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Folly and Wisdom : the Dickensian Holy Innocent

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Folly and Wisdom : the Dickensian Holy Innocent FOLLY AND WISDOM: THE DICKENSIAN HOLY INNOCENT Robert Michael McCarron B.A. Hons. Simon Fraser University, 1974 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English @ ROBERT MICHAEL McCARRON 1977 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April, 19 77 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Robert Michael McCarron Degree: Master of Arts (English) Title of Thesis: Folly and Wisdom: The Dickensian Holy Innocent Examining Commit tee : Chairman : Robert H. Dunham . c, I' Michael Steig Senior Supervisor - - r - Mason Harris ---.- ,- , . / r Ann Messenger 7 - U I Masrgre t B 1om External Examiner Assistant Professor University of British Columbia Date Approved : 5 APrIr)997 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to usere of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for-such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its 'own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of ~hesis/~lssertation: Folly and Wisdom: The Dickensian Holy Innocent Author : (signature ) Robert Michael McCarron (name ) 27 April 1977 (date) iii ABSTRACT Although various critics have recognized that the fool is a recurrent figure in Dickens's works, few offer more than a cursory analysis. Yet this complex, ubiquitous character, largely derived from the folk-fool tradition and Shakespearean drama, is central to Dickens's artistic and moral vision. In his most frequent manifestation as Holy Innocent (the simple-hearted or simple-souled individual), the fool acts as a moral touchstone, servant- mentor, comic buffoon and entertainer, satirist and truth-teller, presenting his paradoxical blend of folly and wisdom. The thesis begins with a general survey of Dickens's diverse fool-types and the sources which contributed to his conception of these figures, while the procedure in the main study involves a detailed investigation of the pri- mary motifs within the Dickensian Holy Innocent convention. Each individual fool-type (Pickwick and his literary descendants, the fool-lunatic, and the child-fool) is seen to perform particular functions, though all are signifi- cantly inter-related, principally concerned with the fool as a symbolic counterbalance to social corruption. The Pickwickian fool, for example, is often an explicit antagonist of social and individual evil, establishing a community of innocence to counteract the perversities of the larger society. The folk-fool or fool-lunatic displays a more complex intermingling of divine and demonic madness, subtly embodying Dickens's own ambivalent response to social violence and the power of the fool to resist corruption. The Holy Innocent's personal-thematic relationships with the child and the woman, finally, illuminate the fool's often troubled inner life while simultaneously presenting Dickens's efforts to strengthen the Holy Innocent's thematic impor- tance through a union of psychological realism and symbolic values. Throughout this study, it is discovered that the Holy Innocent is at once a more complex and significant figure in ~ickens'smoral and social vision than many critics have acknowledged. Dickens's uses of the fool are found to be never superficially roseate, but always displaying a full recognition of the intrinsic difficulties involved in making this character- type a major vehicle for his moral philosophy. A large part of Dickens's concern, in fact, is to explore these problems, acknowledging the fool's mental and social limitations, and yet giving form and substance to the Holy Innocent's paramount moral values by granting him a credible psychological- symbolic basis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance and advice I have received from Michael Steig, in the writing of this thesis, and I wish to thank Ann Messenger, Mason Harris, and Temple Maynard for their support and encouragement throughout my university career. CONTENTS Page APPROVAL ii ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v NOTE ON REFERENCES AND EDITIONS vii CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: Dickens and the Fool Tradition 1. The Dickensian Holy Innocent 2. Witty Fools and Foolish Wits CHAPTER TWO: From Pickwick to Boffin: The Holy Innocent and Social Evil CHAPTER THREE: Divine and Demonic Madness: The Ambiguous Fool-Lunatic CHAPTER FOUR: The Child, the Woman, and the Fool 1. The Fool and the Normal World 2. The Child-Fool 3. Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY vii NOTE ON REFERENCES AND EDITIONS All quotations from Dickens's novels, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Oxford Illustrated Dickens (London: Oxford University Press, 1966-74), and are documented in the text within parentheses by chapter, page, and (where applicable) book. Articles from Bentley's Miscellany, Master Humphrey's Clock, and Household Words are similarly documented. The following abbrevia- tions are used throughout: Pickwick Papers David Copper f ied -DC Oliver Twist Bleak House -BH Nicholas Nickleby -NN Hard Times -HT Old Curiosity Shop -OCS Little Dorrit -LD Barnab y Rudge -BR Tale of Two Cities TTC Martin Chuzzlewit -MC Great Expectations Christmas Books -C B Our Mutual Friend -OMF Dombey and Son -DS Edwin Drood CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Dickens and the Fool Tradition The major critical studies of the fool tradition, arguing that the 1 fool is essentially a product of the medieval and renaissance world-views, seldom examine any literary work later than the Elizabethan period. There is, of course, eome basis for this limitation; historically the figure of the court jester declined rapidly in England after the sixteenth century, while in literature the fools of Jonsonian comedy and of the Restoration theatre are less thematically and artistically complex than the protean characters created by Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. The fool, how- ever, is traditionally a resilient and mutable figure, and as the novel gained popularity and sophistication, the fool re-emerged in this new genre as a significant character-type. The innocent simpletons, devoted servants, and caustic commentators in the works of Fielding, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Smollett are direct descendants of earlier fool-figures. Victorian novel- ists, likewise, continued to employ this versatile performer (Thackeray's Captain Dobbin and Hardy's Christian Cantle are two obvious cases). The most prolific and innovative devotee of the fool tradition in post-Elizabethan times, however, is Charles Dickens, whose holy fools (although inexplicably ignored by the principal studies of that tradition) display the same rich and varied attributes as those in renaissance literature. The Dickensian fool, in fact, largely derived from the folk-fool tradition and Shakespearean drama, is central to Dickens's moral and artistic vision. In his most frequent and significant manifestation, that of the Holy Innocent (the simple-hearted or simple-souled individual), the fool acts as moral touchetone, servant- mentor, comic buffoon and entertainer, satirist and truth-teller, presenting his paradoxical blend of folly and wisdom. Every discussion of the fool tradition encounters an immediate obstacle -- the problem of definition. Enid Welsford suggests that the fool "is a man who falls below the average human standard, but whose defects have been transformed into a source of delight, a mainspring of comedy . .112 Attempting a more precise formulation, William Willeford proposes a series of alternatives: "The fool is, in short, a silly or idiotic or mad person, or one who is made by circumstance (or the actions of others) to appear a fool in that sense, or a person who imitates for non-fools the foolishness of being innately silly, or made to look so. "3 These definitions, however, although informative, do not resolve all the difficulties. What is the "average human standard"? And does not the fool often rise above some stan- dards as well as fall below them (as in the cases of Don Quixote or Stultitia's Christ)? Similarly, although the fool is "silly or idiotic or mad," he is also wise, inspired, and sane (especially when contrasted with the worldly-wise non-fool). The subtle ironies of the Erasmian-Shakespearean oxymoron "wise fool" do not permit a facile definition. As Stultitia herself exclaims near the beginning of her encomium, "let none of ye expect from me, that after the manner of Rhetoricians I should go about to Define what I am, 114 for the protean and elusive nature of the fool is an essential aspect of his thematic importance. Implicit in the Erasmian-Shakespearean concept, nonetheless, from which Dickens derived his major inspiration, is the image of the fool as a moral being, and those few critics who have recognized that this figure is a re- current character-type in Dickens's novels correctly emphasize his basic moral functions. Angus Wilson argues that "the divine idiot is as powerful a part of Dickens's interpretation of Christ's beatitudes as it is of Dostoevsky's; and the existence of divine simpletons in Dickens's works is perhaps one of the chief reasons why Dostoevsky admired them so much. 115 C. B. Cox similarly states that "in literature, the great and virtuous man is often a fool," and goes on to praise Pickwick's "love of life and . kindness," noting that "a touch of this mixture of wisdom and folly is seen in the optimism of Micawber, in the devotion to the stage of Crummles, and in the fantastic imagination of Mr. Dick. Dick's brains may be a little touched, but, as he flies his kite on peaceful summer days, he evinces a god-like serenity.
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