Chapter V: The Victorian Age

Critical Realism in England

The 19th century was characterized by sharp contradictions. In many ways it was an
age of progress: railways and steamships were built, great scientific discoveries were
made, education became more widespread; but at the same time it was an age of profound
social unrest, because there was too much poverty, too much injustice, too much ugliness;
and above all, fierce exploitation of man by man.
The growth of scientific inventions mechanized industry and increased wealth, but
this progress only enriched the few at the expense of the many. Dirty factories,
inhumanly long hours of work, child labor, exploitation of both men and women workers,
low wages, slums and frequent unemployment, - these were the conditions of life for
the workers in the growing industries of England, which became the richest country in
the world towards the middle of the 19th century.
By the thirties of the 19 th century English capitalism had entered a new stage of
development. England had become a classical capitalist country, a country of industrial
capitalism. The Industrial Revolution on gathered force as the 19th century progressed,
and worked profound changes in both the economic and the social life of the
country. Quiet villages, sailing vessels and hand-looms gave way,
within a hundred years, to factory towns, railroads, and steamships. In
1844 Engels wrote as follows about the industrial progress of England:
"Sixty, eighty years ago, England was a country like every other, with
small towns, few and simple industries... Today it is a country like no
other, with a capital of two and a half million inhabitants, with vast
manufacturing cities, with an industry that supplies the world..." With the development
of large-scale industry small artisans were ruined. "History," wrote Karl Marx,
"discloses no tragedy more horrible than the gradual extinction of the English hand-
loom weavers, an extinction that was spread over several decades..."
The population of Manchester, Birmingham and other industrial centres was growing
rapidly as the number of factory workers multiplied, while the number of poor farmers
decreased and many rural districts were depopulated. The basic social classes in
England were no longer the peasants and the landlords but the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie.
Having won the victory over the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie betrayed the
interests of the working class. The reform bill of 1832 gave the vote neither to factory
workers nor to agricultural labourers. It was the merchants, the bankers and the
manufacturers who profited by it.
Trying to justify their policy and to turn aside the people's attention from the
unequal distribution of wealth in the country, bourgeois ideologists began to create
various theories. Such was the doctrine of Utilitarianism taught by the philosopher Jeremy
Bentham. In his opinion private happiness is the measure of all things. Leave things
alone and the situation will improve itself automatically. Wages and profits are fixed
by the automatic law of supply and demand. If a man finds a way to make heaps of
money, nothing can be done about it, if he starves to death in the gutter, nothing can be
done about that either.
Robert Malthus declared that the problem of poverty could only be solved by
artificially limiting the birth rate, as the population of a country increases in
geometrical proportion, while the food supply can increase only in arithmetical
proportion; hence starvation is inevitable.
The inconsistency of all these theories was proved later by Karl Marx's epoch-
making Capital which revealed the true nature of the capitalist system, and gave a
new conception of society and of the distribution of wealth.
The attempts of the bourgeoisie to solve social contradictions and to turn aside the
attention of the workers from political struggle ended in failure. The workers fought for
their rights. Their political demands were expressed in the People's Charter in 1833. The
Chartists introduced their own literature, which was the first attempt to create a
literature of the working class. The Chartist writers tried their hand at different genres.
They wrote articles, short stories, songs, epigrams, poems. Their leading genre was
poetry.
Though their verses were not so beautiful as those of their predecessors, the
romantic poets, the Chartists used the motives of folk-poetry and dealt with the burning
problems of life. They described the struggle of the workers for their rights, they
showed the ruthless exploitation and the miserable fate of the poor.
Ernest Jones, a leader and a poet of the Chartist movement, wrote in The Song of
the Lower Classes:
We're low - we're low - we're very, very low,
As low as low can be;
The rich are high - for we make them so -
And a miserable lot are we!
And a miserable lot are we! are we!
A miserable lot are we!
 Our place we know - we're so very low,
'Tis down at the landlord's feet:
We're not too low - the bread to grow,
But too low the bread to eat.

And what we get - and what we give,

We know - and we know our share.
We're not too low the cloth to weave
But too low the cloth to wear!
The same idea is expressed by Thomas Hood, one of the most prominent of the Chartist
poets, in his popular The Song of the Shirt:

With fingers weary and worn,

With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread –
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt".

"Work! work! work!

While the cock is crowing aloof!
And work - work - work,
Till the stars shine through the roof!
It's Oh! to be a slave
Along with the barbarous Turk,
Where woman has never a soul to save,
If this is Christian work!

"Oh, Men, with Sisters dear!

Oh, Men, with Mothers and Wives!
It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives!
Stitch - stitch - stitch,
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
 Sewing at once, with a double thread,
A Shroud as well as a Shirt!

"Work - work - work!

My labour never flags;
And what are its wages? A bed of straw,
A crust of bread - and rags.
That shatter'd roof - and this naked floor -
A table - a broken chair -
And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
For sometimes falling there!

"Work - work - work!

From weary chime to chime,
Work - work - work –
As prisoners work for crime!
Band, and gusset, and seam,
Seam, and gusset, and band,
Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumb'd,
As well as the weary hand

"Work - work - work,

In the dull December light,
And work - work - work,
When the weather is warm and bright . . ."

