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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... idea of public punishment , then , by degrees , you will also get rid of the idea of sin : where is it written in the Word of God that the sword of His minister is to be borne in vain ? In this world of groaning and of anguish , tell us ...
... idea of forgiveness and redemption . Human sympathy is the amulet by which the charmed doors of the mind and heart can be reopened . When Lucie first succeeds in penetrating the muddle of her father's mind to touch his heart , he sobs ...
... idea that I was a young offender whom an Accoucheur Policeman had taken up ( on my birthday ) and delivered over to her , to be dealt with according to the outraged majesty of the law " ( 20 ) . So the life that included religious ...
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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