SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND CONTEMPORARY

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND CONTEMPORARY REALITY

CHARLES DICKENS AND THE VICTORIAN NOVEL HISTORICAL CONTEXT • The Victorian Age = reign of Queen Victoria (1837 -1901) • Complex and contradictory era • Age of progress, stability, social reforms • Characterized by poverty, injustice and differences between social classes THE VICTORIAN NOVEL • It reflects social changes due to the Industrial Revolution • Themes: industry, agriculture, health, prison and workhouses conditions, criminality, exploitation and starvation of children • Photograph of social reality using the grotesque and the third person omniscient intrusive narrator • Purpose: creates alibi, humors, pathos, horror, disgust and laughters CHARLES DICKENS (1812 -1870) • English writer and social critic • The greatest novelist of the Victorian period • His literary style is a mixture of fantasy and realism

CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES OLIVER TWIST (1837 -1839) EXTRACT: Oliver wants some more The extract focuses his attention on the lack of food the master offered to the children and on Oliver Twist action who ask for more food. This action is presented like an exception to the rules that will be punished. Themes: • poor conditions in the orphanage • starvation • children exploitation Objective: • Dickens’s point of view about his contemporary problems Narrative strategies: • exaggeration to highlight precarious children condition • grotesque to characterize the master • third person omniscient intrusive narrator

CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES HARD TIMES (1854) EXTRACT: Mr. Bounderby The extract presents Mr. Bounderby, a rich man deprived of sentiment who works in the commercial sector Themes: • focus on the economic situation • differences between social classes • progress: form poverty to richness • lack of real values Objective: • Highlight the values of a typical capitalisti society Narrative strategies: • technique of the grotesque in order to make a parody of Mr. Boundary and provoke laughter

CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES HARD TIMES (1854) EXTRACT: The definition of a horse The dark-eyedrigid man named Thomas Gradgrind has established a school in Coketown. Mr. Gradgrind ask to his student a clear-cut definition of a horse. Themes: • life based on facts, no place for imagination • education in the Victorian Age • depersonalization • sex differences Objectives: • Dickens criticizes the education system of the Victorian Age • make the reader understands that only economic relationships are possible • illustrates the bases of capitalistic system of the Western sociey Narrative strategies: • use of the grotesque to present the character of Mr. Gradgrind (accumulation and exaggeration) • third person narrator

CHARLES DICKENS FICTIONS AND THEIR MAIN FEATURES HARD TIMES (1854) EXTRACT: Coketown It is about a typical Victorian city that is an industrial, monotonous, artificial and material one. consequences of the Industrial Revolution Themes: • industrialized city = ideal city • Coketown as an expression of the capitalistic system • alienation • utilitarianism = Victorian mentality Objectives: • Dickens clearly reveals materialism • Dickens shows how the system determines the life of people and criticizes the alienation caused by mass production. Narrative strategies: • Dickens uses senses to describe the symbolism of Coketown

DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY DICKENSIAN POVERTY Analogy Dickens cared about look at underclass and poverty • "red tape” = bureaucracy in positions of power that hurt weak and poor • "Dickensian" = word to describe an unacceptable level of poverty • Deprivation in some areas = "life mirroring the times of Dickens” Dickens's view resonated through the ages: • starvation • illnesses and diseases • scarse cleanliness

DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY OUR VIEW OF THE LAW Analogy Dickens was critical of: • the establishment • discrimination against the poor These are valuable addition to our authorities Is it a central issues today? • Problem of equality • different regard • corruption

DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY INDUSTRIALIZATION OF CITIES Analogy Industrialization has positive and negative aspects in the Victorian Age and today Dickens depicted the horrors of industrial England • Coketown: ideal industrialized city • pollution: predominance of black and smoke • huge production Negatively impacting on our world today: • global warming • carbon dioxide • pollution • important cities are industrialized Positive aspects on our world today: • improving our standard of living • job opportunities • advancement of technology • quality of products

DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY EDUCATION OF CHILDREN Differences Access to education varied tremendously, according to location, gender, and class • based only on facts • alienation of children • no imagination, quality of children • educated to capitalism, utilitarianism and industrialization • strict methods Today education: • public school • humanistic and scientific subjects • less firm • relationship between teacher and students • had increased also in poor country

DICKENSIAN THEMES TODAY WOMAN RIGHTS Differences Two different spheres: MEN AND WOMEN • knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing • no higher education or professional work • no relationship with men if they are not married • sexist judgment • prostitution Women are better off TODAY • less paid than man • women with economical and political power fece sexist behavior • struggle against violence • research for equality • more opportunity in the everyday life

CONCLUSIONS • Dickens reflects themes of his contemporary society • These themes can be considered of maximum importance today • Dickens results actual • The same judgements and critics can be used in our time • There are differences and analogy: we partially improved our society • Capitalism in the Victorian Age and today: material point of view • Importance of industrialization, equality, education, production • Based on reality

THE END Girardi Gioia Class 5^ALS Liceo Scientifico A. Einstein