Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Daniela Němcová Approaches to Childhood in Novels by Charles Dickens Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. 2011 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. ………………………………………………. Daniela Němcová I would like to thank Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. for his helpful advice. Table of contents Introduction ........................................................................................ 5 1 The Concept of Childhood and Historical Background ...................... 9 1.1 The concept of childhood and its changes .............................. 10 1.2 Children in Victorian England ................................................. 16 2 Oliver Twist ............................................................................... 19 2.1 The main protagonist and other child characters ..................... 21 2.2 The child´s perspective......................................................... 24 2.3 The portrayal of the family in relation to childhood .................. 25 3 David Copperfield ....................................................................... 29 3.1 David´s childhood and his development ................................. 31 3.2 The child´s perspective......................................................... 35 3.3 The portrayal of the family and its function ............................ 37 4 Great Expectations ..................................................................... 41 4.1 Pip´s development ............................................................... 42 4.2 The relationships between Pip and other characters ................ 45 4.3 The portrayal of the family in Great Expectations .................... 47 4.4 Approches to childhood......................................................... 49 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 53 Bibliography ...................................................................................... 57 Resume ............................................................................................ 59 Resume in Czech ............................................................................... 60 INTRODUCTION The main topic of my thesis is the theme of childhood in the novels Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Each of the novels has one main child protagonist and many other child characters which play subordinate roles in the plot and in the construction of the whole novel. The novels were selected because of the fact that the theme of childhood is crucial for them. Let me now briefly introduce and describe the structure of the thesis. The aim of this thesis is to examine the approaches to childhood in the novels mentioned. Certainly the reader will be interested in the way in which Dickens depicts the main heroes of his novels. How he portrays them in their childhood and at the beginnings of the stories can tell us quite a lot about the future development of their characters. In the pages that follow it will be shown that the story of the main protagonist in each novel is formed by his family situation which is the key factor which determines the approach to the child in the novel. However, not only the description of the hero´s family is important in Dickens. The contrast between families in different social strata may tell us a lot. Some similarities can be found among all three protagonists Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Pip. They are orphans and this fact predestines their fates. However, the family situation and family background from which these characters originate differ in the novels. Oliver Twist is an orphan born in the workhouse and lives without any relatives from the very beginning of the story. He is portrayed as abandoned orphan without any living siblings or other relatives. However, David Copperfield´s family situation at the beginning of his 5 story is different. Although he is born as a child without a father, he spends part of his early childhood with his own mother and at the very beginning of the story his aunt is present on the scene. Similarly, Pip has his own family around him. He lives with his older sister and her husband Joe. We will see that the family situation and social status have a big influence on the development of the stories. It seems clear that we cannot look at the main protagonists separately and that we must at least briefly point out some other child characters that play important and relevant roles in the stories. The character of Oliver Twist is certainly related to other children in the novel. The gang of young thieves and children in the workhouse in Oliver Twist play as important role as for example the character of Estella does in Great Expectations. Therefore also these characters will be briefly mentioned and commented on. The analysis of the characters in the novels should not be done without regard to a wider context. All the characters are related to the environment in which they exist and behave in some ways. The settings of the novels, as well as the social status of the children, are probably related to the main characters and therefore some space will be devoted to these aspects of the novels. When analysing the aspects of childhood in the novels it might be useful to mention the social situation in the Victorian society and mainly its consequences for the children. Due to the fact that Dickens´s works were extremely popular and widely read in his time, it might be useful to take into account the socio-historical context of the period. There might be some 6 connections between the literature and reality and the writer might be influenced by the reality to some extent. Therefore a chapter dealing with historical background of Victorian England is included. Moreover, the first chapter of this thesis examines the concept of childhood because it might be useful to see how the concept of childhood has been created and how it has changed. The whole thesis includes four chapters. These are divided into smaller parts in accordance to the topics. The following chapters seek to introduce the historical context of Victorian England and consequently to show that the child characters are depicted in relation to other characters and that the author depicts his heroes in relation to their family background and examines their family situations. The first chapter is called “The Concept of Childhood and Historical Background” and deals with the society of Victorian era and especially with the living conditions of children. My sources dealing with the historical situation are used for this chapter. I have used Reader´s Life in Victorian England 1and The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-18002 by Lawrence Stone. This chapter also contains a brief view on concepts of childhood and family and on the changes which these concepts had to undergo. The three following chapters deal with the novels in chronological order and are named after the novels they deal with. At the beginning of each chapter the novel and plot are mentioned in general to provide a general overview of the novel and to introduce specific aspects of the childhood in particular novel, 1 Reader, William J. Life in Victorian England. London: B.T. Batsford, 1964. Print. 2 Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800. Abr. ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977. Print. 7 which are relevant to the topic. Then the secondary sources related to the chapter concerned are mentioned and evaluated. Mainly printed books and electronic sources such as articles are used. The chapter called “Oliver Twist” shows how Dickens criticised society in his novel and the main protagonist is depicted in relation to the description of society in which he exists and with which he has to struggle. The following chapter deals mainly with the development of the main protagonist David, because the theme of his maturing plays an important role in the novel. Similarly, the chapter “Great Expectations” deals with the topic of one´s maturity and development. In this chapter, the power of an adult influence on children characters is emphasised. Finally, in the conclusion the approaches to childhood in the novels selected are compared and contrasted. 8 1 THE CONCEPT OF CHILDHOOD AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND As already mentioned in the introduction, in this chapter the concept of childhood and the way of life of children in Victorian England are examined. It is very difficult to define the concept of childhood, but it might be at least useful for the reader to mention some ideas concerning childhood. Chris Jenks´s book Childhood3 is used in this chapter. Jenks is primarily a sociologist and although we do not attempt to examine childhood from a sociological point of view, it might be interesting to see how sociology defines it because sociology examines society, and literature is an inseparable part of society and culture. Then we focus on how the concept of childhood has changed and these changes are well described in the work Centuries of Childhood 4 was a medieval historian who focused on childhood and although his book primarily deals with French culture, his notions are applicable to western culture in general. Another source used in this chapter is the book The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 by Lawrence Stone. This book is used because it is focused