With fingers weary and worn,

With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread -
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, -
Would that its tone could reach the Rich! -
She sang this "Song of the Shirt"!
The Chartist writers called the toiling people to struggle for their rights and
expressed a firm belief in the final victory of the proletariat. In 1845 Engels wrote
that the Chartist literature, heroic and revolutionary in its character, surpassed in
significance all the literature of bourgeois England of the period.
THE NEW LITERARY TREND AND ITS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
The ideas of Chartism attracted the attention of many progressive-minded people of
the time. Many prominent writers became aware of the social injustices around them and
tried to picture them in their works. Thus this period of fierce class struggle was
mirrored in literature by the appearance of a new trend, that of Critical Realism. The
greatest novelists of the age are Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray,
Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell.
These writers used the novel as a means to protest against the evils in contemporary
social and economic life and to picture the world in a realistic way.
Engels said that in his opinion Realism should depict typical characters in typical
circumstances.
The critical realists introduced new characters into literature: they described the
new social force in modern history - the working class. They expressed deep
sympathy for the working people; they described the unbearable conditions of their
life and work; they voiced a passionate protest against exploitation and described
their persistent struggle for their rights.
Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell are
among the best works of 19th century Critical Realism in which the Chartist movement is
described.
The greatness of these novelists lies not only in their truthful description of
contemporary life, but also in their profound humanism. Their sympathy lies with the
ordinary labouring people. They believed in the good qualities of the human heart.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE CRITICAL REALISTS TO WORLD LITERATURE

The contribution of the writers belonging to what Karl Marx called the
'present brilliant school of English novelists' to world lit erature is enormous. They
created a broad panorama of social life, exposed and attacked the vices of aristocratic
and bourgeois society, sided with the common people in their passionate protest against
unbearable exploitation, and expressed their hopes for a better future.
The weakness of this literary trend lies in the fact, as Maxim Gorky puts it, that in
spite of their democratism, the English critical realists, not being connected with the
working class movement, could not comprehend the laws of social development and
therefore were unable to show the only correct way of abolishing social slavery.
They wanted to improve the existing social order by means of reforms. Some of them
wanted to reconcile the antagonistic classes - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, to make
the rich share their wealth with the poor, but being great artists they showed social
injustices in capitalist England in such a way that the reader cannot help thinking that
changes in the existing social system as a whole were necessary.
William makepeace Thackeray
(1811-1863)
"Thackeray possesses great tatent. Of all the European writers of the present time
Dickens alone can be placed on a level with the author of Vanity Fair. What a wealth of
art, how precise and thorough are his observations, what a knowledge of life, of the
human heart, what a bright and noble power of love, what a subtle humour, how precise
and distinct are his depictions, how wonderfully charming his narration."
Chernyshevsky
William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens were the greatest representatives
of Critical Realism in English literature of the 19th century.
In his novels Thackeray gives a vivid description of the upper classes of society, their
mode of life, manners and tastes. He shows their pride and tyranny, their hypocrisy, and
snobbishness, and their selfishness and general wickedness His knowledge of human
nature is broad and his portrayal of it is keenly analytical.
Thackeray's works lack the gentle humour so typical of Dickens's style. His criticism
is strong, his satire is sharp and bitter. He is a genius in portraying negative characters;
his positive characters are less vivid, but all of them are true to life. Thackeray used to
say that he wished to describe men and women as they really are.
The picture of life of the ruling classes of England in the 19th century as drawn by
Thackeray remains a classical example of social satire up to the present day.
William Makepeace Thackeray was born in a prosperous middle-class family. His
father was a well-to-do English official in Calcutta, India. When the boy was six years
old, he was taken from Calcutta, where he was born, to England to be educated. From
Charterhouse school he passed on to Cambridge University.
While a student, William spent much of his time drawing cartoons 1 and writing
verses, chiefly parodies. He did not stay long at the University, for he could not bear the
scholastic atmosphere of the place. Besides, his ambition was to become an artist, so he
left the University without graduating and went to Germany, Italy and France to study art.
In Germany Goethe, and this meeting left a deep impression on him.
Intending to complete his education, Thackeray returned to London and began a law
course in 1833. Meanwhile, the Indian bank, in which the money left to William by his
father was invested, went bankrupt, and Thackeray was left penniless. Therefore he had
to drop his studies to earn a living. For a long time he hesitated whether to take up art or
literature as a profession. Finally he decided to try his hand as a journalist. His humorous
articles, essays, reviews and short stories found a ready market. He himself illustrated
many of these pieces with amusing drawings, which added to the humorous effect.
In 1836 Thackeray married Isabella Shawe, and from this union there came three
daughters. Thackeray's married life was unhappy as his wife became ill after giving birth
to the third child. The illness affected her mind, and Thackeray threw all business aside
and for many months travelled with his wife from one health resort to another hoping that
she would recover, but she never regained her health. In the end she was placed with an
old lady who took care of her. Thackeray did all he could to make her life comfortable.
Isabella outlived her husband by many years.
Thackeray's first notable works was The Book of Snobs 1 (1846-1847) which deals
with the upper classes and their followers in the middle classes, whose vices the author
criticizes with the sharp pen of satire. The book may be regarded as a prelude to the
author's masterpiece Vanity Fair, which can be called the peak of Critical Realism. Vanity
Fair brought great fame to the novelist and remains his most-read work up to the present
day. It first appeared in twenty-four monthly parts which Thackeray illustrated himself. In
1848 it came out as a complete book.
The Book of Snobs is a satirical description of different circles of English society in
the century. The gallery of snobs in the book, Great City Snobs, The University Snobs
and others, convinces the reader that' snobbishness' was one of the most characteristic
features of the ruling classes of England at that time.
"How can we help Snobbishness, with such a prodigious national institution erected
for its worship? How can we help cringing to Lords? Flesh and blood can't do otherwise.
What man can withstand the prodigious temptation? ... whose heart would not throb with
pleasure if he could be seen walking arm-in-arm with a couple of Dukes down Pall Mall?
No; it is impossible, in our condition of society, not to be sometimes a snob."
"The word Snob has taken a place in our honest English vocabulary. We can't define
it, perhaps. “We can't say what it is, any more than we can define wit, or humour, or
humbug; but we know what it is."
Thackeray's contribution to world literature
Thackeray's contribution to world literature is enormous.
Though the class struggle found no reflection in his works, the
novelist truthfully reproduced the political atmosphere of the
century. This period witnessed the growth of the revolutionary
movement of the English proletariat. Thackeray's attitude

