论文总字数：25032字
摘 要
查尔斯·狄更斯是英国文学史上最伟大的批判现实主义作家之一。《雾都孤儿》是他的早期的杰作之一。奥利弗悲惨境遇是基于狄更斯的亲身经历。与写作了《名利场》的威廉·萨克雷不同，狄更斯对底层人民生活很熟悉，因此他对于底层人民的善恶有更深的理解。通过塑造不同的人物形象，揭露了19世纪中期英国人性的善恶。本文旨在通过分析书中人物和写作背景来表达出观点：善有善报，恶有恶报。
关键词：查尔斯·狄更斯；善；恶
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 1
3. Representatives of Virtue from Oliver Twist 2
3.1 Mr.Brownlow 2
3.2 Mr.Rose 3
3.3 Mrs.Nancy 4
4. Representatives of Vice from Oliver Twist 5
4.1 Mr.Bumble 5
4.2 Mr. Fagin 6
4.3 Mrs. Nancy 6
5. Causes of Dickens’ View of Virtue and Vice 7
5.1 The background in Britain in the Mid 19th century 7
5.2 Charles Dickens’ personal reasons 9
6. Conclusion 11
Works Cited 12
1. Introduction
During the 19th century in Britain, there were springing up lots of famous writers, including some female writers. These writers were concerned about the whole society on all sides. Some explored the relationship between marriage and love; some tried to evoke the sense of equality; others might devote themselves to assisting the people in need. In a world, they were inclined to show solicitude to the dark side of society.
As a member of these fantastic novelists, Charles Dickens also had a strong tendency to pay more attention to the lower class. Obviously, most of his novels were related to the bottom society, such as Hard Times, A Tale of Two cities, especially the book Oliver Twist I am ready to make a research on. On the contrary, there were also other writers focusing on the other class. William Thackeray was another typical representative. His novel Vanity Fair showed the decadent life among the people of upper class. Therefore, we can have an overall knowledge of British people’s life from the description of the writers.
2. Literature Review
As we all know, in this novel Oliver Twist, Dickens pays closely attention to the lower class, which differs from William Makepeace Thackeray’ s novel Vanity Fair. Faced with the differences, many commentators at home and abroad have spoken out their views. Vanity Fair is mainly about a story along the pilgrim"s route: a never-ending fair held in a town that is called Vanity, representing man"s sinful attachment to worldly things. However，Oliver Twist is aimed at expressing Dickens"s unromantic portrayal of criminals and their contemptible lives, as well as exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid–nineteenth century.
By now, many scholars have made researches on Charles Dickens, so that we are so familiar with his life stories. Charles Dickens was the greatest critical realist of 19th in British literature history. Deeply influenced by the terrible trouble, he had no alternative but to become a child labor in a boot and shoe cream workshop, so that he could support his family.
From now on, so many literary critics speak highly of the book Oliver Twist. Undoubtedly, in China, many researchers have studied the work of Oliver Twist. He Shunli figures out the excellent aspect of humanity through the analysis of the true, the good and the beautiful in Oliver Twist, while Li Shuo attempts to tell people the dark side in the society.
There are also lots of critics studying this book Oliver Twist abroad, such as the famous researcher Peter. From Catherine Peters’ point of view, its general purpose was clear in his mind was evident from his later—written preface: “I wished to show, in little Oliver, the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last” (Peters 35).
After I read the book Oliver Twist, I was deeply impressed by the firm and inflexible little Oliver. His bitter and fortunate experience shows two different aspects of British society. One represents the right side and another is on the behalf of evil. In my opinion, Charles Dickens expresses his strong view of virtue and vice. By his portrayal of the lower class, we can see the evil aspect in this society, which is represented by Bumble, Sikes, Fagin and other people. On the other side, we also see the beautiful nature of human beings, such as Rose. In this novel, Dickens gives all characters the ending they are deserved, which clearly conveys that good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil.
