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Charles Dickens, Sensitive to the Social Ills of the Victorian World, Took Exception to the Wanton Wastefulness of Dilettantes

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Charles Dickens, Sensitive to the Social Ills of the Victorian World, Took Exception to the Wanton Wastefulness of Dilettantes Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository The role of the dilettante in the novels of Dicken's middle period Stender, Carol 1991 Find more at https://preserve.lib.lehigh.edu/ This document is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ROLE OF THE DILETTANTE IN THE NOVELS OF DICKENS/S MIDDLE PERIOD by Carol Stender A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Committee ·• ' of Lehigh University In Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts 1n• English Lehigh University 1990 .r This thesis ls accepted and approved ln partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. , / Profes Charge • Head of e Dep of Engl l sh I I 11 !!l .. '. .. • TABLE OF CONTENTS • • 1 Abstract • • • • • • • • • • • Introduction • • • • • • Historical Background of the 1 1 Victorian Dilettante • .. • • • 22 Dickens and the Dilettante . • • • • • • • 31 Richard Carstone • • • • • • • so Henry Go,11an . • • • • -· • • ·- 71 • • • • • Notes • • • • • • • • • 73 Works Ci t·ed • • • • • • 77 • • • • \/ i ta • • • • • • • I I I 111 .. Q ABSTRAC'I' During the Victorian era, the idle young gentleman, though fashionable and clever, was unfortunately lost ln the shuffle of the swiftly changing Victorian world. Raised under traditional standards of good breeding, the dilettante was, nevertheless, unable to function effectively in a world that sorely needed hls input. Charles Dickens, sensitive to the social ills of the Victorian world, took exception to the wanton wastefulness of dilettantes. In his fiction, he always dealt with their 1 lk harshly. Through careful analysis of Dlckens/s treatment of the dilettante l~ the novels, Bleak House and Little Docrlt, one obtains a unique understanding of Dlckens/s stance as an Englishman and a humanitarian, ln the throes of monumental economic and social upheaval. As a member of the upper class, the dilettante was a person to be respected, his position held in awe and envied. However, social ills demanded reform. The upper class had the ability to effect changes before revolution set in, but many remained aloof to the activist role. Dickens found men who played the role of ''idle gentlemen" inexcusable. He felt anyone born with the political connections, educational advantages, and innate abilities necessary for problem solving, -1- ', ' should direct hls energies toward allevlatlng social lnJustlce. Since the dilettante, by his very nature, helped no one but himself, he was always one of Dickens/s least sympathetic characters. Finally, a close study of the dilettantes, Richard Carstone and Henry Gowan, reveals the evolution of Dlckens/s attitude toward the upper classes. He comes to realize that the dilettante was not only a vehicle of social injustice, but also one of soclety/s saddest victims. -2- INTRODUCTION Among Dickens/a gallery of Victorian caricatures appears the dllettante--a sophisticated young gentleman on the fringes of society, leading a vaguely parasitic existence in the shadows of the worldly and successful. More often than not, he ls of good birth1.\ and accustomed to the benefits of the upper or upper-middle class world. He ls wel I-heeled, wel I-mannered, and wel I-educated, and he enJoys some degree of financial Independence. Dickens consistently represents the dilettante as one of society/s failures. We find him passing his life in unregenerate, dissipated idleness. Nurtured on the finest expectations and raised with the highest personal connections, the Dlckens/s dilettante ls nevertheless stymied ln his youthful ambitions and thus he spends the remainder of his existence enduring disappointment and frustration. Disenchantment turns his youthful openness Into bitter defensive sarcasm; his worldliness becomes only an additional source of pain as he compares his reality to his Ideals. He ls generally without direction in life, frequently bored, frequently dissipated. Hls Independent means are rarely enough to cover hls extravagances, and Indebtedness further discolors his world. Unable to meet hls early expectations, he becomes defiant. -3- Glo~la O~tlz, ln he~ 9tudy of the dilettante, describes him In thle manner: A male character, he ls basically Idle. Either heir to a relatively new fortune begotten by the labors of hls l,nmedlate ancestors or, more frequently, living on the llluslon of inherited money he has spent on dlsslpatlon, he generally shows a marked aversion to work. When he does work, he tends to dabble at the occupation .. Pampered, Idle, and narclsslstlc, ... Chis] conquest of women swells hls sense of self-worth. (Ortiz 9) Despite their prevalence, Dlckens/s dilettantes have generally escaped close scrutiny. Ellen Moers/ The Dandy: Brununell to Beerbohm ls the one maJor study that explores the dilettante In Victorian literature. However, many critics, such as J. Hill ls Miller and John Lucas, although focussing