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Symbolism in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Symbolism in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Symbolism in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
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Sissy Jupe: More Than Just A Number
In Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, he uses the characters to present the reader with many messages. One of these messages presented is that the Gradgrind system of education is faulty. Dickens is critical of an education system that only regards things that can be weighed or measured as being worthy. Thus, intangibles like imagination, emotion, and compassion are not considered worthy. The Gradgrind system of education can be seen as flawed through the examples of Sissy Jupe. The lack of individuality and creativity can be proven to be detrimental to those who ascribe to the Gradgrind system, which denies anything that isn't factual. Sissy's caring; thoughts of fancy, and individualism have kept her from long-term sorrow, pity and loneliness. The Gradgrind system is also proven as flawed through Sissy in that her caring and ingenuity helps the other characters potentially realize how they have let the system flaw them. Also, Sissy's ability to ward of the system's teachings will prove useful and helping others escape the system, be it short term.
In the schoolroom scene, Sissy starts to show how the Gradgrind system only relies on fact. As Dickens describes the schoolroom, we see the following contrast: "But, whereas the girl was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to received a deeper and more lustrous color from the sun when it shone upon her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the self-same rays appeared to draw out of him what little color he ever possessed" (Dickens 7). Sissy is full of color and vitality because she lives a life that is full of imagination and compassion. This is in opposition to the other children who have been "bleached" of all imaginativ...
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...rning out replication after replication, and exactness, she has exemplified what a Victorian woman should be: "extraordinary devotion (especially to a needy male), remarkable love-based power of intuition, firm but modest assertion of heart-felt values, great spiritual strength and endurance" (Cowles 439). Thus, Sissy is the ultimate proof of why the Gradgrind system is a horrible system that produces sorrow in its numbers.
Works Cited
Cowles, David L. "Having It Both Ways: Gender and Paradox in Hard Times." Kaplan and Monod 439-44
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. Fred Kaplan and Sylvere Monod. A Norton Critical Edition. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 2001. 5-222
Leavis, F.R. "Hard Times: An Analytic Note." Kaplan and Monod 364-84
Lodge, David. "How Successful Is Hard Times?" Kaplan and Monod 400-9
Shaw, Bernard. "Hard Times." Kaplan and Monod 357-63
...ild, when he would hide and daydream, up until his first years of college, when he would avoid areas that were difficult, the author recognized that there was important link between challenging the student on a meaningful level and the degree to which the student eventually produced. “I felt stupid telling them I was… well – stupid.” (Rose 43) Here, Rose shows an example of how poor preparation and low standards in the classroom can make a student feel inadequate. Indeed, one can see how many things seemingly unrelated do affect a student’s ability to learn.
Here, Dickens focuses on the word “suffering”, to reinforce the idea that being wealthy, which is related to being better than other, a materialistic view of society is not what gives happiness, but the surroundings and
Betsy Lucal, "What it means to be gendered me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System."
As humans we are affected by our environment, either the social aspects, or the location of residence, or interior of the world we live in. These effects can either be positive to one’s nature or deteriorating to one’s morals. When we look at the substantial impacts of a positive culture, such as the enlightenment that boosted the intelligence and desire to learn of expanding countries all around, we see that it can truly make a difference. On the other hand, if a child is raised in a cruel environment or drug ridden neighborhood, they to will most likely follow in the path. So our society and environment greatly impacts our human behavior and thoughts, this is especially shown in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter throughout the moral and physical changes in Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl.
Price, Martin. ed., Dickens: A Collection of Critical Essays Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967
Gross, John. "A Tale of Two Cities." Dickens and the Twentieth Century. Ed. John Gross and Gabriel Pearson. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962. 187-97.
In this essay, I will argue that one of the underlying motives in Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the reinforcement of Christian values in 18th century Victorian England. Dickens was very concerned with the accepted social norms of industrialized England, many of which he felt were very inhumane. Christian values were challenged, largely due to the recent publication of Darwin's Origins of a Species, and philosophy along with literature was greatly affected. In 1859, the industrial age was booming, making many entrepreneurs rich. However, the majority of the lower economic class remained impoverished, working in unsafe and horrific environments as underpaid factory workers. Additionally, child labor was an accepted practice in Victorian England's factories. Dickens, who worked, as a child in a shoe polish factory, detested this social convention with such strength that only one with experience in such exploitation could.
12. Oldham, R. (2000) Charles Dickens’ Hard Times: Romantic Tragedy of Proletariat Propaganda [Online]. Available: http://www.pillowrock.com [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
Dickens, Charles. A Norton Critical Edition: Charles Dickens Oliver Twist.? Ed. Fred Kaplan. New York: Norton & Company, 1993.
He felt extremely unfit for his identity when he began to watch pornographic movies in his office, so he lied to his boss that it was his assistant who watched it on his computer. Furthermore, he blatantly shouted at his assistant as if he was punishing himself for the dirty movies that he watches in his office. The director deliberately covers the unblinking truth contained in the character’s sexual urge as a way to allow interpretation for the audience. It is easy to get lost in one’s identity in the society, and the availability of sex has made people lost interest in what is ordinary and acceptable. Sissy as an intruder of Brandon’s life insinuates the monstrosity that devours his personality and interrupts his identity to make him feel desperate and scared for his unconscious sexual attempt of his sister. The incest delusion triggers Brandon’s monstrosity that lays within his inability to suppress his addiction to sex, dual personality, and repetition trauma occurrences in the extremity
Dickens' Attitude towards Education in Hard Times In the first chapter, Dickens introduces us with a glimpse of the story, with a descriptive insight into the school and its policies. We are not revealed the names of the characters in the opening chapter, but it introduces the schoolmaster by mere description of character and appearance. This, rather than introducing us by name, gives us a close and detailed description of one of the main characters, the schoolmaster, his views and manifestation of the school itself. This will help us understand the schoolmaster, Mr Gradgrind, and brings us to a clear understanding of his most important policy, a constant motif throughout the chapters, ‘Facts’.
Macmillan Master Guides: Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Macmillan Education Ltd, London ("Romanticism (literature)," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.) Watt, I. Ed. (1963) Jane
Dickens knew how hard-pressed life was for thousands of English families in mid-ninteenth century England, and he knew the legal side of such desperation--a jungle of suspicion and fear and hate. He was especially attentive [if] . . . hungry, jobless men, women, children with few if any prospects became reduced to a fate not only marginal with respect to its "socioeconomic" character but also with respect to its very humanity. (575)
Carswell, Beth. “11 Charles Dickens Facts.” Abe Books’ Reading Copy. 1996. Web. 28 March 2014.
When considering representation, the ways in which the authors choose to portray their characters can have a great impact on their accessibility. A firm character basis is the foundation for any believable novel. It is arguable that for an allegorical novel - in which Hard Times takes its structure, Dickens uses an unusually complex character basis. The characters in Hard Times combine both the simplistic characteristics of a character developed for allegorical purposes, as well as the concise qualities of ‘real’ people (McLucas, 1995). These characters are portrayed to think and feel like we as readers do and react to their situations in the same way that most of us would. Such attributes are what give the characters life and allow us to relate to their decisions.