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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... scene feeds upon a more general anxiety in the narrative as a whole . To be watched or scripted by others is the principal situation David tries to avoid . In this scene Uriah is forcing David to play a part in the script he has ...
... scene contrasts with and yet resembles the imprisonment scene of the first chapter , preparing the reader for the larger idea that there are many forms of confinement , voluntary as well as involuntary , some of which are salubrious to ...
... scenes as signifying an escape from history and from fic- tion ( 578-79 ) . 10. Garrett Stewart offers an exciting and , I feel , convincing reading of Carton's death . He credits the death scene as an extremely significant feature of ...
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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