Keywords: great expectations structure figures
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Charles Dickens (18 12- 1870) is the most famous novelist in Victorian England, the most important writer except Shakespeare in the history of English literature, and one of the most outstanding representatives of British critical realism writers. He wrote a lot in his life and made a unique contribution to the development of realistic novels in Britain and Europe.
Great Expectations is one of the most representative works of Dickens in his later years. Edgar Johnson once spoke highly of this novel, thinking that Great Expectations is the most perfect structure and language in all Dickens' works. This novel tells the story of a young man's illusory pursuit of "great prospects" and his final disillusionment. The novel vividly describes Pip, the innocent and kind hero, who gradually becomes vain and ungrateful because of his pursuit of money and upper-class life. The appearance of "benefactor" makes him have to face the reality again and finally return to the beauty of human nature in a series of changes. In the process of Pip's transformation from a boy with shallow aspirations to a gentleman with real depth and connotation, Dickens dynamically explored the changes of good and evil in human nature. In this novel, he described in a unique way the universal theme of adolescent growth in19th century literature, and profoundly criticized the corruption of evil and greed, capitalism and money on human nature. At the same time, the novel also created many vivid characters, which together contributed to the success of this masterpiece.
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The typical structure of Dickens' novels is multi-integration, with many characters, clues and plots, and various elements permeate each other to form a unified whole.
In the novel Great Expectations, there are many characters, and the main characters are outstanding. Pip, Joe's eldest sister-in-law, Joe Gecelli, Biddy, Hao Weixian, Estner, Jaggers, Herbert, Magwitch and other main characters' activities constitute the main clue running through the whole paper: Pip's growth process; The mystery of Pip's property source; The love between Pip and Estella; The mystery of Estella's life; Miss Hao Weixian's strange experience; The friendship between Pip and Herbert; Magwitch's bizarre experience; Jaggers' activities are organically intertwined with the feelings of Pip, Joe Gechili and Biddy. With the development of the plot of the novel, mysteries are uncovered one after another. When everything is presented to the readers, we can deeply feel the exquisite layout and rigorous structure of the novel.
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Dickens, a perceptual realist, focuses on the life he feels and the feelings in life in his novels. Before him, some writers mainly told stories, but the descriptions of characters were thick; Other writers focus on the psychological description of characters, which is more delicate. Dickens absorbed the advantages of both, making novels a truly popular art form. Focusing on contemporary themes, he no longer deliberately invented thrilling plots and indomitable heroes, but took real social life as his own material object, tried his best to explore its connotation and found the beauty and charm contained in it.
In the novel Great Expectations, Pip has been working as a blacksmith's apprentice in the countryside, leading an unremarkable life, but suddenly one day he accepted a large amount of unknown property and embarked on the road of pursuing Great Expectations. This reflects the organic combination of paying attention to the oneness of life and following the true nature of life in Dickens' novels. Another feature of Dickens' novels is the organic combination of subjective life process and objective life logic. No matter what kind of life has its own laws of existence and development, people can try to change themselves and adapt to life, but they can't change life itself. In the novel, Pip went to London, and after he got the money, although he changed his image and tried to squeeze into the upper class, as far as his own situation is concerned, he did not have the conditions to become a gentleman, so life did not pity him, and he still could not become a real gentleman. In the novel, there is such a description about Joe's sister:
"We walked towards the town, and my sister walked ahead. She is wearing a big beaver hat and holding a grass basket, which looks like English jade. Despite the clear skies in Wan Li, she brought a pair of wooden overshoes, a scarf and an umbrella. I'm not sure whether she brought these things to suffer or to show off. However, I think these things are mainly displayed as property-just like Cleopatra, the queen of ancient Egypt, or other lady sovereign, they always like to show their luxury and wealth through celebrations or parades. "
This description of details fully shows that Dickens' novels organically combine the truth of details with subjective intervention.
His novels fully show the social function of literature. He not only reflects life with his own works, but also evaluates and intervenes in life. Starting from humanitarianism and based on the artist's conscience, he resolutely exposed and criticized the darkness and injustice of society, which had a great impact on society. For example, there is a description of the prison guards in Xinmen prison in the novel:
"A dirty and untidy bailiff came over and asked me if I wanted to go in and listen to one or two lawsuits. He told me that if he gave me half a crown, he could lead me to the front seat and fully appreciate the image of the President of the High Court wearing a wig and a robe. After what he said, I thought this sacred great man was just a wax figure. Seeing that I was indecisive, he immediately reduced the price to eighteen pence. I quickly explained to him that I was dating and only thanked him for his kindness. Nevertheless, he was as diligent as ever, leading me to the yard, showing me the place where the gallows were erected and the place where prisoners were flogged in public, and then showing me the door of death row, where all hanged prisoners had to pass. In order to increase my interest in this eerie door, he also told me that four death row inmates would come out of that door at eight o'clock the day after tomorrow. This is really creepy and makes me sick of London. What makes me particularly disgusted is that the bailiff who makes money by looking at the president of the High Court smells musty from the hat on his head to the boots on his feet, including the handkerchief in his pocket. This suit obviously doesn't belong to him. It must have been bought at a cheap price from the executioner. "
The above description vividly and profoundly exposed the prison environment in London at that time and the dirty social reality of the legal profession.
