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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... especially the prominent role of self - punishment . The pattern of the prodigal son or husband is especially loathsome for Dickens because it brings crime , sin , and vice into the home . Spurning filial obedience and neglecting ...
... especially in its popular and simplified form . Much recent criticism erects a bar- rier between the artistic text and its context . I am arguing for an ecology of the text whereby it is necessary to return the text to its historical ...
... especially hard on Bulwer because he thought the man , though celebrated , not as good an artist as he believed himself to be ; moreover , he consid- ered Bulwer both intellectually and personally vain . Thackeray caricatured Bulwer's ...
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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