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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... less than he deserved from me ' ” ( 251 ) . When Smike is concerned about Nicholas ' downcast mood , Nicholas explains that he has an enemy who " is rich , and not so easily punished as your old enemy , Mr. Squeers . He is my uncle ...
... less professionally , is engaged in an essay of self - creation . She too struggles to define a self - constructed identity as opposed to identities offered by others , with perhaps less success . If Esther has no sins to confess , she ...
... less in it about punishment and forgiveness than in any of the other substantial novels . In fact , it is almost as though Thackeray is consciously working against his usual concern for these central moral concepts . Perhaps he felt 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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