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Dickens's characters have different expressions, distinct hatred, vivid and touching, and they are ready to come out.
In Great Expectations, the specific characteristics of the characters are: 1. The certainty of the character's essence. Miss Havisham outlined in the novel should be a typical bad woman. She was spoiled since she was a child. After being cheated by the groom on her wedding day, she never left home. From then on, "revenge on men in the world" seemed to be her whole life, and she herself became an out-and-out old monster. 2. The clarity of the characters. In Dickens' novels, each character represents a certain kind of people, which embodies the * * * nature of a certain kind of people. For example, the image of Jaggers fully reflected the image of lawyers in London society at that time; 3. Deep humanistic connotation. Dickens is very good at excavating the hidden human factors in characters, and reflects some universal tendencies and laws in human nature through these factors. Sister-in-law Joe became gentle after being paralyzed in bed by gangsters. Before she died, she hugged Joe tightly and asked his forgiveness. Miss Havisham's portrayal is even more incisive:
"She didn't look into my eyes just now, and now she turns to look at me for the first time; To my great surprise, she knelt in front of me and raised her closed hands to me, which shocked me. ... I was shaking all over when I saw this white-haired and gaunt old man kneeling at my feet. I asked her to stand up and put out my arm to help her; But she just grabbed one of my hands that she could touch, put her head on my wrist and began to cry sadly. I have never seen her cry; Now I bent over her silently, thinking that it might be good for her to cry and cry away the pain she had hidden in her heart. She is not kneeling on the ground now, but sitting on the ground. " Oh! "She cried in despair," I have done such a thing! How could I do such a thing! "
This description has a great shock to readers because it reveals human nature.
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The work has made great efforts in shaping the protagonist's personality, and the positive protagonists in the work are noble people. Even though I have some shortcomings for a while, I always improve my self-ethics by constantly trying to get better. Regardless of the plot and artistic skills of the work, we are moved and deeply attracted by the personality charm of the protagonist alone.
Although the novel does not specifically preach religious teachings, the protagonist in it always shows religious belief as pious as a saint. They write about secular people, but these people all have a lofty soul beyond the secular.
Dickens' view of religious salvation is mainly embodied in two aspects: human salvation and social salvation, which are organically related. Dickens believes that the root of social suffering and evil lies in the selfishness and greed of human nature. He believes that only by sowing the seeds of kindness in the spirit of love and letting everyone do good can the world become beautiful and pure. The salvation of human nature is not only the salvation of the poor who have fallen because of poverty, but also the salvation of the mean and evil rich. Dickens always hated the rich who deprived and oppressed the poor. He mercilessly exposed their greedy, selfish and cold nature and stripped the ugly soul hidden under the gentle appearance. However, he never abandoned them and opposed treating them with hatred and opposition. He only advocated mutual communication, mutual care, elimination of estrangement and hatred, and harmonious coexistence, and finally influenced them with kindness and forgiveness to revive their humanity. This is the embodiment of Christian doctrine.
Concluding remarks
Dickens' works have always maintained loyalty to the general public and pessimism about capitalist society. He is a bourgeois writer, humanist and reformer. He disapproves of the revolution, thinks that the revolutionary means are too cruel, and thinks that the revolution is only personal revenge. He advocates improving society by means of improvement, imagining the power of moral influence, especially the sincerity and warmth of small people, so that the wicked can find their conscience, repent and repent. He advocates fraternity and sincerity, while monks hate hypocrisy and resentment. The positive female images he portrayed are gentle, virtuous, beautiful and kind, and the most perfect ending is to stick to the family and teach the children wholeheartedly; On the contrary, women who are violent, vengeful, arrogant and snobbish are often punished by fate, and finally find their humanity in the face of "good people" and cruel reality.
Dickens' literary achievements are very high, and his influence on world literature is enormous. His works were introduced to China in the early 20th century and were loved by readers. China's modern novels are deeply influenced by his humanitarianism, social critical spirit and superb artistic skills.
Dickens is the most popular novelist in Britain-even more than a century later, he still deserves this honorary title.
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