Charles Dickens and Writing about Social Issues - Research Proposal Example

Charles Dickens was a prolific that created works that commented on the social issues of his time period. It is my intention to showthat through his use of children as central characters in his work, he was able to explore controversial issues and define his beliefs in a public forum without directly confronting society in a way that might alienate others from his point of view. His work provides an example of Gothic romance, his black and white point of view of evil and good providing a space in which to explore his perspective on society. Through the use of literary devices, such as irony, sarcasm, harsh humour, melodrama and parody, I aim to show that Dickens has created a body of work that is still relevant, yet touched upon the specific issues of his time, such as poverty, corruption, criminality, prostitution, work houses, and orphans. I will argue that Charles Dickens explored the issues of children, women, the Jewish culture, and the poor as he used a variety of literary styles through which to relate his work to various social issues of his time. Research Proposal: Charles Dickens and Writing about Social Issues through the Use of Literary Devices Introduction The novels written by Charles Dickens had importance in English history because of the social commentaries about the conventional Victorian views on children, women, the Jewish culture, and the poor and used a variety of literary styles that provide context for the relevance of various social groups during the period. Charles Dickens was a writer of his time, creating works that reflected the political and social environment of his era. The Victorian period can be viewed for some specific social constructs in which different groups were treated through specific structures that defined their place within society. Women, those within the Jewish culture, the poor and children all had limitations on their roles in society with stereotypical beliefs about their position within the culture. Dickens used these belief systems in order to provide a discourse on the nature of these beliefs and the way in which they affected members of those groups. Novels in which these belief systems can be seen are Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Hard Times. Through research of the time period, the literary style of Dickens, and in making an analysis of these novels, the ways in which the society of Victorian England will be examined by this writer. Within the intended research, Chapter one will frame the concepts of the inquiry, examining the nature of the four primary social groups that will be examined through the lens of the work done by Dickens in these novels. Chapter Two will be a literature review that provides further examination of the literary style that Dickens used in order to create his fiction and to insert his commentary on society throughout his work. A conclusion will develop the framework for further inquiry, providing for preliminary conclusions about the topics of discussion. This proposal provides a preliminary examination of the works of Dickens with the intent of providing interests for further study. The research paper that is intended will further explore the themes presented in this proposal Background: Dickens used a wide variety of literary styles in which to frame his works. The use of irony, sarcasm, and harsh humour allowed for him to explore controversial themes, while cloaking his criticism of society within these forms of literary devices. Oliver Twist is full of irony, a sense of humor lacing the gap between what is happening and what seems to be happening (Boghian). While the innocence of Oliver is in contrast to the reality that the reader perceives, this gap provides a space of irony in which the social disparities that are examined can be highlighted (Smiley). An example of ironic information is the way in which Fagin frames his thievery enterprises in relationship to the gallows. He states “the gallows, my dear, is an ugly finger-post, which points out a very short and sharp turning that has stopped many a bold fellow’s career on the broad highway” (Dickens 118). This example of humour, irony, and the framing of context for a character is part of the way in which Dickens communicates through literary devices. According to Brantlinger and Thesing, Dickens falls into the category of Gothic romance because he embraces the literary devices found within the Gothic romance in order illuminate social issues, a circumstance that gave him the freedom to provide criticism without condemnation. An example can be found in through the character Fagin whose “Jewishness and criminality stand in for the more literal foreignness of earlier Gothic villains” which “comes to life in passages that dehumanize him” (Brantlinger and Thesing 304). This concept is furthered through the use of fantasy and realism as they contrast in the fantastical world of the young thieves under the tutelage of Fagin, to the realities of the workhouse that reflected the early life of Dickens. Hard Times is an example of the use of melodrama in order to support the social commentary that Dickens’ was making. He writes as Louisa wakes that “It seemed, at first, as if all that had happened since the days when these objects familiar to her were the shadows of a dream; but gradually, as the objects became more real to her sight, the events became more real to her mind” (Taylor and Dickens 219). Louisa, while performing many functions in the novel, serves as a centre to the melodrama device, her narratives emotive and heavy with the weight of the events. Dickens uses sentimentality and emotional events in order to express his social opinions. Within this work, the comparison between