英语毕业论文
外国语学院本科生英语二学位毕业论文
论文题目:《雾都孤儿》里男主角的遭遇背后所显现的社会背景 Social Reality behind the Protagonist’s Misfortune Revealed in
OliverTwist
学院：外国语学院
专业:英语二学位
授课语种: 英语
学生姓名: 王静雨
指导老师姓名: 春光
2015年12月13日
本科毕业论文（设计）目录
Abstract---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1摘要--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
I.Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
II.Analysis of the Oliver Twist -------------------------------------------------------- 3
1.The story line
2. Personality of the protagonist
3. Social background
III.Social Factors behind the Phenomenon of Life ------------------------------8
1. The workhouse system
2. Criminal gangs
3.Children living in the lower of society
IV.Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------11
Bibliography --------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Social Reality behind T he Protagonist’s Misfortune Revealed
In Oliver Twist
Abstract
Oliver Twist is a famous book written by Charles Dickens, who is a great critical realist in English literature. It mainly describes the miserable life of Oliver Twist, who was the titular protagonist of the novel and an orphan living in a London workhouse.
This paper mainly analyzes Oliver’s character and the social background of the 19th-century Britain, which is also known as the Victorian age. After a close examination of the protagonist and the social picture depicted in the book, the paper pins down the major social factors that led to the ups and downs of Oliver’s life experiences.
This paper is divided into four parts. The first part is an introduction, which gives a brief account of the novel Oliver Twist and its author Charles Dickens. The second part analyzes the plot development of Oliver Twist, the character of its protagonist and the social background reflected in the novel. The third part points out that the workhouse system was a failure; the criminal gang was caused by poverty and child labor was a reflection of maltreatment of children prevalent at that time in British history. The final part is conclusion, which generalizes the story line of the novel into a fight between good and evil. Oliver Twist represents the good side of society while Fagin and other gang leaders as well as the workhouse management stand for evil forces. The happy ending shows Dickens’ wishes for reform and a better world.
Keywords:Oliver Twist social reality character
摘要
《雾都孤儿》是著名英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯的小说。狄更斯是英国文学界的
批判现实主义作家。它主要描述了与该书同名的主人公奥利弗的悲惨遭遇。奥利弗是个孤儿，住在伦敦的一所贫民工棚中。
本论文重点分析了奥利弗的性格和十九世纪维多利亚时期英国的社会背景。在详细分析了该书的主人公以及书中所描述的社会背景之后，论文又着重列出了造成奥利弗起伏跌宕的人生经历的社会原因。
本论文分为四部分。第一部分是引言，简要介绍了《雾都孤儿》这部作品以及它的作者狄更斯。第二部分重点分析了该书的情节发展、主人公的性格以及书中所展示的社会画面。论文的第三部分指出，贫民工棚并未达到其预期的目的；都市犯罪团伙是由贫困造成的；童工的使用反映了英国历史上某个时期虐待儿童的做法。论文最后是结语部分，指出善与恶的斗争贯穿了奥利弗人生故事的始终。奥利弗代表了社会上向善的力量，而贫民工棚的管理层以及费金和其他的盗窃团伙头目代表了邪恶势力。故事的结局是皆大欢喜，这代表了狄更斯对社会改革和美好生活的向往。
【关键词】《雾都孤儿》社会的现实性格
I. Introduction
Oliver Twist is an 1838 novel by the famous English writer Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial in a magazine.
Oliver Twist, formerly known as “Oliver Blogs”, is the second novel of Dickens, protestingagainst social injustice. The author described the life of London slums and thecourage of the poor toface life. The author of this novel aimed to arouse public awareness of social problems so as to stage some social reform. That is why Dickens was defined as “the founder of English literary critical realism and one of its greatest representatives”.
The novel describes the good and evil, and praised honesty and the positive side of human nature. At the same time, it exposes some problems with charity in a particular historical period of the British social system. Readers can also find the book full of humanitarian feelings.
The story is set in the foggy London. The novel tells the story of an unfortunate orphan named Oliver Twist and the sufferings in his life. The protagonist Oliver grew up in an orphanage, experienced undertaker apprenticeship, and fled that kind of life because of the abuse. Then he fellinto a den of thieves, and was forced to become a culprit. Finally with the help of a good man, the boy’s identity was found out, and he got a legacy from his father and thus led a happy life from then on.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze Dickens’ nov el Oliver Twist and find out Britain’s main social problems in that period. By doing this, we can better understand the British history so that we can learn from the past and build a better future.