Thackeray's home where

"Vanity Fair" was written
towards the ruling classes of the country coincided with that of the broad democratic
circles of England who struggled for the parliamentary reform of 1832, were in favour of
the People's Charter of 1833 and actively supported the Chartist movement.
Thackeray developed the realistic traditions of his predecessors, the enlighteners,
Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding in particular, and became one of the most prominent
realists and satirists of his age. The world to him is Vanity Fair where men and women, to
use his own words, "are greedy, pompous, mean, perfectly satisfied and at ease about
their superior virtue. They despise poverty and kindness of heart. They are snobs".
Thackeray loathed snobbishness, and in his works he used satire to expose the
pretensions of the snobs and social climbers whom he depicts in his novels.

vanity fair (a novel without a hero)

The Origin of the Novel

The subtitle of the book shows the author's intention not to describe separate
individuals, but English bourgeois-aristocratic society as a whole.
The title of the book is borrowed from The Pilgrim's Progress, an allegorical novel
written by John Bunyan, one of the greatest writers of the second half of the 17th century.
The hero of Bunyan's novel comes to a great city where there is a fair, where
everything is on sale ...
" ... a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year
long. Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands, trades, places,
honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all
sorts, as ... wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver,
gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not.

And, moreover, at this fair there are at all times to be

seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves,
and rogues, and that of every kind."
Everybody there thinks only of his own interests.
Such qualities as honour and dignity are of no value. To
achieve his aim a man is ready to kill or devour any
human being, no matter whether he be friend or enemy.
Vanity Fair-1944 The same idea is expressed by Thackeray in his
masterpiece, Vanity Fair.
 Vanity Fair is a social novel which shows not only the bourgeois aristocratic society
as a whole, but the very laws which govern it. Describing the events which took place at
the beginning of the 19th century, the author presents a broad satirical picture of
contemporary England.
The social background of the novel which influences all the characters in their
thoughts and actions, is high society at large. Thackeray attacks the vanity, pretensions,
prejudices and corruption of the aristocracy (the Crawleys, Lord Steyne); the narrow-
mindedness and greed of the bourgeoisie (the Osbornes, the Sedleys). He mercilessly
exposes the snobbishness, hypocrisy, money-worship and parasitism of all those who
form the bulwark of society.
The interest of the novel centres on the characters rather than on the plot. The author
shows various people, and their thoughts and actions, in different situations. There is no
definite hero in the book. In Thackeray's opinion there can be no hero in a society where
the cult of money rules the world.
Text 11
Vanity Fair
Sir Pitt Crawley

Thackeray's satire reaches its climax when he describes Sir Pitt Crawley, a typical
snob of Vanity Fair.
"Vanity Fair! Vanity Fair! Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to
read - who had the habits and the cunning of a boor; whose aim in life was pettifogging;
who never had a taste, or emotion, or enjoyment, but what was sordid and foul; and yet
he had rank, and honours, and power, somehow; and was a dignitary of the land, and a
pillar of the state. He was high sheriff, and rode in a golden coach. Great ministers and
statesmen courted him; and in Vanity Fair he had a higher place than the most brilliant
genius of spotless virtue."
"Such people there are living and flourishing in the world {aithless, hopeless,
charityless; let us have at them, dear friends, with might and main. Some there are, and
very successful too, mere quacks and fools, and it was to combat and expose such as
those, no doubt, that Laughter was made."
Rebecca (Becky) Sharp
The novel tells of the destiny of two girls with sharply contrasting characters -
Rebecca (Becky) Sharp and Amelia Sedley. The daughter of a rich city merchant, Amelia
Sedley is a young girl representing 'virtue without wit'. Rebecca Sharp, a poor
adventuress, representing wit without virtue, forces her way after many struggles and
setbacks into the world to which Amelia belongs.

