1、Critical Realism in the Victorian Age,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Charles Dickens,Victorian Novelists,Charlotte Bront,Emily Bront,Chronologically the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria over England from 1836 to 1901.,In literature, the early
2、 Victorian age can be said to be the age of critical realism. The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the early fifties.,William M. Thackeray,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The Victorian Age & critical realism,The critical realists described w
3、ith much vividness and artistic skill the chief trait of the English society, and they criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of the social reality of that time.The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical
4、portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Charles Dickens (1812-1870),Without doubt the most popular of Victorian writers was Charles Dickens. From modest origins this clerk
5、to Hansard became a world figure. His combination of sentimentality and his attacks on the social evils of the day made him highly successful. His readings added to his fame but hastened his death.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies,
6、 SCNU,Charles Dickens,Oliver Twist David Copperfield Great ExpectationsA Tale of Two Cities,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Oliver Twist 雾都孤儿,It is Dickenss first true novel. The language in Oliver Twist isnt hard to understand, and neither is the imagery and symbolism. This si
7、mplicity has helped to make Oliver Twist a very satisfying book to read.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The Story,The first eleven chapters cover Olivers story from his birth to his rescue by Brownlow. The 2nd section, Chapters 12 through 39, is complicated by the introduction
8、 of many new characters and events. Here Oliver is kidnapped, robberies are planned, and romances develop. Monks and Fagin plot to destroy Oliver. In the final chapters, from XL to LIII, all of the unanswered questions about Olivers background are answered and he is finally rescued once and for all.
9、 The good characters are rewarded with the promise of future happiness, and the evil ones are punished.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Oliver Twist Chapter II,Oliver is sent to a branch-workhouse. The overseer, Mrs. Mann, receives an adequate sum for each childs upkeep, but sh
10、e keeps most of the money and lets the children go hungry, sometimes even letting them die. On Olivers 9th birthday, Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, informs Mrs. Mann that Oliver is too old to stay at her establishment and must return to the workhouse. Before Oliver departs, Mrs. Mann gives him some
11、bread and butter so that he will not seem too hungry at the workhouse. One night at dinner, the children at the workhouse cast lots, determining that whoever loses shall be required to ask for more food for the boy. Oliver loses, and is to ask for more food at supper. His request so shocks the autho
12、rities that they offer five pounds as a reward to anyone who will take Oliver off of their hands.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Oliver Twist Chapter III,In the parish, Oliver has been flogged and then locked in a dark room as a public example. Mr. Gamfield, a brutish chimney
13、sweep, offers to take Oliver on as an apprentice. Because several boys have died under his supervision, the board considers five pounds too large a reward, and they settle on just over three pounds. Mr. Bumble, Mr. Gamfield, and Oliver appear before a magistrate to seal the bargain. At the last minu
14、te, the magistrate notices Olivers pale, alarmed face. He asks the boy why he looks so terrified. Oliver falls on his knees and begs that he be locked in a room, beaten, killed, or any other punishment besides being apprenticed to Mr. Gamfield. The magistrate refuses to approve the apprenticeship, a
15、nd the workhouse authorities again advertise Olivers availability.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Outrage at injustice,Dickens attacked the social evils of his times such as poor houses, unjust courts, greedy management and the underworld. Oliver Twist is an extreme criticism
16、of Victorian societys treatment of the poor. In this part of the story, Dickens shows his outrage at injustice by describing the condition prevailing in the workhouse.In the narrative, the workhouse functions as a sign of the moral hypocrisy of the working class. Mrs. Mann steals from the children i
17、n her care, feeding and clothing them inadequately. Workhouses were established to save the poor from starvation, disease, and filth, but in fact they end up visiting precisely those hardships on the poor.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Middle-class Hypocrisy & Brutality,The a
18、ssumption on the part of the middle-class characters that the lower classes are naturally base, criminal, and filthy serves to support their vision of themselves as a clean and morally upright social group. The gentlemen on the workhouse board call Oliver a “savage” who is destined for the gallows.
19、After Olivers outrageous request for more food, the board schemes to apprentice him to a brutal master, hoping that he will soon die. So even when the upper classes claim to be alleviating the lower-class predicament, they only end up aggravating it. In order to save Oliver from what they believe to
20、 be his certain fate as a criminal, the board essentially ensures his early death by apprenticing him to a brutal employer.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Dickens Artistry,Dickens achieves his biting criticism of social conditions through deep satire and hyperbolic statements.