3. Representatives of Virtue from Oliver Twist
3.1 Mr. Brownlow
From the book, it is not hard for us to realize that Mr. Brownlow was on behalf of the good side. As a matter of fact, Mr. Brownlow was a true gentleman.
According to the description in the book: "If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is an ass — an idiot. If that"s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience." This is his attitude towards the law, or his attitude towards the poor. He thought the law should sever for the people, not take control of the people or even insult their people.
On one hand, he had a compassionate heart. Though Oliver with his new associates stole the old gentleman’s handkerchief, Mr. Brownlow still felt sympathy for little Oliver, and when faced with the police magistrate Mr. Fang, he tried to suppress his anger of being insulted and submit to be sworn in order to help the poor boy out of the trouble. Moreover, he even took Oliver in and looked after Oliver well after going home.
On the other hand, he was a man of full responsibility. In the latter of the book, readers can notice that Mr. Brownlow was well acquainted with Oliver’s father, and the old gentleman had been requested to take care of Oliver by Oliver’s father. Mr. Brownlow kept these words in his mind all the time, so he gave a hand to Oliver to figure out the truth of Oliver’s lot. Finally, he kept his promises and had a nice ending, confirming good will be rewarded.
3.2 Mr. Rose
There is no denying the fact that Rose was the embodiment of all good things. Not only she was a beautiful and charming girl, but also she was kind, lovely, lively, generous, considerate etc. Some scholars thought that Mrs. Rose’s prototype was Dickens’ sister-in-law who in a way Dickens admired. However, unfortunately, the lovely girl fell ill all of a sudden and kicked the bucket in the end. Dickens was very grieved and he created the character Rose to get rid of his sadness gradually, which was also the reason why Rose was so perfect.
Rose was not just a wonderful name; it was also a kind of beautiful flowers, indicating that Mrs. Rose owned many fine virtues. She is as fresh, delicate, pure and natural as a rose. The name Rose is a symbol of youth and beauty.
We could learn that from the following two aspects.
Firstly, we can learn from her kindness to Oliver Twist. Though Oliver and his companions planned to rob Mrs. Maylie’s home, Mrs. Rose still held a kind attitude to the thin and weak boy. When the poor boy was shot, Rose was very anxious and tried to save the little boy’s life and take good care of the boy; when Nancy took the risks of being killed to transfer information about Oliver, Rose was worried about Nancy, then she was eager to persuade Nancy to leave the evil Silks.
Secondly, we can also learn from her refusal to marry Harry. To some extent, Rose was self-contemptuous. Of course, she loved Harry, but meanwhile for Harry’s good, she must reject to Harry’s advice of marriage. Because she said ‘I owe it to myself ,that, a friendless, portionless girl, with a blight upon my name, should not give your friends reason to suspect that I had sordidly yielded to your first passion, and fastened myself, a clog, on your hopes and projects,’(Oliver Twist 164). In brief, she did not want to be the shame of Harry. What she did aimed to protect the reputation of Harry. She was so kind and considerable all the time, which was embodied by the hope of the author.
Due to virtues, she deserved the excellent ending. To the satisfaction of all, not only she found her nephew Oliver, but also did she marry her true love Harry in the end of the story.
3.3 Mrs. Nancy
Obviously, Nancy was a controversial character in the novel. For one thing, she helped Silks and Fagin take control of the thieves; for the other thing, she sent the message to Rose and Brownlow to rescue Oliver from the trap and even lost her life at the end. In this part of the thesis, I mainly pay attention to her virtues.
Nancy’s good nature mainly embodied in her protection of the little Oliver. In chapter 16, when Oliver was caught and taken to the dirty room again, Bill immediately let his dog bite Oliver. Nancy stopped the dog biting the poor boy. And most surprisingly, when she knew that Monks and the old Jewish Fagin planned to trap Oliver, she tried to assist Oliver to be away from the terrible circumstance.