Rebecca Sharp and Joseph Sedley

(From the play Vanity Fair produced by the Moscow Maly Theatre)
Becky's character is depicted with great skill. She is pleasant to look at, clever and
gifted. She possesses a keen sense of humour, and a deep understanding of human nature.
At the same time she embodies the very spirit of Vanity Fair, since her only aim in life is
at all costs to worm her way into high society. She will go to any length to achieve her
aim.
She was almost mistress of the house when Mrs. Crawley was absent, but conducted
herself in her new ... situation with such ... modesty as not to offend the authorities of the
kitchen and stable, among whom her behaviour was always exceedingly modest ... She
was quite a different person from the haughty, shy, dissatisfied little girl whom we have
known previously ... Whether it was the heart which dictated this new system of
complaisance and humility adopted by our Rebecca, is to be proved by her after-history.
A system of hypocrisy, which lasts through whole years, is one seldom satisfactorily
practised by a person of one-and-twenty; however, our readers will recollect that, though
young in years, our heroine was old in life and experience ... "
Becky believes neither in love nor in friendship. She is ready to marry any man who
can give her wealth and a title ...
Finally she marries Captain Rawdon Crawley, the younger son of Sir Pitt Crawley,
whose daughters she had been engaged to teach. Rawdon was not rich, but Becky hoped
that some day he would inherit a good deal of money from his wealthy aunt, Miss
Crawley, who possessed seventy thousand pounds, and had almost adopted Rawdon.
 However, Becky's hopes did not come true. She almost lost her presence of mind when
she realized how wrong her calculations had been. She would never have married
Rawdon if she had known that Sir Pitt Crawley himself would propose to her. The fact
that Sir Pitt was old and that she despised him did not count with her.
Becky's opinion of Sir Pitt is clearly expressed in her letter
to Amelia.
"Sir Pitt is not what we silly girls ... imagined a baronet
must have been ... Fancy an old, stumpy, short, vulgar, and
very dirty man, in old clothes and shabby old gaiters, who
smokes a horrid pipe, and cooks his own horrid supper in a
saucepan. He speaks with a country accent, and swore a great
deal at the old charwoman, at the hackney coachman who drove
us to the inn where the coach went from, and on which I made
the journey outside for the greater part of the way.
I was awakened at daybreak by the charwoman, and having arrived at the inn, was at
first placed inside the coach. But when we got to a place called Leakington, where the
rain began to fall very heavily - will you believe it? - I was forced to come outside; for
Sir Pitt is a proprietor of the coach, and as a passenger came at Mudbury, who wanted an
inside place, I was obliged to go outside in the rain, where, however, a young gentleman
from Cambridge College sheltered me very kindly in one of his several great-coats.
This gentleman and the guard seemed to know Sir Pitt very well, and laughed at him
a great deal. They both agreed in calling him an old screw; which means a very stingy,
avaricious person. He never gives any money to anybody, they said (and this meanness I
hate) ... "