II. Analysis of the Oliver Twist
1.The story line
Oliver Twist was born into an unfortunate and terrible life. He was an orphan when he wasborn, because his mother died in childbirth due to obvious poor health and lack of food. Nobody knew who his father was. Oliver was a very thin boy who grew up under the Poor Law. Oliver spent his first nine years since birth in a branch of the workhouse system, first in the nursery and then transferred to the main branch to work and earn his own bread. During that period of time, he was given very little to eat but hard work to do. One day Oliver breeched one of the
rules, stipulated by request on behalf of another boy. He wanted a little bit more of the gruel. Oliver’s request angered the management of the board of directors, who thought of him as ungrateful. So by asking for more together with other youth inmates against the management of the workhouse system, Oliver was sent by the board of directors to be an apprentice to an undertaker named Mr. Sowerberry, who wasemployed by the parish.
However, in the service of the undertaker, Oliver was abused by Noah Claypole, anotherapprentice. On a special occasion, in order to bait Oliver, Noah insulted Oliver’s deceased mother. Because of Noah’s words, Oliver came to attack him. The difference between the two was obviouswhen Mr. Sow erberry’s wife, who didn’t like Oliver, was summoned. Noah distorted the causes and process of the fight to make Oliver look like a murderer for no apparent reason. So he got severely punished. Oliver decided to flee the undertaker’s place. That night after he left, he wandered aimlessly. However, he quickly set his destination in London and walked in that direction.
Cold and hungry, without friends, in desperation he met the young Dawkins. Dawkins took Oliver Twist to a dilapidated house. Here was a den of bandits that were headed by Fagin, theleader of thieves. He was liked Oliver very much, because Oliver was clever and sensible. Then Oliver and Dawkins were made to go stealing on the streets. But Dawkins was found when he stolethings. Oliver got a guilty conscience and started to run away, but was taken to the police office in the end. Fagin heard that Oliver was caught and blamed Dawkins for it but in vain. Fagin was worried about Oliver’s confession at the police office. Then he consulted Bill. They decided to sendBill’sgirl friend Nancy to the police office pretending to be Oliver’s sister so as to bring him backfrom the police station.
However, when the police department was waiting for an examination and approval, The boss of the bookstore proved Oliver innocent. The victim of the theft was a rich man of London. His name was Brownlow. Because he wronged Oliver and felt guilty, he took to Oliver and thought hima lovely and poor boy,so Mr.Brownlowtook Oliverhome with him. At Mr. Brownlow’s homeeverybody liked Oliver very much. Oliver did not have to worry about food and can also go to school. Oliver lived a happy life every day. Oliver was reading a book when he was at leisure. One day, Mr. Brownlow’s friend came here and talked about the old days. Just then a little boy from abookstore came to deliver books. Oliver carried the book to Mr. Brownlow. Mr. Brownlow said there were a book and some money to be sent to the boss of the bookstore and asked Oliver to gothere.
Mr. Brownlow’s friend said Oliver had once taken his money and so would not return from the errand. When Oliver walked on the street, Bill and Nancy were also there, and then, they induced Oliver back to the den. Fagin beat up Oliver very acridly. Oliver almost lost his life. The next day Bill took Oliver to his home. The purpose was to break into Mr. Brownlow’s home. One night, Bill took Oliver to Toby’s home. Bill and Toby discussed with Oliver how to break into ahouse. But Oliver was unwilling. He gave the owner of the house a signal, which caused Bill and Toby’s plot to fail. Oliver received a gun wound. Bill wanted to throw Oliver into the river, but he fell into the river before it.Nancy heard something about Oliver at Toby’s and was very sympathetic to Oliver. In order to save Oliver from danger and enable Mr. Brownlow and Oliver to reunite, Nancytold the news to Mr. Brownlow and promised to take Oliver there the next time. On the first night Mr. Brownlow waited for Nancy at London Bridge, but Nancy did not come on the that night. One evening finally, Nancy and Mr. Brownlow had a chance to meet. Nancy told the matter to Mr. Brownlow. And it was heard that Dawkins was sent by Fagin. Dawkins came back to report what he knew to Fagin and Bill. Bill was angry and went home, and then he killed Nancy. The next day, Betty looked for Nancy at Nancy’s home and found that Nancy had died.