on the social crltlclsm in Dlckens/s later novels, give the dilettante only passing Interest. J. Hillis Miller, for instance, makes much of the paralysis and stagnation apparent in Bleak House and draws a direct connection between this stagnation and the fate of many of the novel/s characters, but includes only incidentally the tragedy of that novel/s dilettante, Richard Carstone. The maJorlty of Mlller/s analysis ls concerned with the pervasive role of Chancery Court and the plight of Jo, the pauper from Tom-all-Alone/s. Lucas explores the £allures of law, rellglon and education and the horrors -4- I of class consciousness ln Dlckens 1 e canon, but, like Mlller/e, hl9 study emphasizes the Dedlocks and poor Jo, and barely touches Richard Carstone or Little D0rrlt 1 e Henry Gowan. Yet Dlckene 1 s use of dilettantes as both vehicles and victims of social lnJustlce ls a slgnlflcant, Integral facet of hls social crltlcls111. One of Dlckens/s central characters who goes through a period of dl lettantlsrn ls Pip ln Great Expectations. Plp/s transformation has been carefully analyzed from a number of different perspectives, but his dilettantism has not been of great concern, even though his unnatural assumption and eventual divestment of the role make an Interesting study. Little Docrlt/s Henry Gowan has attracted little crltlcal attention even though hls role as foll <and rival in love) to Arthur Clennam provides the tension In the Meagles subplot. Charles Dickens himself testified to Gowan/s importance to the novel when he stated that '''society, the Circumlocution Office, and Mr. Gowan, are of course three parts of one Idea and design ... one satire levelled against prevailing political and social I vices/'' (Forster 225). Eugene Wrayburn, the blase dilettante from Our Mutual Friend, on the other hand, has received critical attentlon.1 -5- ' Beginning with Mr. Pickwick, Charle9 Dickens lncludee at least one dilettante ln each novel/s cast of characters. The evolution of the character ln hls fiction testifies to Dlckens/s broadening involvement ln contemporary social issues and his lncreaslng insight Into the upper and upper-middle class world of Victorian England. Dlckens/s dilettantes reflect not only the Victorian society he lived in, but also his sometimes volatile reaction to that society~s shortcomings. In his portraits of dilettantes, Dickens sheds light on such questions as: Why does a young man born with many advantages become incapable of functioning usefully ln society? or Why does a gentleman, blessed with great promise and prospects, resign himself to failure? Under Dlckens/s pen, the dilettante as a character type goes through some Interesting stages of development. Beginning as a rather benign, foppish type, frequently with only a minor role, he ends up as a complex maJor interest in Dlckens/s last completed work, Our Mutual Friend. Frequently, Dlckens/s earl lest works gratuitously represent the idle Victorian gentleman as a colorful, but harmless character. In such works as Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nlckleby, ''gentlemanliness ls on the side of decency, the values of family life, social responsibility, the -6- true respectablllty of Innate worth as opposed to the ,/.. - -- --- ··-- "' . ---~ sham respectablllty of fashionable clothesN <Gilmour 11). The character take~ on increasingly malignant aspects with Richard Carstone ln Bleak Hou9e <1851-1853) and reaches a low point of loathsomeness In 1857 with Lltt1e Docrlt/s Henry Gowan. Novels of Dlckens/s later years explore the role of the dilettante with Increasing complexity and "the attempt to depict real aristocracy in the final phase of hls career reflects a slgnlflcant change In Dickens/ attitude since the days of Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Frederick Verlsopht in Nicholas Nlckleby" <Monad 421). Great Expectations <1860-61) gives us Pip, who ls less harmful than Gowan, but certainly no more useful to society. Not until Dlckens/s last completed work, Our Mutual Friend <1864-65) do we meet in Eugene Wrayburn a dilettante with a fully rounded character, marred by dilettantish shortcomings, yet winning our sympathies nonetheless. Influences that guided the development of Dlckens/s dilettante are basically twofold: personal tribulations, which included the long-term guardianship and care of his many insolvent relations, and an increasingly active social consciousness. After the success of Pickwick Papers and O11 ver:, D 1ck ens pr'ospered f 1nanc 1al 1y: 11 On ,r/f the basis of hls talent alone, ln a few short years he -7- had established himself as declelveJy upper middle clas9• <Kaplan 106>. Ae Dickens began to circulate In elite London society, hls personal Interactions with the dilettante-type In real llfe Increased. Literary figures such as Leigh-Hunt, Thackeray and Wilkie Collins, though sometimes friends, often Irritated Dickens/s with their airs and attitudes.2 Consequently, the fictional dilettante became an increasingly negative portrait. Also, as he prospered, Dickens took on the burdens of supporting his dllettantlsh father, hls debt-ridden sons, brothers, and even his siblings' families.
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