Namrataba Zala's assignment 2016-2018
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NAMRATABA ZALA
Semester: 1
Roll No.: 20
Enrollment No.: 2069108420170033
Batch: 2016-2018
S. B. Gardi Department Of English
Bhavnagar University
Email id: namratazala2707@gmail.com
Paper no. : 6 The Victorian literature
Dickens’s
Humanism and Social
Concerns in view of Oliver Twist
Introduction
First of all we need to
understand the nature of the term humanism - what it is and how it is
relevant to our times. Let us
begin by saying that humanism is a doctrine at the centre of which
lies the interests of human
beings in our world. This doctrine has its basis in the understanding
that human beings have the
capability of grasping the truth of their environment, both natural and
social. Moreover, this doctrine
believes that human beings can challenge the state of affairs
around them if they are convinced
that it is not conducive to the principles of equality and
dignity in society.
How is humanism pertinent to us
today? Faced, as we are with rampant inequality, injustice and
exploitation, humanism would put
on us the responsibility of questioning the might of the ruling
forces in our midst. We note
today that a large number of countries in the world are driven by a
small section of economically
powerful men and women. We find it needless to mention that
these countries are led by what
we may call imperialist powers today. Having said that, let us
trace the origins of humanism.
Humanistic Concerns in Dickens
It is not for nothing that
Dickens portrays a gloomy world in almost all of his novels. It is the
actual living condition of people
that Dickens captures in his fiction. There really are ;hard
times; there really is a;bleak house; coexisting with ;great expectations. ‘One
can witness in
Dickens an awareness of this
dialectic of his age. The author is also acutely aware of the crisis
fast approaching and destroying
the life supporting systems of the day. Dickens sharply responds
to this phenomenon through his
novels, with a variety of characters - good and bad and mixed.
Great Expectations would be an
adequate example to bring out the truth of the above statement.
What one confronts in this novel
are a whole range of characters belonging to almost all streams
of life. What is interesting is
that the distinction between the good and evil is consciously blurred
in the text. This deliberate act
of the author aims to reject the canonized conventional notion of
good and evil. The state
machinery is no longer benevolent/good and the criminals no longer evil
or malicious. We get a Magwitch
in the text who, if a criminal is also one of the most humane
characters portrayed by Dickens.
It is more than evident in the text that people involved in the
existing affairs have lost faith
in the newly emerged social trends. Great Expectations turns out to
be a political statement against
industrial England. Thus we see Dickens as a major writer of
broader concerns in the
nineteenth century - we are face-to- face with the fact that he struggles to
restore faith in humanism through
strong literary effort.
Whether this humanism is evolved
in the course of action or works as an overarching presence in
the text is a difficult question
to answer. Here is an author who is constantly haunted by the idea
of a mechanized life, devoid of
feelings and emotions. In the beginning of Great Expectations,
the reader finds it difficult to
grasp the intention of the author. What should one do to connect
meaningfully the countryside and
the marshes with a character like Joe? It is only later, that this
side of the world shines bright
when contrasted with the city life of London. With these two
contrasted worlds one actually
gets a view of the time - from the countryside to the main city;
from personal to an entirely
professional relationship at work; from the early social relations to
the ones presented later.
Pip;s movement in the text is precisely a movement towards a new
tempting and corrupting age from
the warm domestic comers of an old one. It is in this
perspective offered to us that we
witness Dickens;s attitude towards his society, an attitude
informed by Dickens;s
deep humanism.
In his novels, Dickens directly
addresses the issues and questions related with humanism in the
nineteenth century. There seems a
plan behind what Dickens attempts in his fiction. This
explains the overarching presence
of humanism in Dickens;s works. Wedded as Dickens is to the
bond of love and fellowship in
life, he skips no effort to assert their significance in his
representation. More importantly,
humanism evolves in Dickens;s novels as a positive vision for
the future. In addition to being
a statement of purpose made through one;s writing, as it were, it is
a creatively worked-out
phenomenon, built in as it is in the fabric of the text - in the pattern of
events, episodes and situations.
Thus, there is no conflict between the authorial intention and
actual rendering, with the author
ever succeeding to depict the crisis inherent in nineteenth
century society. Dickens clearly
notes that endangered by the progressive commercialism of the
day, there is hardly any scope
left for the survival of human feelings. Dickens;s world stands
completely overpowered by the
market forces. This ‘professional’ (as against natural and
spontaneous), narrow and
self-seeking way of life demands revision, if not the extinction of the
humanist ideals in the social
environment. Nineteenth century Europe/England witnessed this
inevitable crisis and it is this
inevitability of circumstances that introduces in Dickens;s novels a
strong streak of sentimentalism.
The latter arises from the pessimism inherent in the age itself,
where humanism becomes almost
unachievable and remains a vision of the writer. The loss of a
clear closely-knit familial life
and the fear of the fast devouring market forces make the
atmosphere grim, the situations
and characters sentimental in Dickens s novels. Hence,
humanism stands as a dream
difficult to realise or only possible of partial fulfilment in Dickens.
Humanism is not static, it grows
and it develops. It learns from social experience and is aware
that people imbibe as much from
the world they live in as they contribute to it. Humanism also
faces tough challenges from those
in society whose conduct it critiques and counters. The
process of doubt and self-doubt
within humanism equips it with the power to examine and
analyse itself. Such a process is
at work in Dickens fiction. Let us have a look at this process to
grasp the nature of humanism in
evolution in Dickens fiction next.
Oliver Twist
Here, the young child Oliver
finds himself thrown into the company of petty thieves - their
planned activity overseen and
supervised by Fagin. Dickens does not spare any effort to show
these criminals as the most
crooked and insensitive in the world. They encircle Oliver to make
him understand that he has no
option but to work as a member of their team. Oliver misery is
further compounded by the fact
that he remains ever the target of their ridicule. Gradually, this
pack of cut purses/snatchers
assumes proportions of well-managed social endeavour with its own
laws of governance, profit making
and hierarchy. For a time we forget the specific operation of
the crime-machine run by Fagin
and wonder whether Dickens is pointing an accusing finger at
the larger goings-on in the city
of London. There appears in Oliver Twist a close similarity
between Fagin the criminal and an
entrepreneur pursuing his business of profit making with
meticulous care. The more we
watch the doings of Fagin associates, the more we realise that
they represent a ruthless chain
of activity extremely harmful to the majority of simple and honest
members of English society. In
this novel, we see Dickens humanism in a number of layers.
The first layer is that of
Oliver oppression by a small group of people. Here, our sympathy lies
with the child Oliver who is
physically as well as mentally unequal to the rest of the people at
Fagin’s place. We relate well
with a child who is helpless before a cynical band of robbers and
pickpockets. At a few places in
this depiction, however, we become conscious of the relative
helplessness of the second rung
of the gang before Fagin. We start thinking that some time in the
past, the present members of the
group were also brought here as young children and made to
undergo the fate Oliver is now
facing. This implies that Oliver also at a later date might become
a burglar efficient in his job of
robbing people. By placing ourselves in the position of these
gang-members, we might even
appreciate the compulsions of the trade Fagin's followers finally
joined.
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