Mr. Brownlow heard someone say that Nancy died. Mr. Brownlow called the police and theycaught the thieves with the help of some civilians. The scene was very spectacular. The police tookFagin to the police office at last. Bill hid himself in a deserted house on a small island in the Thames. When he was trying to escape from police arrest, he accidentally stumbled and got strangled by the rope he was using to let himself down to the ground. Oliver survived. He got back home and reunited with Mr. Brownlow. Finally his father’s legacy was found and that put an end to his miserable childhood.
2. Personality of the protagonist
Oliver is the protagonist of the novel. He was an orphan born in a workhouse, which was a social phenomenon in the early stage of industrialization in Britain. It was impoverished because of management problems, so it was filled with darkness, but Oliver remained an embodiment ofbrightness, keeping his innocence. When he first came to this place, Oliver was very much like other children in the workhouse, being laughed at, and no one cared about him. In the parish,
Oliver hadalways been bullied. Later the boss of the coffin shop owner paid five pounds to take Oliver with him. Oliver lived a little better in the new environment, but this made Noah jealous. Noah provoked and insulted Oliver. When the situation became unbearable, Oliver ran away at night. For seven days, Oliver walked in the direction of London. He met Dawkins of the street in London and Dawkins stole food for him. Out of gratitude Oliver went with the stranger Dawkins. Dawkins brought him to the den of thieves. Oliver was too credulous and innocent to take good care of himself.
Hone sty also plays an important role in the story of Oliver’s life. As we know, in the story, Mr. Brownlow is a also very important role. One day, Mr. Brownlow wanted to go to a bookstoreto return some books and pay five pounds for some new books he had taken earlier. He told Oliver to do it. And Oliver promised to do it well. As we all know, Oliver was a poor boy, and he neededmoney. But he did not take the money away because he was an honest boy and he said to Mr. Brownlow, “I will be back after ten minutes” (Lu, 2004). He was caught by Bill unluckily. When he met Fagin, he said, “Those books and money belong to the kind Mr. Brownlow who took me into his home. If I don’t give back the books and money to him, he will think I stole them” (Lu, 2004). At that time, although he was in a bad situation, he still wanted to return the money and books to Mr. Brownlow. He just wanted to convince Mr. Brownlow that was not a cheater, and he was honest.Although those things had not been returned, Oliver’s words in front of F agin shows the honesty of Oliver.
We know that there were a lot of thieves in London. Most of them became thieves because of poverty. Oliver was sympathetic with them and expressed kindness to them. Fagin was cunning, andhe did not believe anybody. Fagin was not kind to others, and that could be seen from this scene: He looked at the jewelry with delight, and then thought what a good thing it was to wear them. The dead man could not talk or betray old friends. So he was not an honest man. Because he was not trustworthy, he was constantly afraid that the other thieves might betray him while all of them were working for him and they were merely children. There is another scene in which Fagin even got very angry with Dodger and Charley Bates. He even knocked them both down the stairs and sent them to bed with no dinner just because they had returned with nothing. Fagin abused Oliver when Oliverwas found trying to flee from Fagin’s house. Fagin the instigator picked up a long piece of wood,and hit Oliver hard on the shoulders with the stick. Although Fagin was a very bad person, Oliver still retained a kind attitude to Fagin. When Fagin was in prison, Oliver even went to see him. He said, “Yes, will you pray with
me?” (Chang, 1990) How kind he was! What he thought at that time was the good things that Fagin had done to him. From this we can see that the purpose he went there was to pray for him. I think Oliver had never really hated Fagin. He might have thought if it hadnot been for Fagin to offer him a place to live in, he might have died.
3. Social background
The Victorian age saw the emergence of many great writers such as the famous critical realist novelist Charles Dickens who wrote Oliver Twist. The nineteenth century has been divided into two stages in the history of the UK. The first was before 1837. During that time, King George III and George IV ruled England in succession. In the meantime, due to the Napoleonic wars, Britain had been involved in war with other countries for a long time, and at home Britain was in the midst of anindustrial revolution. Social changes were taking place and there was a big improvement in the lives of people. In villages, agricultural revolution had yielded its initial fruit and farming became highly mechanized. In cities, the middle class and the working class were rising. In 1837, George IV died. His daughter Alexandra Victoria succeeded him to the throne and reigned as Queen of Britain. The royal house belonged to the Hanover clan. Queen Victoria ruled Britain for 63 years (1837-1901).At that time, the British people completed the industrial revolution and the country began to expandby setting up overseas colonies. This is how the huge British Empire was established. It is known as“The Empire on which the sun never sets.” The Victorian era has been considered the peak period of British industrial revolution and also the heyday of the British Empire’s economic and culturalgrowth.