fantasy and reality also helps to create social commentary, the contrasts providing a forum from which to express his opinions. The contrast of educational disciplines helps to emphasize this point, the humanities representing the fantastic and the sciences representing realism (Koenigsberger). Parody was a literary device that was often used by Dickens. In David Copperfield, Dickens uses parody in order to comment on the Parliament, the bedtime play of the Parliament in David’s room part of his usury of the literary device to exaggerate and make more humorous the legislative body. In this manner, he could make caricatures of the Parliament, while maintaining his distance from outright commentary. Through using a child as a focal point for play, the parody is given room to explore Dickens’ opinions. Research Questions The following research questions will be used in order to defined and frame the topics of inquiry. The questions represent interests within the topic that will help to clarify the approach used by Dickens in writing his socially relevant works. 1. To what extent have Charles Dickens ‘s novels mirrored the social situation ( poverty , criminality, corruption ,prostitution , the mechanization of human beings , utilitarianism , self - interest , the folly of individualism, child labor) and the political situation(the Reform Bill of 1832: the First Factory Act: the Poor Law Act 1834 which led to the emergence of the workhouses ...) of England? 2. How does Charles Dickens‘s own experience influence his representation of orphans and children? 3. How far does the Victorian conventional view of women (whores / angels) influence Charles Dickens‘s representation of women? 4. To what extent has Charles Dickens‘s social class belonging influence his representation of the lower classes? 5. Was Charles Dickens anti-Semitic or was his representation of « Jews », simply, another commentary on the times in which he lived? 6. What are the literary styles / techniques used by Charles Dickens to depict the Victorian English society (1. irony, sarcasm, harsh humor / 2. gothic romance /3. fantasy versus realism / 4.melodrama versus parody)? Literature Review Despite the heavy use of literary devices to allow for his opinions on social issues to be expressed, the intent of his writing, as was the fashion of Victorian literature, was to allow the readers to “feel the text they held in their hand was a direct line to a real human being” (Lodge 122). Through much of the way in which he wrote about social topics, he revealed his own history and was thus upon to the public through an intimacy with his writing persona. In this fashion of celebrity, the character “Charles Dickens” became a part of the celebrity of his era. His image as a known writer opened a door for discovery about his personal experiences and feelings, thus providing his readers with a dialogue about his beliefs and causes. According to Peters, the figure of the orphan in Victorian literature served as a specific disruptive element to the assumptions of polite society about the nature of life in regard to the structure of family. The sentimentalizing of children in early Victorian literature was often part of a plot twist that left them as either the villain or an instrument of the villain. Denisoff refers to this as the drive to ‘consume the child’, to use the child figure as a representation of the way in which there is danger in the unknown. In the poem The Goblin Market (1962), by Christina Rossetti, and in works of the later century, such as Rudyard Kiplings, The Jungle Book, the use of the child to comment on social issues can be observed. During the 19th century, the concept of childhood was being formed, thus literature was balancing between the former social concept of the child and the emerging social response to the innocence of childhood (Flegel 14). Literature that explored social themes through children during this time period sometimes used child appropriate concepts, or in the case of a piece like The Goblin Market, sexualized themes could be sifted from the work. Two of the oppressed classes in Victorian England were both women and the poor, punished by the law for their circumstances in ways that are no longer relevant in modern society. Women lived under rules that did not allow them to own property nor to act as their own agents in a court of law. They could not take out a loan without the signature of an adult male, the source of a scandal in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House where the female lead did such a thing, causing her husband a great deal of social distress. The poor were no more well protected as individuals as were women. The existence of cruel prisons dedicated to those who had incurred debt forced the poor to suffer the convictions because of their poverty that prevented meaningful economic recovery. The poor were blamed for their poverty, although charity was in existence, the general attitude was to blame them for their suffering. Victorian literature reflected these belief systems. In Victorian England, the ethnicity and culture of the Jewish communities was consider ‘Oriental’, thus it was considered to have an ’otherness’ that set those of that culture outside of the rigid Victorian social structure (Finn 22). However, it is the pederast myths that held that Jews were responsible for all kinds of terrible sexual acts with children that dominate the many ways in which Victorian English social beliefs condemned Jewish people as dark and evil members of society. Fagin from Oliver Twist represents this belief, the novel having been published in the same year that the London Society for the Protection of Young Females and Juvenile Prostitution supposedly were closing down brothels run by Jewish members of the