Dickens and Thackeray: Punishment and ForgivenessAttitudes toward punishment and forgiveness in English society of the nineteenth century came, for the most part, out of Christianity. In actual experience the ideal was not often met, but in the literature of the time the model was important. For novelists attempting to tell exciting and dramatic stories, violent and criminal activities played an important role, and, according to convention, had to be corrected through poetic justice or human punishment. Both Dickens' and Thackeray's novels subscribed to the ideal, but dealt with the dilemma it presented in slightly different ways. At a time when a great deal of attention has been directed toward economic production and consumption as the bases for value, Reed's well-documented study reviving moral belief as a legitimate concern for the analysis of nineteenth-century English texts is particularly illuminating. |
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... asks John if he has anything to complain of in Dombey and John says no . The Manager asks if John believes he has been kept on in his job " as a cheap example , and a famous in- stance of the clemency of Dombey and Son , redownding to ...
... asks of the guide , " And now , madam , will you show us the closet where the skeleton is ? ' " The narrator dilates on this suspicion that amidst all the beauties and treasures of the palace there is a secret closet that no one but its ...
... asks Anne and her husband to forgive her , believing that she has done them wrong ( 195 ) . Granted , these are positive and conventional ap- proaches to the theme of Christian forgiveness . The standard punitive conven- tions are ...
Contents
Attitudes Toward Punishment and Forgiveness | 3 |
Some of the contents of this study appeared elsewhere in different form Mate | 28 |
Education | 30 |
Copyright | |
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