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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... fact , he was hot , and pale , and mean , and shy , and slinking , and consequently not at all Pecksniffian " ( 485 ) . Touched by the truth of Mary's noble character as Satan is touched by the celestial spear , neither can disguise his ...
... fact , it intensifies this resentment exponentially , since it would have been more appropriate for him to be reaching out toward Florence instead of shutting her out . The frustration of this scene is exacerbated by the narrator's ...
... fact ; but they do not alter the fact . " 14 But ac- quaintances could say that " If Thackeray did not wish all the world to be good , he certainly was only too happy , when he did meet what he thought good , to recognise and admire it ...
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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