Nancy committed one of the most noble acts of kindness when she took the risk of losing her life to help Oliver. Her character represented Dickens’ view that man, no matter how he was treated by society, could still retain virtuous.
4. Representatives of Vice from Oliver Twist
4.1 Mr. Bumble
Mr. Bumble was a clue connecting with the whole novel. Obviously, he was the representation of vice. In the beginning, he was the beadle of the workhouse. “Mr. Bumble had a great idea of his oratorical powers and his importance. He had displayed the one, and vindicated the other. He relaxed. "Well, well, Mrs. Mann," he replied in a calmer tone; "it may be as you say; it may be. Lead the way in, Mrs. Mann, for I come on business, and have something to say." （Charles Dickens 102）
He took Oliver away from Mrs. Mann’s home, then he ordered Oliver to obey the rules in the parish. When Oliver asked for more porridge, Mr. Bumble and his colleagues were strict with the boy. They were ambitious to build a world where the children under their control had no any voice. What the children were supposed to do was to comply with the unreasonable regulations. O liver began to recover and slowly regain his strength. The picture that had caused Mr. Brownlow"s excitement was taken down from the wall, and was not mentioned again. O liver was disappointed at the disappearance of the picture, since he liked the woman"s face, but he had many other things to think about now.
What’s worse, after Mr. Bumble married Mrs. Corney, the couple knew the truth of Oliver’s birth, then they used the secret to do a deal with Monks. How cruel they were! However, it was comforting that Mr. Bumble ate his own bitter fruit finally: he lost his position in the workhouse, which proved that a wicked person will be harassed by another judgment.
4.2 Mr. Fagin
Fagin is named of “the Jew”. Throughout the novel he was called “the old Jew”, especially in the chapter which described Fagin’s last night, Dickens still called the dammed old man Jew, which shows that Dickens has a strong feeling of hating the character he created.
“The Jew” takes Oliver under his wing and tries to make a pickpocket out of him. He is a powerful crime leader who has an affection for only money and will kill anyone who stands in his way. Fagin trained the poor homeless boys to steal fortunes from others, if they couldn’t complete the task on the day, Fagin would give them their meals as a punishment. He was too mean to stand anyone who didn’t make contributions to his property, therefore he was also hurried to train Oliver as his tool to achieve illegal income.
Without any question, the brutal Jewish man got what was going to him. ‘Everything told of life and animation, but no one dark cluster of objects in the center of all--the black stage, the cross-beam, the rope, and all the hideous apparatus of death’.
4.3 Mrs. Nancy
When it comes to Nancy’s vice, we readers may think of that she had been a thief and drank to excess as a child of the streets. But the description of her villainy is mainly embodied in the following two instances.
The first case is when Silks and Fagin forced Nancy to find Oliver and take him back, although Nancy knew the meaning of bringing Oliver back to the hell again, she still took measure to capture poor Oliver. She rushed at Fagin and would have hit him if Sikes had not held her arms so tightly that she couldn"t move. She struggled wildly for a while, the exhausted, she fainted. Sikes laid her down in the corner, as surprised as Fagin at her anger.
"She can be really wild when she"s angry, " Sikes said.
Fagin wiped his forehead. "That"s the trouble with women, "he said, "but she"s a clever girl in her work. (Charles Dickens 124)
The second case is in the later part of the novel, when Nancy decided to help Oliver get out of Monks’ trap, she also showed the protection of their gang by saying that she would not betray her companions anyway.
Nancy reflects the complexity and authenticity of human. Readers can not only learn about her good quality but also her bad behaviors, so she must pay the price for the bad thing she did before.
5. Causes of the Dickens’ View of Virtue and Vice
5.1 The background in Britain in the Mid 19th century
5.1.1 Economic reasons
Since the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century, the class structure in English society had undergone basic changes. The industrial capitalists began to play a more and more essential role and vied for political power with the old nobility. Due to the support of the people, this struggle for power ended in the victory of the bourgeoisie over the aristocracy.
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