Jane Octavia Brookfield, the wife of Thackeray's friend

who was the inspiration for the character of Amelia.
"Here, my dear, I was interrupted last night by a dreadful thumping at my door:
and who do you think it was? Sir Pitt Crawley in his nightcap and dressing-gown -
such a figure! As I shrank away from such a visitor, he came forward and seized my
candle. 'No candles, after eleven 0' clock, Miss Becky,' said he. 'Go to bed in the
dark, you pretty little hussy (that is what he called me), and unless you wish me to
come for the candle every night, mind and be in bed at eleven.' And with this, he and
Mr. Horrocks the butler went off laughing. You may be sure I shall not encourage any
more of their visits."
Sir Pitt was the owner of Queen's Crawley, he possessed money and a title and
these were the only things Becky's ambitious nature desired.
Flattery, hypocrisy, lies and other mean and disloyal actions help Becky to enter
the upper ranks of society, but no happiness is in store for her. Becky's whole life is
nothing but Vanitas Vanitatum. She has neither real sacred feelings, nor honest aims
in view.
Amelia Sedley
In contrast to Rebecca, Amelia is honest, generous and kind to all the people she
comes in touch with and is loved by all.
"... she could not only sing like a lark ... and embroider beautifully, and spell as
well as a Dixonary itself, but she had such a kindly, smiling, tender, gentle, generous
heart of her own as won the love of everybody who came near her ..."
But for all that Amelia cannot be regarded as the heroine of the novel.
"As she is not a heroine, there is no need to describe· her person; indeed I am
afraid that her nose was rather short than otherwise, and her cheeks a great deal too
round and red for a heroine; but her face blushed with rosy health, and her lips with
the freshest of smiles, and she had a pair of eyes which sparkled with the brightest and
honestest good-humour, except, indeed, when they filled with tears, and that was a great
deal too often; for the silly thing would cry over a dead canary-bird, or over a mouse that
the cat haply had seized upon; or over the end of a novel, were it ever so stupid ..."
 Amelia is not clever enough to understand the real
qualities of the people who surround her. She is too
unintelligent, naive and simple-hearted to understand
all the dirty machinations of the clever and sly
Rebecca. She even tries to help Becky to marry hor
brother Joseph Sedley, and is unhappy when her plan
fails.
Amelia is absolutely blind to all the faults of
George Osborne, her light-minded and selfish husband,
and even after his death she is determined to remain
faithful to him. The best years of her life are ruined by
this unhappy love. Amelia is no longer young when she
realizes how unworthy of her love her idol was. Subtle
Amelia and George. (From the play irony is characteristic of Thackeray's style when he
“Vanity Fair”) produced by the
Moscow Maly Theatre. describes Amelia's character.
Captain Dobbin
The most virtuous person in the novel is Captain William Dobbin. He worships
Amelia, and his only aim in life is to see her happy. He does not think of his own
happiness. His sense of self-sacrifice is extreme. Knowing that Amelia loves George
Osborne, Dobbin persuades him to marry the girl. He knows that his own life will be
a complete disappointment, but he does not care. His personal feelings are ()f no
importance in comparison with those of Amelia, as the following quotation shows.
"The party was landed at the Royal Gardens in due time. As the majestic Jos
stepped out of the creaking vehicle the crowd gave a cheer for the fat gentleman, who
blushed and looked very big and mighty, as he walked away with Rebecca under his
arm. George, of course, took charge of Amelia. She looked as happy as a rose-tree in
sunshine.
"I say, Dobbin," says George, "just look to the shawls and things, there's a good
fellow." And so while he paired off with Miss Sedley, and Jos squeezed through the
gate into the Gardens with Rebecca at his side, honest Dobbin contented himself by
giving an arm to the shawls, and by paying at the door for the whole party.
He walked very modestly behind them. He was not willing to spoil sport. About
Rebecca and Jos he did not care a fig. But he thought Amelia worthy even of the
brilliant George Osborne, and as he saw that good-looking couple threading the
walks, to the girl's delight and wonder, he watched her artless happiness with a sort
of fatherly pleasure. Perhaps he felt that he would have liked to have something on
his own arm besides a shawl (the people laughed at seeing the gawky young officer
carrying this female burden); but William Dobbin was very little addicted to selfish
calculations at all, and so long as his friend was enjoying himself, how should he be
discontented ?"
Though Dobbin, like Amelia, is an exception in Vanity Fair, he is too simple-
minded and one-sided to be admired by the author.
Thackeray on Society at Large
Thackeray divides society into 'rogues' and 'dupes'. The characters are different, but
their fates have much in common. They are victims of a society where evil rules the
world. Shallow people ... shallow lives ... shallow interests ... The author compares his
characters to puppets, and society as a whole to a puppet show.
"Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his
desire? or, having it, is satisfied ? - come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets,
for our play is played out."
Thackeray’s Style
A notable characteristic of Thackeray's style is the frequent interruption of the
narrative in order that he might, as he himself says, talk to the reader about the characters.
"And as we bring our characters forward, I will ask leave, as a man and a brother, not
only to introduce them, but occasionally to step down from the platform, and talk about
them if they are good and kindly, to love them and shake them by the hand; if they are
silly, to laugh at them confidentially in the reader's sleeve; if they are wicked and
heartless, to abuse them in the strongest terms which politeness admits of."
"If Miss Rebecca Sharp had determined in her heart, upon making the conquest of
this big beau, I don't think, ladies, we have any right to blame her; for though the task of
husband-hunting is generally, and with becoming modesty, intrusted by young persons to
their mammas, recollect that Miss Sharp had no kind parent to arrange these delicate
matters for her, and that if she did not get a husband for herself, there was no one else in
the wide world who would take the dancing till five o'clock in the morning through a
whole mortal season? ... What causes respectable parents to take up their carpets, set their
houses topsy-turvy, and spend a fifth of their year's income in ball suppers and iced
champagne? Is it sheer love of their species, and an unadulterated wish to see young
people happy and dancing? Psha! they want to marry their daughters; and as honest Mrs.
Sedley has, in the depth of her kind heart, already arranged a score of little schemes for
the settlement of her Amelia, so also had our beloved but unprotected Rebecca
determined to do her very best to secure the husband who was even more necessary for
her than for her friend."
Thackeray seldom tells the reader what he thinks of this or that character directly, he
does it indirectly: his attitude is usually expressed either by different personages in the
novel (see Becky's letter to Amelia), or by means of vivid and graphic descriptions which
invite the reader to share the author's opinion.
"Miss Crawley was ... an object of great respect when she came to Queen's Crawley
for she had a balance at her banker's which would have made her beloved anywhere.
What a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the banker's!
How tenderly we look at her faults if she is a relative (and may every reader have a
score of such), what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her! ... How, when she
comes to pay us a visit, we generally find an opportunity to let our friends know her
station in the world!"
Vanity Fair is one of the greatest examples of 19th century Critical Realism. It is an
exceedingly rich novel. The action is carried forward by a series of plots and subplots; the
