The Perils of Certain English Prisoners: Dickens' Defensive Fantasy of Imperial Stability
Note: "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" consists of three chapters. Chapters one and three consist of material written by Dickens, whilst chapter two comprises the work of Wilkie Collins', completed under the auspices of Dickens. As the material under consideration in this essay is taken from the first and third chapters, and considering Dickens' creative control over the second chapter, "Perils" has been discussed as a Dickens text.
Imperial Britain, Dickens and the Culture of Negated Alterity
'Colonial literature,' Abdul JanMohammed writes, 'is an exploration and a representation of a world at the boundaries of "civilisation," a world that has not (yet) been domesticated by European signification or codified in detail by its ideology. That world is therefore perceived as uncontrollable, chaotic, unattainable and ultimately evil' (18). In the wake of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Dickens' fictional response to that event, "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners," reflected both a culture of desired vengeance against the mutineers, and Dickens' sympathy with that viewpoint. This stance entailed a rejection of the then Governor of India Lord Canning's call for an initial period of discipline, followed by 'discrimination' to be shown toward the mutineers in the form of clemency (Oddie 3), and of Disraeli who 'spoke with considerable sympathy of the Mutiny as a justifiable Indian protest against British harshness' (Hutchins 80). Joining the vitriolic criticism of this viewpoint expressed by The Timesand the majority of the public, Dickens dismissed the governing forces in India for procrastinating and failing to protect British subjects in India (Oddie 4). The Mutiny was a direct threat to Victorian values transposed to India, embodied in the aforementioned British subjects: consider the 'almost universal demand for bloody revenge on the mutineers'(Oddie 3), for their reported brutality toward British women and children, which 'was the most direct outrage imaginable against the whole Victorian concept of women as pure and violable, the source of the sanctity of hearth and home' (Oddie 6).
This analysis of "Perils" will discuss the text as a manifestation of a disharmonious marriage of ragged defensive fantasy on Dickens' behalf, against the background of the reality of the predominating colonial framework: the discussion will aim to highlight the paradoxical Other negating tunnel vision through which the British colonial project felt both the balance and imbalance of its status as "colonial master." The terms "imperial" and "colonial" will be used according to Said's definitions in Culture and Imperialism:therefore ' "imperialism" means the practices, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory.
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Paul at some points thinks about his old town he had lived in, Houston, but each time it is brought up it either is much different compared to the town Tangerine or very much alike every once in a blue moon. When Paul refers to his old town, it mostly describes bad memories. In a way to relate, it is like someone gets lost in the sea but then gets rescued. The person would still have memories of being lost, it’s just that they're not living anymore. That is the same thing with Paul, remembering things that he wished he never knew.
The contemporary reviewers of Bleak House fall into two categories when discussing its structure. There are those who like it and there are those who do not. More specifically, those who dislike the novel’s construction complain of the absence of plot and lack of connection between characters and their actions. Opposing this view are the reviewers who find the characters in Bleak House remarkably intertwined in the story, especially since it was written as a series for a literary magazine.
Love could have saved Paul in Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," but love does not find Paul. It is withheld within the hearts of all the people that could have shown affection toward Paul. Although Paul's life ends in suicide, Paul's English teacher, Charley Edwards, or Paul's father could have prevented his premature death.
Paul's appearance does not change over time, but his unchanging style shows a certain independence amongst his character. In the book, he truly shows that the content of someone's character is worth more than someone's appearance. A great example of this logic would be when Paul is picked on by Erik and his friends for wearing his thick glasses and calling him "Eclipse Boy." The ridiculing didn't bother Paul much because he was more hurt by the fact that his brother would not stand up for him and chose to laugh instead.
In Paul’s Case, Willa Cather writes about a young man's unhappiness with his lifestyle, he is awkward, does not fit into his skin different and does not fit into society,his desire to have to more than what he already and to leave Cornelia street to live a lifestyle of wealth, Cather characterizes Paul as very awkward and as someone that does not fit into the normal norms of society. He was not close to his family and had no friends at school or outside of school. At the biggin on the story we are reading in the third person point of view and we are hearing how his his teachers see paul and are discussing about his weird ways and actions.“I don't really believe that smile of his comes altogether from insolence, “he says. “There's something
Paul wanted to gain the love his mother more than anything. He chose to conform to the path of luck. While pursing this personal desire, he became overwhelmed with in it and this ultimately led to his demise. If he would have been able to control his desire it may have been able to save him from tragedy. When an individual chooses to conform to meet the ideals of another individual in order to achieve there own personal desire, they can not sacrifice everything for that persons ideals because it can often result in tragedy.
Swisher, Clarice, Ed. “Charles Dickens: A Biography.” Readings on Charles Dickens. San Diego, Greenhaven Press, 1998. Print. 21 March 2014.
Rawlins, Jack P. "Great Expectations: Dickens and the Betrayal of the Child." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 23 (1983): 667-683.
Barickman, Richard, Susan MacDonald, and Myra Stark. “Dickens." In Corrupt Relations: Dickens, Thakeray, Trollope, Collins, and the Victorian Sexual System. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, 59-110.
Comparing the time in which Dickens lived to that of which we live in today, we can see how noticeable the change in society is. From the way we treat children, how we treat the poor, our view on social hierarchy, to our perception of the way we live. People in Dickens’ time were happy with their way of live, and didn’t see that anything should be changed. Their treatment of children was not deemed as wrong; it was the general view that children did not deserve the s...
Johnson, Edgar. “Preface.” Charles Dickens His Tragedy and Triumph. Ed. Edgar Johnson. Vol. 1. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1952. VII-X. Print. 2 vols.
Christ, Carol T., Catherine Robson, Stephen Greenblatt, and M. H. Abrams. The Prisoner. A Fragment. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. E. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &, 2006. 1315-316. Print.
History has not only been important in our lives today, but it has also impacted the classic literature that we read. Charles Dickens has used history as an element of success in many of his works. This has been one of the keys to achievement in his career. Even though it may seem like it, Phillip Allingham lets us know that A Tale of Two Cities is not a history of the French Revolution. This is because no actual people from the time appear in the book (Allingham). Dickens has many different reasons for using the component of history in his novel. John Forster, a historian, tells us that one of these reasons is to advance the plot and to strengthen our understanding of the novel (27). Charles Dickens understood these strategies and could use them to his advantage.