Micleuanu Valeria, gr. Rom-Eng.

Constrast between Forsyte Saga. The man of proprety and Oliver Twist

"The Forsyte Saga" is a history of three generations of the the Forsyte

family from the eighties of the 19th century up to the twenties of the 20th
century. "The Man of Property" shows two successive generations of a rich
upper middle class family at the end of the 19th century. It is a social novel:
the author shows the Forsyte family as a small unit of English upper middle
class society of his own time. The Forsytes possess all the features typical of
their class as a whole, and they have to obey the laws which govern it. He
who dares to disobey these laws is ostracized by society.
The main themes
are
Duty
versus
Desire
and
Generations
and
Change.
Characteristic features of the Forsyte are: extreme individualism,
egoism, an ability never to give themselves away, contempt for everything
foreign, a strong sense of property, money worship, tenacity, snobbery,
practicality.
In Oliver Twist, Dickens mixes grim realism with merciless satire to
describe the effects of industrialism on 19th-century England. It is a
bildungsroman, when woman is sow as a very strong character, with
personality and values. The main novel of this themes are Poverty and social
class. In The Forsyte Saga the author discus about high class, where people
don`t see the true values, where family is not a power, but a place when you
can be arrogant and egoist, but Charles D. discus about low class.
In The Forsyte Saga characters don`t believe in real love, the think all
in this life can be earned by money, but in Oliver Twist we see the power of
God, the power of family. Soames is unable to comprehend that all his
property, large as it is, cannot make Irene love him. The other members of
the family are unable to understand it either. In their opinion the very fact
that Irene has no fortune of her own is enough to make it her duty to love
and obey her rich husband. That is the Forsytes' conception of love and
marriage.
Only when Irene left him and he realized that she was penniless, that
she had taken nothing that he or his people had given her, he came to
understand how deeply she hated him In Galsworthy's opinion property is
"an empty shell". Soames' fate confirms this idea: rich as he was, he was not
happy. In Oliver Twist happiness is found in everything. If you are poor it
doesn`t means you are not happy and family is united. The money are a way
to survive, to eat and to life, not to obtain everything you want in this life.
Dickens makes considerable use of symbolism. The many symbols Oliver
faces are primarily good versus evil, with evil continually trying to corrupt

Micleuanu Valeria, gr. Rom-Eng.

and exploit good, but good winning out in the end. Both authors made
wonderful novels, in different ways they gave us the same treasure - book.