setting is detailed and varied, the characters are real individuals, puzzling combinations
of good and bad, who have been remembered and talked about from Thackeray's days to
our own. Towering over all is Thackeray's ability to expose in his novel the cruel laws of
capitalism which rule the capitalist world up to now.
Dickens is magnificently successful in depicting common people, but he is ill
acquainted with the upper classes, while Thackeray is the penetrating analyst of both
middle class and aristocratic society.
Thackeray's realism is different from that of Dickens; it is less combined with
fantasy and lyricism, it is more exact and objective. While Dickens idealizes his
positive characters (sometimes they are too good to be true and the author's attitude
towards them is somewhat sentimental), Thackeray portrays his characters more
realistically. They are not static; his women characters, in particular, develop as the
story progresses. Thackeray tries to describe things and human beings as existing
outside his mind, they are shown as natural results of their environment and the
society which bred them. He depicts his characters as if viewing them from afar. This
was a new feature in literature which was followed by many other writers, and was
later called objective realism in literature.
Dickens was more optimistic than Thackeray. He tried to reform people and
thought that that was the way to make them happy. In Thackeray's opinion the
existing stale of things could not be changed, though he saw that bourgeois morals
had fallen into decay, and he subjected these morals to severe criticism, which is the
chief merit of his works.
Unlike Dickens, Thackeray is unable to see man reformed in the future.
Chernyshevsky blamed him for this failure in his article on The Newcomes (Russian
magazine Sovremennik, 1857).
Thackeray's pessimism marks the beginning of the crisis of bourgeois humanism
which began in the middle of the 19th century and found its full expression in the
literature of the second half of the age.
Taken together, the novels of Dickens and Thackeray give us a remarkably
realistic picture of all classes of English society up to the middle of the 19th century.
Questions and Tasks
1.What are the greatest merits of Thackeray's works?
2.What classes of society does he show in his novels?
3.Which work of the author is considered to be a prelude to
his masterpiece Vanity Fair?
4.Explain the meaning of the subtitle of Vanity Fair. Where
is the idea of the novel borrowed from?
5.What vices of bourgeois-aristocratic society are mercilessly
exposed by Thackeray in the book?
 Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)
Charles Dickens began to write at a time when the labour movement, known as the
Chartist movement, was at its height. Continuous demonstrations in defence of workers'
rights took place in many manufacturing towns and in London as well. The actions of the
Chartists had considerable effect on Dickens. Though he did not believe in revolutionary
action, he was on the side of the people with all his heart. He wanted what the people
wanted.
Dickens wrote about the poorest, the most unprivileged sections of the population.
He looked into the darkest corners of the large cities and there found the victims of
capitalism. Thus Dickens's immortal works became an accusation of the bourgeois
system as a whole.
LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth on the southern coast of
England. His father was a clerk at the office of a large naval station there, and the
family lived on his small salary. They belonged to the lower middle class. The father
was often transferred from place to place and there was always talk between the
parents about money, bills and debts.
Charles was very young when the family moved to the naval port of Chatham,
which is near the ancient town of Rochester, where pilgrims used to stop on their way to
Canterbury. There Charles and his eldest sister first went to school.
After school Charles loved to run to the docks where ships went for repairs. He
liked to watch people at work. There he saw sailors and brave old sea-captains; and
farther out were the ships, and among them the black prison-ships on which convicts
with clanking chains moved heavily about the decks. Many pictures were stored
away in his memory, which the writer used later in his novels.
Charles's first teacher was a kind young man from Oxford, under whose
influence Charles grew fond of books. At ten he read Defoe, Fielding. Smollett,
Goldsmith and translations of some European and other authors. His favourite
books were Don Quixote and the Arabian Nights. The great comfort he found in
the world of books was later described in the novel David Copperfield.
Charles had a nurse called Mary Yeller, who used to say about him that 'he was
a terrible boy to read' and that he and his sister were fond of singing, reciting poems
and acting.
 The happy days at Chatham came to an end in 1822 when the fa ther was moved
to London. The Dickenses rented a house in one of the poorest parts of London.
Charles loved to walk about the busy streets and watch the lively street scenes.
Charles was the eldest son, but he was not sent to school again. The father made no
plans for the education of his children. He was an easy-going man who always
spent more money than he could afford. Soon he lost his job and was imprisoned for
debt.
All the property the family had was sold, even Charles's favourite books, and the
boy was put to work in a blacking factory. He worked hard washing bottles for shoe-
polish and putting labels on them, while his father, mother, sisters and brothers all
lived in the Marshalsea debtors' prison.
The long working hours at the factory, the poor food, the rough boys and their
treatment of him he could never forget. He later described this unhappy time in
David Copperfield.
Dickens visited his parents in the prison on Sundays. There he saw many other
prisoners, and learned their stories. The debtors' prison is described in the
Pickwick Papers and in the novel Little Dorrit.
In about a year the Dickenses received a small sum of money after the death of a
relative, so all the debts were paid.
Charles got a chance to go to school again. This time he was sent to a very old-
fashioned school called Wellington House Academy. The master was a rough,
ignorant man. He knew nothing about children or teaching except the art of beating
them regularly with a cane. The class studied nothing but Latin.
To make their lessons more cheerful the boys kept small pet ani mals in their
desks. White mice ran about everywhere and Charles remembered the regret of
the pupils when the cleverest mouse, who lived on the cover of a Latin book, one
day drowned itself in an inkpot.
THE YOUNG JOURNALIST
Dickens left school when he was twelve. He had to continue his education by
himself. His father sent him to a lawyer's office to study law. He did not stay
there long, but he learned the ways and manners of lawyers, as many of his
books show. Bleak House in particular shows how legal decisions were made and
delayed. Instead of law he studied shorthand and found a job as a newspaper reporter.
He also went regularly to the British Museum reading-room to continue his general
education. In 1832 Dickens became a parliamentary reporter. Soon he came to
understand that the house of Commons had nothing to do with true democracy. The
parties the members belonged to were all bourgeois parties though they lost no
opportunity of quarrelling with each other. It was in the Pickwick Papers that Dickens
later described the so-called par y struggle. He himself never went in for politics.
Dickens's first efforts at writing were little stories about the ordinary
Londoners he saw. The stories were funny street sketches. One day he dropped a
sketch he had written in the letter-box of a publishing house. It was printed, and the
young author followed it up with other ketches which he signed Boz (the nickname
given him by his youngest brother). Sketches by Boz appeared in various
magazines.
At the age of twenty-four Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of
his editor at the Evening Chronicle.

