Imagistic Patterns in Charles Dickens
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This dissertation has been microlilmed exactly as received n0 bo—oU4o N E W C O M B , Mildred Elizabeth, 1914- IMAGISTIC PATTERNS IN CHARLES DICKENS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1967 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by Mildred Elizabeth Newcomb 1968 IMAGISTIC PATTERNS IN CHARLES DICKENS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Mildred Elizabeth Newcomb, B.A., M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 1967 Approved by Adviser Department of English PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The subject of this study was originally suggested to me by my adviser, Dr. Richard D. Altick. It has developed in directions which neither of us, I think, anticipated, departing from the conventional concept of style to consider that borderland area where content and form merge to the confusion of the analysts trying to resolve the dualism. As in the similar philosophical problem of mind and matter, some analysts have held rigidly to the distinctions between the two, while others have said that they cannot be separated, that content jLs form and vice versa. The point of view which I found most convincing underlies the helpful analyses and discussions of J. Middleton Murry, Richard Ohmann, Robert Estrich and Hans Sperber. This view postulates a substantive aspect of style which is different from the general content or subject matter of the piece of writing. Substantive in that it contains sense data and attitudes, it is yet part of one’s manner or mode of looking at and interpreting experi ence: part, that is, of one’s style. This lead seems to me to have special access to the heart of Dickens, and it is there fore the lead I have followed. Other works on the imagination of Dickens (e.g., A. 0. J. Cockshut) have been only tangential to this ii investigation, for though frequently isolating the same cruxes or materials for discussion, all seem to be proceeding from different assumptions to different conclusions. Most studies (Quirk, Stone, Axton, et al.) are quite specifically concerned with the analysis of syntax and language customarily dealt with in stylistic studies. The possibly over-lapping books of Earle Davis and J. Hillis Miller were deliberately avoided until this study was completed. It was then dis covered that Davis was primarily interested in accounting for various techniques employed by Dickens with current theatrical and literary influences, while Miller interpreted the novels as an existentialist. Both of these writers tried to place Dickens in some historical context. This study, on the con trary, has sought only to explore the implications of the internal evidence in his writings. I should like to express particular appreciation to Dr. Altick for his unflagging confidence in the study, as well as his stimulating guidance and astute criticisms along the way. Special thanks go also to Jan and Kay, my people at home who over long years have contributed loyalty, sup port, criticism, and skills to the advancement of the project. And finally, my great gratitude goes to my mother for the never failing confidence and encouragement of a lifetime. iii VITA July 20, 1914 Born— Palnesville, Ohio 1941 .... B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio 1941-1944 . Graduate Assistant in Personnel; Tutor, Department of English, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 1944 .... M.A., Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 1944-1951 • . Instructor in English, Ohio Wesleyan University 1947-1949 . Assistant Dean of Women, Ohio Wesleyan University 1949-1957 . Associate Dean of Women, Ohio Wesleyan University 1951-1967 . Assistant Professor of English, Ohio Wesleyan University 1956-1957 . Acting Dean of Women, Ohio Wesleyan University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Studies in Eighteenth Century Literature. Professor Robert C. Elliott Studies in Renaissance Literature. Professor William Wells (University of North Carolina) Studies in American Literature and Cultural History. Professor Claude Simpson Studies in Victorian Literature. Professor Richard D. Altick iv CONTENTS Page PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................. ii VITA ......................................................... iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 1 II. THE R I V E R ....................................... 17 III. THE MARSH ....................................... 36 IV. HUMAN BEINGS IN THE MARSH .......................... 60 V. A STRUGGLE IN T I M E ................................. 104 VI. THE IDEAL CHILDHOOD .............................130 VII. THE BLIGHTED CHILD AND A SENSE OF JUSTICE . 149 VIII. THE PRESERVED CHILD AND CASTLES IN THE AIR . 188 IX. THE PICTURE IN THE FIREPLACE ................. 234 X. CONCLUSION ...................................... 265 Appendix 1 ........................................................... 287 II. .............................................. 291 III........................................................... 295 IV .................. ... ............. .................... 296 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In an essay written in 19^2, John Gross placed Dickens among the great masters of expressionism, noting the general agreement among scholars that the author should not be reproached for a lack of surface realism. "Characters once dismissed as flat are accorded a quasi-methological grandeur, mannerisms are seen as motifs and stage-properties as sym bols." In fact, so much work has been done in this field that "one might be justified in feeling that this particular vein has been worked dry, while some writers are growing nervous of using the very word 'symbol’ in connection with Dickens." Nonetheless, Gross concludes that the quarrel between the symbolic and anti-symbolic critics is mostly over terminology, "since even critics who object to loose talk about symbolism recognize what it is meant to convey, and themselves continue to discuss Dickens in terms of imagery, atmosphere, accumulated detail." Professor Hillis Miller, sometimes criticized for his interpretation of the world of Dickens's novels, may, in Gross's opinion, give a "total picture [which] may be misleading, but his specific comments give one the feel of Dickens, and even when he 1 2 appears over-ingenious he is usually only unearthing what was there already." Gross finally appears uncertain about what yet needs to be done in this field of Dickens study: "Perhaps the time has passed, and the job has already been done piecemeal." On the other hand, "No one has ever shown to the full why his language crackles with such electric i t y ."1 I have undertaken the present inquiry in the belief that the time has not gone by for a study of Dickens * imagi nation (defined for present purposes as the faculty for perceiving abstractions concretely and for embodying them in images). I furthermore hope to account for some of the electricity mentioned by Gross, not through a linguistic study of syntax and diction, but rather through analysis of what I shall explain as the "substance" of the Dickens style. This study has hitherto been done piecemeal and hence with no more total illumination than accompanied the blind men's view of the elephant; or which has been hindered by special pleading, productive of false and even ludicrous conclusions. The note of misgiving sounded by Mr. Gross must be heeded. As he suggests of Mr. Miller, a wealth of excellent materials has already been unearthed by writers who put these materials 1 "Dickens: Some Recent Approaches," Dickens and the Twentieth Century (London), p. xv. 3 together In a way reminiscent of the Inspector of Our Mutual Friend: This proclamation rendered Mr. Inspector addition ally studious, and caused him to stand meditating on river-stairs and causeways, and to go lurking about in boats, putting this and that together. But, according to the success with which you put this and that together, you get a woman and a fish apart, or a Mermaid in combination. And Mr. Inspector could turn out nothing better than a Mermaid, which no Judge or Jury would believe in (36-37) *2 In order in advance to relieve myself of implication. In certain Mermaidian points of view, I must make clear that I have not read the novels as confessional autobiographical revelations; that, although I see in Dickens a clear anti cipation of Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, and even Eugene Ionesco, I shall not foist upon him attitudes from a climate of knowl edge and opinion In which he never lived, or practices for which evidence is not forthcoming without textual distortion. I do not believe that he was a "Symbolist," or that his novels were attempts (a century early) to escape twentieth- century "alienation" and "isolation" through acceptance of existential beliefs. Neither, despite the wide acceptance the idea enjoys, do I believe in Dickens' steady artistic progress; although 2 This and all subsequent quotations from Dickens will be taken from the National Edition, 40 volumes (London: 1906-1908). Volume numbers occur only when the specific work has more than one volume, or when the story is contained in a volume with a different title. 4 steady improvement of craftsmanship seems unmistakable.,his artistic judgment and control remain to the end sporadic and undependable. I believe that the art of Dickens, like that of Ibsen, suffered from his inability to select among con flicting purposes. In Bleak