21、 Throughout the novel, absurd characters and situations are presented as normal, and Dickens often says the opposite of what he really means. For example, in describing the men of the parish board, Dickens writes that “they were very sage, deep, philosophical men” who discover about the workhouse th
22、at “the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there was nothing to pay. . . .” Of course, we know that Olivers experience with the workhouse is anything but entertaining and that the men of the parish board are anything but “sage,
23、 deep,” or “philosophical.”,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Dickens Humour,By making statements such as these, Dickens highlights the comical extent to which the upper classes are willfully ignorant of the plight of the lower classes. Since paupers like Oliver stand no chance o
24、f defeating their tormenters, Dickens takes it upon himself to defeat them with sly humor that reveals their faults more sharply than a serious tone might have. Though Oliver himself will never have much of a sense of humor, we will eventually meet other boys in his situation who will join Dickens i
25、n using humor as a weapon in their woefully unequal struggle with the society that oppresses them.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The Bront sisters,Charlotte (1816-1855): Jane EyreEmily (1818-1848): Wuthering HeightsAnne: Agnes Grey,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Stud
26、ies, SCNU,Charlotte, Emily and Anne all wrote successfully in their short lives in Yorkshire and they all wrote under pseudonyms. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are still popular today.,The Bront sisters,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Charlotte Bront,Charles Haiheng Ling, Sch
27、ool of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Jane Eyre - The Story,Jane lives with her aunt who is rude and unjust to her and sends her to a charity school for poor girls, where she lives an intolerable life and stays for eight years. Then Jane becomes a governess to a little girl in the family of a squire called M
28、r. Rochester. The squire falls in love with her. While they are about to hold their wedding ceremony in the church, Jane learns that Rochester has got a wife who is mad.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Jane Eyre - The Story,Shocked by the news, Jane flees from the house. She go
29、es through many hardships. Finally helped by a parson, she gets the job of a teacher in a village school. Meanwhile, a great misfortune befalls Mr. Rochester and he becomes blind. Hearing that Mr. Rochester has become penniless and disabled, Jane Eyre hurries back to him and becomes his wife.,Charle
30、s Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Jane Eyre Chapter 5 - story,Jane leaves Gateshead by coach alone for Lowood. She is introduced to some of the schools daily routines (e.g., Bible recitations, regular academic lessons, and abominable meals) and sleeps in a room filled with other girls.
31、 The next day she meets the kindly, beautiful superintendent, Miss Temple, and another girl, Helen Burns, who informs Jane that all the student are “charity-children“.One of the nastier teachers, Miss Scatcherd, mistreats Helen in class, though the stoic Helen impressively bears her punishment.,Char
32、les Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Jane Eyre Chapter Seven - story,Jane passes a difficult first quarter at Lowood, with both the snowy weather and strict environment contributing to her misery. Mr. Brocklehurst visits Miss Temples classroom and instructs her not to indulge the girls
33、in the slightest way; their privations will remind them of the Christian ethic. He spots a girl with curly hair and deems it unacceptable for an evangelical environment, as are all the top-knots on the girls heads. Jane, nervous that Mr. Brocklehurst will convey Mrs. Reeds warnings about her behavio
34、r to Miss Temple, accidentally drops her slate. He chastises her in front of the class and three visiting fashionable ladies, telling everyone to ignore her the rest of the day, as she is a liar. Jane must stand on a stool in front of the class all day, with her only solace coming as Helen furtively
35、 smiles at her.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Bildungsroman,A novel of formation or a coming-of-age story - the story of a childs maturation and focuses on the emotions and experiences that accompany and incite his or her growth to adulthood.Such a novel takes the reader thro
36、ugh a characters young adulthood as she defines her identity against forces of opposition.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Jane Eyre as Bildungsroman,In Jane Eyre, there are five distinct stages of development, each linked to a particular place:,From these experiences, Jane bec
37、omes the mature woman who narrates the novel retrospectively.,Janes childhood at Gateshead her education at the Lowood School her time as Adeles governess at Thornfield,4、her time with the Rivers family at Morton and at Marsh End (Moor House) 5 、her reunion with and marriage to Rochester at Ferndean
38、.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Themes of Jane Eyre,A completely new woman image. The need for love contrasted with the need for independence,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,A completely new woman image,Jane Eyre represents those middle-class working wom
39、en who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The need for love vs. the need for independence,Jane Eyre is very much the story of a quest to be loved. The main quest is Janes search for her kindred spi
40、rits, for a sense of belonging and love, but her search is tempered by her need for independence - Jane searches, not just for romantic love, but also for a sense of being valued, of belonging. Her fear of losing her autonomy motivates her refusal of Rochesters marriage proposal.,Charles Haiheng Lin
41、g, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The need for love vs. the need for independence,Only when Jane gains financial and emotional autonomy, after having received her inheritance and the familial love of her cousins, can Jane accept Rochesters offer. Only after proving her self-sufficiency to herself c
42、an she marry Rochester and not be asymmetrically dependent upon him as her “master.” The marriage can be one between equals. With her marriage to Rochester, Jane finally feels completely liberated, bringing her dual quests for love and independence to a satisfying conclusion.,Charles Haiheng Ling, S
43、chool of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Emily Bront,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Wuthering Heights,The story is told through flashbacks recorded in diary entries, and events are often presented out of chronological order. Nevertheless, the novel contains enough clues to enable an app
44、roximate reconstruction of its chronology. The novel deals with the love story between the hero Heathcliff who is a gipsy and Miss Catherine, the daughter of Heathcliffs benefactor. Catherines brother Hindley considers it a shame on the family to let a gipsy marry his sister. Unable to bear the insu
45、lt, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Wuthering Heights,Three years later he comes back and finds Cathy has already married. He resumes his lovemaking and she dies heart-broken. Heathcliff becomes the master of the family and takes revenge upo
46、n the next generation. He treats Hindleys son Hareton very cruelly and compels Catherines daughter Cathy to marry his own sickly son. After his son dies Cathy falls in love with Hareton. Finally Heathcliff sees the futility of revenge.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,A Gothic N
47、ovel,The Gothic tradition: a style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. But Wuthering Heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety.As a shatt
48、ering presentation of the doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,Themes,The Destructiveness of a Love that Never ChangesThe Conflict betw
49、een Nature and Culture,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The Destructiveness of a Love that Never Changes,Catherine and Heathcliffs love is rooted in their childhood and is marked by the refusal to change.Catherine and Heathcliffs love is based on their shared perception that they are identical. Catherine declares, famously, “I am Heathcliff,” while Heathcliff, upon Catherines death, wails that he cannot live without his “soul,” meaning Catherine.,Charles Haiheng Ling, School of Foreign Studies, SCNU,The Destructiveness of a Love that Never Changes,
