The Development of Charles Dickens’ Views on Victorian Gentleman: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As three representative works of Dickens in his early, middle, and later writing periods, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations offer a comprehensive reflection of people’s moral outlook and English society in the Victorian Age. This dissertation aims to explore the development of Dickens’ views on Victorian gentleman.
The introductory part of this dissertation offers a brief survey of Dickens’ life and works, and gives a critical glimpse of the past criticisms. Dickens’ literary creation is closely related to his legendary personal experiences. Based on his experiences, Dickens’ autobiographical novels can be categorized into three stages: rosy optimism in Oliver Twist, anxiety in David Copperfield, and moral enlightenment in Great Expectations. Chapter II introduces the background and definition of the Victorian concept of gentleman in the nineteenth century.
Chapter III demonstrates Dickens’ optimistic view of Victorian gentleman in his early writing career by analyzing Oliver Twist. As a young man, Dickens simply regarded life as a struggle between good and evil, and believed that evil was just an individual phenomenon, which must be conquered in the end by good. This chapter treats Oliver’s unique orphan image and his distinguished humanity as the hero of the novel. Oliver is born and fostered in a brutal and inhumane workhouse and receives neither proper education nor any rightful moral guidance from anyone near him. However, he stays pure despite being in the midst of the ugliest thieves’ den. Many other perfect characters are likewise present in the novel, and such characters tend to represent various ideal moral concepts. Oliver Twist presents how Oliver is able to defeat misfortune, evil and temptation by virtue of fate. In conclusion, Oliver Twist reflects the writer’s intention to improve people’s life and social conditions. However, it may be pointed out that his hyperoptimistic view of life degrades the literary value of Oliver Twist.
Chapter IV discusses Dickens’ awareness of reality and anxiety in his conception on Victorian gentleman in David Copperfield in his middle stage. Dickens takes notice of further dark and serious sides in his middle writing period. A group of novels in the middle period embody Dickens’ penetrating insight into Victorian society and gentleman of the mid-19th century. Dickens’ insight portrays a part of his inner contradictions and confusion about Victorian gentleman. As a result, the tone of the novels in Dickens’ middle period is rather serious. The most autobiographical novel becomes the best place for Dickens to make an outpouring of his variety of emotions, especially his struggles and conflicts. Disclosing the duplicity seen in David, Dora, and Agnes and other characters and the illusions they create, Dickens reveals further his anxiety of gentleman and social reality.
Chapter V goes further to look into the last stage of Dickens’ development in his view on Victorian gentleman. In the latter stage, Dickens encounters personal misfortunes in life and marriage. In addition, he comes to develop a deeper and thorough understanding of the basic contradictions of Victorian England and humanity. Great Expectations, which represents the summit of Dickens’ intellectual maturity, is one of his most brilliant novels with a writing style of lucid diction and deep thought in his latter stage. Although the good heroes appear in a closing part of Great Expectations, such an ending happens only after the cost of overcoming many hardships and heavy loss. Dickens’ mature insight into Victorian gentleman and his moral growth can be easily detected in Great Expectations.
The concluding part gives both a general and detailed comparison of the similarities and differences between Dickens’ three major novels and focuses on the process of Dickens’ developing views on Victorian gentleman.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CONTENTS
• Ⅰ. Introduction 1
• Ⅱ. Victorian Gentleman 7
• Ⅲ. Rosy Optimism in Oliver Twist 17
• Ⅳ. Anxiety in David Copperfield 40
• V. Moral Enlightenment in Great Expectations 66
• VI. Conclusion 89
• Bibliography 92
• Abstract 105