In the Victorian era, Britain’s political, economic and social situations were changing rapidly. Its capacity of industrial production was larger than the combined capacity of the world. Its volume of foreign trade was greater than that of any other country in the world. With the emergence of the middle class and working class, British people gradually changed the old system that had been theresince the Glorious Revolution. By now, Britain had established a system of government, a civilian system, a judicial system and a system of parliamentary elections, etc. through the 1832 and 1867 parliament reforms.
In the literature, there were schools and movements such as classicism, neoclassicism, romanticism, impressionist art and postimpressionism, etc. The art circle was a luminous scene of stars. That is to say, Britain was in a situation of scientific, economic, social, and cultural prosperity inthe 19th century. That’s why the 19th century has been regarded by literary critics as the golden age of British overall development.
III. Social Factors behind the Phenomena of Life
1. The workhouse system
When Oliver was nine years old, he couldn’t go to school like today’s children, because no onesupported him. So he had to go to a workhouse of child labor and got engaged in hard work every day. Oliver was not a lazy boy. But because he didn’t know how to flatter and please the boss, he was often beaten and scolded by the steward. The workhouse governors were very indifferent and they were all very severe to the children there. Know clearly that Oliver was an orphan, they would still ask him the cruel question: “Do you know you are an orphan?” They also said in Oliver’s facethat he was a fool. Human indifference was already a heavy blow to a child only nine years old, not to speak of ridicule and abuse.
On the management, one man was there to watch over so many children in the work. Oliver was sent to pick out the oakum. But he did not know anything about it and asked the manager what oakum was. The Manager looked at him in contempt and said, “Stop asking so many questions.”Then he added,“You are serving you r country” (Dickens，1992). Generally speaking, managers did not allow any child inmate to challenge authority.
The distribution of food in the workhouse was the most unreasonable. The children wereevery day engaged in heavy manual labor for a long time, but the meal was only a spoonful of very thin gruel, so they did not have enough food to eat. The children were so hungry that they couldn’t fall asleep at night. A boy named Tom was hungry and couldn’t sleep, so he had to walk back and forth on the ground. He said, “I am so hungry, I am frightened I might eat the lad that sleeps next to me” (Wang, 1996). Everychild was very hungry, and food distribution was very unreasonable. One day after having his portion of the gruel that was too thin and small in amount, Oliver said to them, “Please sir, I want some more” (Dickens，2002). Oliver was
beaten up by the manager. Governors were afraid that Oliver might seek trouble, so they decided to sell Oliver out. From this incident we can see the authoritarianism of the management, which has become a problem left over by history.
The workhouse of this period mainly pushed the poor to produce more, hence there werevery demanding restrictions of various aspects. The workhouse institution, the crowded environment and the coarse food aroused strong dissatisfaction in social public opinion and were thereforeconstantly condemned. The original purpose for setting up the workhouse was to teach the poor about self-reliance through work. People hoped that all social members could rely on themselves for financial support so as to get rid of related social problems. But as it was being carried out, residentswere put in a situation where there were too many limitations of personal freedom and humiliation. The inmates had to wear uniform. Refusing to do anything with a distinct personality would be aninsult and hence receive punishment. Workhouse relief standard reflects its overemphasis on moral factors but neglect of the economic and social factors leading to poverty. That is probably why people strongly opposed the workhouse system.
2. Criminal gangs
Although individual causes of crime are different, poverty was the primary cause of rampantcrime in Britain at that time. When people were poor and hungry, they might go begging on the streets. So the root cause of crime was extreme poverty. In addition, during the industrial revolutionthere was an unreasonable distribution of wealth which increased the gap between the rich and poor. The gap further aggravated the upsurge of criminal activity in its turn. With the advancement of industrialization, disparity between the rich and the poor grew bigger and bigger. The gap between the rich and poor became so big that there was more dissatisfaction of the poor and consequently they were driven against the rich. As no social relief system was perfect in that relief seldom arrived timely, further difficulties were that theft and robbery became an important way for people living at the bottom of society to sustain their life.