community. One in particular was said to have housed 12 to 15 young boys who were held for prostitution purposes. Fagin, therefore, represents the Jewish male with pedophile interests in young boys (Boyarin, Itzkovitz, and Pellegrini). A friend of Dickens, Eliza Davis, complained to him that the character of Fagin did a great disservice to the Jewish community. However Dickens did not intend to stereotype the character, but only intended to give him a nationality. He did right the wrong through his work Our Mutual Friend, but considering the correlation of the nationality of Fagin to the events of the period it is hard to believe that his intent was without malice (Hrotmatko). Dickens’ own experiences in childhood affected him deeply and are reflected in his work. According to Smiley, “It seems clear that he did not want his children to repeat any of his early experiences of poverty, family instability, or street life” (263). Dickens ensured that he had his children educated and prepared for life so they would not suffer as he had suffered. Dickens had watched as his father was put into a debtor’s prison, his own childhood disrupted by being committed to working in a warehouse putting labels on bottles (Cecil and Roberts). The terrible conditions of both areas were discussed in his works, bringing to light some of the injustices that were being done during his time. Personal Contribution Charles Dickens used his talents in order to address important issues of his time. Women were defined by the social structures of the era, either representing whores or angels. Women did not have the depth of character that males and children were given, however, and therefore his exploration of the female perspective and her position within society does not seem near as relevant as his other topics. Children, on the other hand, were greatly explored by Dickens as he used the sphere of childhood innocence in order to create contrasts from which to discuss the issues of the day. I find this contrast between the importance of the child and the diminishment of the female to be intriguing and it encourages far more areas of inquiry. Through the use of the structures of the Gothic romance, Dickens allows for a sense of wonder through the fantastical, circumstances coming together in such a way as to create a universe in which influences feel almost supernatural. While he never shies away from using the supernatural, these elements are present even when the theme is not. Dickens gives his readers the feeling that in all things, a purpose is present and a destiny is being crafted. The work of Charles Dickens provides for a wide diversity of academic study from which to pursue an understanding of social commentary as it is cloaked in finely crafted fiction. In seeing the fatalism in his work, and in exploring his supernatural atmosphere, even when direct evidence of the supernatural is not present, further research will enrich my understanding of Dickens as the works Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Hard Times are examined for their content as it relates to the areas of interest that I intend to investigate in this study. Bibliography Bodenheimer, Rosemarie. Knowing Dickens. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007. Print. Boghian, Ioana. The Game of Irony in Charles Dickens Novels - Mocking at Victorianism through Male Characters. LiBRI. 2010. Web. 4 April 2011. Boyarin, Daniel, Daniel Itzkovitz, and Ann Pellegrini. Queer Theory and the Jewish Question. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Print. Brantlinger, Patrick, and William B. Thesing. A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002. Print. Cecil, Nancy L, and Patricia L. Roberts. Families in Children's Literature: A Resource Guide, Grades 4-8. Englewood, Colo: Teacher Ideas Press, 1998. Print. Denisoff, Dennis. The Nineteenth-Century Child and Consumer Culture. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Pub, 2008. Print. Finn, Margot C. The Character of Credit: Personal Debt in English Culture, 1740-1914. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003. Print. Flegel, Monica. Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England: Literature, Representation, and the Nspcc. Farnham, England: Ashgate Pub. Company, 2009. Print. Furneaux, Holly. Charles Dickens’ Families of Choice: Elective Affinities, Sibling Substitution, and Homoerotic Desire. Nineteenth Century Literature. 62.2 (September 2007): 153-192. Fulweiler, Howard W. "Here a Captive Heart Busted": Studies in the Sentimental Journey of Modern Literature. New York: Fordham Univ. Press, 1993. Print. Galchinsky, Michael. The Origin of the Modern Jewish Woman Writer: Romance and Reform in Victorian England. Detroit, Mich: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1996. Print. Hrotmatko, Wesley. Charles Dickens. Unitarian Universalist Historical Society. 2011. Web 4 April 2011. Lodge, David. Consciousness and the Novel: Connected Essays. Cambridge (Mass.: Harvard university press, 2002. Print. Koenigsberger, Kurt. The Novel and the Menagerie: Totality, Englishness, and Empire. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 2007. Print. Peters, Laura. Orphan Texts: Victorian Orphans, Culture and Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. Print. Smiley, Jane. Charles Dickens. New York, NY: Viking, 2002. Print. Sanders, Andrew. Dickens and the Idea of the Comic Novel. The Yearbook of English Studies. 36.2 (2006): 51-64. Taylor, Alan and Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens: Hard Times and Great Expectations. Argyll Pub, 2011. Print. Boghian - http://www.edusoft.ro/brain/index.php/libri/article/viewFile/78/194 Hrotmatko - http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/charlesdickens.html Read More