles Dickens over his lifetime. These novels exhibit many similarities - perhaps because they both reflect painful experiences that occurred in Dickens' past.
"The Victorians were avowedly, unashamedly, incorrigibly moralists. They . . . engaged in philanthropic enterprises in part to satisfy their own moral needs. And they were moralists in behalf of the poor, whom they sought not only to assist materially but also to elevate morally, spiritually, culturally, and intellectually . . . ." (Himmelfarb 48(8)). Charles Dickens used characterization as the basis of his pursuit of this moral goal in the serialized Oliver Twist. His satyr was meant to draw parallels to the dark side of an era of British progress. One side of progress is wealth, the other side of the same coin is poverty, despair, misery and crime. Dickens allegorized evil in contrast to good through characterization and melodrama. "Most of the moral judgments of the reader are pre-made for him or her. As a result, the reader objectively absorbs the moral lessons Dickens has set forth" (Stoddard).
The main focus of Dickens’ novel is the French Revolution. This was a tragic time that took place between the years of seventeen eighty-nine and seventeen ninety-nine. It was the lower class revolting against the corrupt authoritarian government. The ideals that the French stood for were liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Dickens uses this for the background of his novel. Marie Shephard once said that Dickens was helped by his friend Carlyle for a background on the French Revolution, and tried to focus more on the plot than a character (51). Another historian said that “the French Revolution exists in the novel only insofar as Dickens’s characters vivify it, live through it, react to it, and make its reality manifest to the reader”(Allingham). Dickens understood this and used it to help him write the novel, and to help us in understanding it.
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.
This book includes stark criticisms of many aspects of Victorian society such as child labor and class structure. He criticizes class structure by portraying other characters’ cruelty and corruption as an impediment from Copperfield’s discovery from himself. Dickens depicts an evil character as someone who is a result of their experiences such as James Steerforth or Uriah Heep or as someone who is inherently evil such as Mr. Murdstone. Also, Dickens is able to create a contrast between the evil of these characters and the warmth and goodness characterizing the people on Copperfield’s side. By comparing their characters, Dickens further emphasizes the difference between the two sides and “provides a forum for Dickens's views of the inherent nature of evil as well as a critique of a society that enables and shapes this darker side of humanity”(Miline, 102). Dickens sheds light on the negative parts of the Victorian class sytem and how it created the people Copperfield met in his life. Dickens strengthens his position on class differences in a variety of ways. Although he displays his clear disapproval, Dickens seems “to have mixed feelings about class consciousness as he has David maintain some distance from the Peggottys, but he portrays this family with an honesty and goodness of nature that is lacking in many upper-class characters” (Miline, 94). Despite clear signs of his disapproval, Dickens refuses to entirely condemn class differences because he acknowledges that it will always exist. For example, when Copperfield becomes a gentleman, he stays slightly aloof of the Peggottys due to their class differences and Dickens’ personal experiences during his lifetime as a successful author with taste of the lifestyle of the upper
can be seen in Oliver Twist, a novel about an orphan, brought up in a workhouse and poverty to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the upper class people. Oliver Twist shows Dickens' perspective of society in a realistic, original manner, which hope to change society's views by "combining a survey of the actual social scene with a metaphoric fiction designed to reveal the nature of such a society when exposed to a moral overview" (Gold 26). Dickens uses satire, humorous and biting, through pathos, and stock characters in Oliver Twist to pr...
“Charles Dickens: Great Expectations.” (2 Feb, 2006): 2. Online. World Wide Web. 2 Feb, 2006. Available http://www.uned.es/dpto-filologias-extranjeras/cursos/LenguaIglesaIII/TextosYComentarios/dickens.htm.