DICKENS THE NOVELIST

The publishing house of Chapman and Hall were planning
to bring out a series of humorous pictures on sport events.
Dickens was asked to write short comic episodes to
accompany the pictures about a certain Mr. Pickwick whose
efforts in sport always ended in failure. But the artist died
suddenly, leaving Dickens to develop the series as he would.
Dickens introduced new episodes and the characters grew
in depth. When all the series were put together, they formed
a novel. Later they were printed in one volume under the
title The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, or the
Pickwick Papers for short.
 Having discovered, almost accidentally, his ability as a
novelist, Dickens devoted himself to literary work. His next
novel was Oliver Twist. It appeared first in series in a new
monthly magazine of which Dickens himself was editor.
Readers expected to see a new humorous story, and they
were much surprised to find a nightmare novel instead.
Oliver Twist was written as a protest against the Poor Law.
The Poor Law did not allow homeless people to live in the
streets; they were put into workhouses where they were only
a little bit better off than in prison. Oliver Twist was not
simply a novel but a social tract as well.
Dickens visited many schools in various towns of England,
and he came across some where life was worse than
anything he had been through in his childhood in Nicholas
Nickleby Dickens exposes the boarding-schools for
unwanted children.
Not yet thirty, Dickens was the most popular writer in
England. In 1842 he and his wife paid a visit to the United
State. They spent nearly five months travelling from town to
town, and everywhere Dickens received a very hearty
welcome.
Like most Europeans, Dickens had idealized American
democracy, and he became extremely disappointed when he
heard of the false elections and saw the awful greed of the
money-makers, the discrimination against foreign
immigrants and worst of all, Negro slavery.
Dickens expressed his opinion of what he saw in his
American Notes, where he condemned these crimes with his
usual humorously satirical exaggeration of facts. But the
book roused bitter anger in America.
American Notes was followed by Martin Chuzzlewit, a
novel in part of which American life is also described.
The years between 1844 and 1848 Dickens travelled in
Italy, France and Switzerland, because he found it easier to
concentrate on English problems from afar. There he worked
hard at the novel Dombey and Son. In Paris Dickens met
the writer Victor Hugo.
When back in England, Dickens organized an amateur
theatrical company, and for the next five years they put on
performances for charity, giving all the money they collected
to the poor. Dickens was manager and actor. He also
conducted a weekly magazine for popular reading called
Household Words (later its name was changed to All the Year
Round).
Though engaged in these activities, Dickens continued
writing novels without a break. His genius was at its height
his best novels were written at this time. Dickens was very
emotional: he lived with the characters he created; he
suffered with them in their tragic moments, he laughed at
the humorous side of their lives.
With great energy he began to give dramatic readings
from his own works in various towns all over Britain. His
reading was so wonderful that people came in thousands to
hear the warm-hearted beloved writer.
Dickens read some of his Christmas stories exceptionally
well. These were The Cricket on the Hearth and A
Christmas Carol.
Dickens is remembered for having invented the theatre for
one actor. In 1867-1868 Dickens was made a triumphant
reading tour in the United States, which was a great strain
on him and undermined his health. He died sudden on June 9
1870.
Dickens was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Text 12
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist has been sent to the workhouse. What kind of
food and atmosphere do you think he finds there? What
attitude do you think that the authorities in the workhouse
take to poor children who have nowhere else to go?
 Oliver Twist - 1997 Oliver Twist - 1999
Oliver Twist - 2005
The room in which the boys were fed was a large stone
hall, with a copper at one end, out of which the master,
dressed in an apron for the purpose, and assisted by one or
two women, ladled the gruel at meal-times; of which
composition each boy had one porringer and no more -
except on festive occasions, and then he had two ounces
and a quarter of bread besides. The bowls never wanted
washing.

The boys polished them

with their spoons till they
shone again; and when they
had performed this
operation (which never took
very long, the spoons being
nearly as large as the
bowls), they would sit
staring at the copper with
such eager eyes as if they The children is waiting for lunch
could have devoured the Oliver Twist – 2005
very bricks of which it was
composed; employing
themselves, meanwhile, in
sucking their fingers most
assiduously, with the view of
catching up any stray
splashes of gruel that might have been cast thereon. Boys have
generally excellent appetites.
Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures of
slow starvation for three months: at last they got so
voracious and wild with hunger, that one boy, who was tall
for his age, and hadn't been used to that sort of thing (for his
father had kept a small cookshop), hinted darkly to his
companions, that unless he had another basin of gruel per
diem, he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the
boy who slept next him, who happened to be a weakly youth
of tender age. He had a wild hungry eye; and they implicitly
believed him. A council was held; lots were cast who should
walk up to the master after supper that evening, and ask for
more; and it fell to Oliver Twist.
The evening arrived; the boys took their
places. The master, in his cook's uniform,
stationed himself at the copper; his pauper
assistants ranged themselves behind him;
the gruel was served out; and a long grace
was said over the short commons. The
gruel disappeared; the boys whispered
each other, and winked at Oliver, while his
next neighbour nudged him. Child as he
Oliver Twist was, he was desperate with hunger, and
- 2005 reckless with misery. He rose from the
table, and, advancing to the master, basin
and spoon in hand, said: somewhat
alarmed at his own temerity.
The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The
master, in his cook's uniform, stationed himself at the
copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind
him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was said
over the short commons. 4 The gruel disappeared; the boys
whispered each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next
neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate
with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the
table, and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in
hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity:
'Please, sir, I want some more.'
The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very
pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel
for some seconds; and then clung for support to the copper.
The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with
fear. 'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice.
'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.'
The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle;
pinioned him in his arm; and shrieked aloud for the beadle.
The board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr.
Bumble 5 rushed into the room in great excitement, and
addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said, 'Mr.
Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for
more!' There was a general start. Horror was depicted on
every countenance.
'For more!' said Mr. Limbkins. 'Compose yourself, Bumble,
and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for
more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?'
'He did, sir,' replied Bumble.
'That boy will be hung,' said the gentleman in the white
waistcoat. 'I know that boy will be hung.'
 Oliver Twist – 2005
Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman's opinion.
An animated discussion took place. Oliver was ordered into
instant confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on
the outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to
anybody who would take Oliver Twist off the hands of the
parish. In other words, five pounds and Oliver Twist were
offered to any man or woman who wanted an apprentice to
any trade, business, or calling.