The spread of industrialization and the formation of the industrial centers led to the development of urbanization. The industrial revolution brought large number of people to the city of migrants. Tens of thousands of migrants from the countryside accelerated the already rapid expansion of the cities. As cities were not
prepared to cater to their material needs, all kinds of problems emerged. A large of number rural population got into the cities, but cities were unable to accommodate the development level of urban economy and absorb them. This led to serious refugeeproblems. In addition, the city life of anonymity, liquidity and inequality added to the crime. In city life, people might be unable to resist so many material temptations, so some might resort to crime as a quick way of getting material comforts. That’s probably why life of the criminal gang forms an important part of Dickens’ literary creation.
In short,in the period of industrialization, the British were enjoying the magnificent modern industrial civilization, but at the same time they were also put under various consequences of the crime arising out of it.
3. Children living in the lower of society
In Britain in the 19th century, children’s living standard was lower than today. Many lived in poverty and had to struggle for survival. Some children were familiar with child labor and the responsibility of taking care of younger siblings. In history, children have long been a group unable to express their own feelings, so they remained submerged and were unknown in history. “Child Laborer” almost became a synonym for children during the industrial revolution in the British lower society. Oliver and other children couldn’t avoid the fate of the “child laborer”. They were engaged in heavy manual work every day while not having enough food to eat. They were given no personal freedom and often beaten up by bullies like Fagin. As no one raised them, they easily became prey of bad guys when they were struggling in order to survive.. Otherwise they would be killed. On one occasion, Oliver suffered gunshot wounds, but Fagin did not take him to the hospital. He just madeOliver drink a little wine and then lie down at home waiting for chance recovery.
By the end of the 19th century, great changes had taken place in children’s life experience.Their living conditions, such as housing and health, had improved markedly. Their social status hadchanged, and they were no longer members of the labor force and no longer a symbol of social chaos or fear and anxiety as they had used to be in the eyes of the upper class. They became a hopeof the nation’s future. Labor was no longer the fate of their childhood life. School education becamea major part of their childhood.
IV. Conclusion
The characters in Oliver Twist can be divided into two camps: an angle’s camp and a devil’scamp. The whole novel is about the fight between good and evil characters. The orphan Oliver was born poor but he was very kind-hearted. He received no formal education but was warm-hearted and behaved politely. Unfortunately, such a lovely boy was born into a life of hunger and poverty. He had to fight his way alone against the wicked. Oliver suffered a lot, being always cold and hungryin the workhouse. Just because Oliver wanted some more porridge, the parish director-generalregarded it as a serious crime when he said, “The apparent sin is not to forgive” (Peters，1998). Inthe coffin store, Oliver suffered from jealousy and insult of Noah. In the den of gangsters in London, Oliver suffered from the frame of Fagin and others people, and he almost lost his life. While being achild, he suffered tribulation but his nature did not change. He always kept his kind nature. In the end, Oliver achieved a rebirth with the help of some other people.
Oliver Twist has created a batch of the image of the wicked including Mr. Bumble, Noah andFagin. At the same time, the novel also created a group of good characters, who are the kindhearted Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Rose Maylie, and the beautiful and kind Nancy and et al. It can be seen clearly that characters contrast between good and evil in the novel. It is a story about the warbetween good and evil.
As the plot of Oliver Twist is unfolding, the story proceeds from sadness to joy with theconflicts of good and evil in between. Though this story is far from 100 percent fidelity to the real lifein that period of Britain’s historical development, it gives readers a glimpse of the British society at that time. The clear demarcation and the desire to get rid of all evil may be just good wishes of the author. Nevertheless, it reachedthe goal of punishing evil-doers, praising good conducts and educating people in general.
Bibliography
【1】Chang, Yaoxin. (1990). A Survey of English Literature. Tianjin: Nankai University Press.
【2】Lu, Jianguo. (2004). Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist. Journal of Xuxi Normal University.
【3】Peters, Catherine. (1998). Charles Dickens. Xi’an: Xi’an World Publishing Corporation.
【4】狄更斯（1992）, 《雾都孤儿》北京：牛津大学出版社及外语教学与研究出版社。
【5】狄更斯（2002）, 《雾都孤儿》何安文译.南京：译林出版社。【6】王佐良（1996）, 《英国文学史》北京：商务出版社。
毕业论文：
题目：《雾都孤儿》里男主角的遭遇背后所显现的社会背景
作者：王静雨
班级： 2013级
指导教师：春光