Oliver Twist - 1997

'I never was more convinced of anything in my life,' said
the gentleman in the white-waistcoat, as he knocked at the
gate and read the bill next morning: 'I never was more
convinced of anything in my life, than I am, that that boy will
come to be hung.'
As I purpose to show in the sequel whether the white
waistcoated gentleman was right or not, I should perhaps
mar the interest of this narrative (supposing it to possess
any at all), if I ventured to hint, just yet, whether the life of
Oliver Twist had this violent termination or no.
remarks

In 1838, Dickens created this story of powerful emotional

appeal and social criticism perhaps at the inspiration of the
Poor Law passed in 1834. The law stopped government aid
to the poor unless they entered workhouses where more
miseries awaited them. The novel is significant in its truthful
presentation of the miseries of the poor and the description
of the thieves' den and of the underworld in London. With his
realistic art, Dickens startled the public into a new
consciousness of the poor and the oppressed and the
criminal level of society, and shows how the social system
and the institutions were held responsible for the miseries
and crimes.
The first two chapters of the book deal with the young
hero Oliver Twist's birth and adventures in the workhouse.
Chapter I describes his birth. In order to appreciate the
humour in this chapter, one needs to recognize the ironic
tone in which the scene is presented. Many words are used
in an ironic way; for instance, the pun on "gruel" when the
surgeon says: "It's very likely it will be troublesome. Give it a
little gruel if it is." Chapter II is famous for the scene in which
Oliver asks for more. Driven by hunger Oliver ventures one
day to ask for a second serving of porridge.The scandalized
authorities beat him, put him in solitary confinement, and
give him away along with five pounds. This scene strips the
philanthropy mask of the ruling class and highlights their
extreme brutality and corruption. It is in scenes like this that
we see the great critical realist voicing the helplessness of
the poor and the oppressed.

questions and tasks

1. Charles Dickens was a critical realist who gave a satirical portrayal

of the society with profound sympathy for the common people.
Find evidences to prove this point of view.
2. Find examples from the selection to show that Dickens was a
humourist.
3. Describe the boy’s hunger (the bowls, their fingers, the bricks of
the copper...).
4. How do you interpret the line “A long grace (prayer) was said over
the short commons”? What does this tell us about the authorities?
 Dombey and Son - 1978

Text 13
DOMBEY AND SON
The full title of the novel is Dealings with the Firm of
Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail and for
Exportation. It tells the story of a rich bourgeois family, the
Dombeys, and shows how their policy decides the destiny of
the poor people dependent on them.
Mr. Dombey is a merchant, a capitalist. His only interest in
life lies in the prosperity of his family firm. He is a man with a
heart of stone. His character has its roots in his love of
money. The firm casts its shadow upon the life of certain
common people and ruins them.
The 'honour' of the firm is the only thing that matters. For
Mr. Dombey everything in the world exists only for Dombey
and Son. Dickens brings out this idea in the following
passage: "The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade
in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light.
Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows
gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against
their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits, to
preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre."
Mr. Dombey has a family, but his worship of property
makes him a stranger to all natural human feeling: affection
is killed for the sake of good business. Mr. Dombey considers
every human being in the light of his relation to the firm. To
Mr. Dombey everybody either has, or may have, or will have,
or must have something to do with Dombey and Son.
 The vital problem for Mr. Dombey is the problem of getting
an heir to the firm; for there must be a son. A daughter is
born to him, but a girl cannot be made partner in the firm, so
she is not wanted. Dombey hates her from the very moment
of her birth. She is a false coin that cannot be invested. His
gentle wife is treated with more contempt and coldness than
ever. Six years later she brings a son into the world, but dies
in child-birth. This is how Dickens describes Mr. Dombey's
regret:
"... he would find something gone from among his plate
and furniture, and other household possessions, which was
well worth the having, and could not be lost without sincere
regret. Though it would be a cool, business-like,
gentlemanly, self-possessed regret, no doubt."
Dombey 'forgives' his wife, he is so glad to have an heir.
But Dombeys' love for his son is no better than his hatred of
his daughter. The boy is part of his property, and he wants to
have him for himself only. Dombey is alarmed at seeing how
his daughter Florence loves her brother. He is much worried
at little Paul's fondness for his nurse, Polly Toodle, who feeds
him. He cannot allow a member of his family to be on
friendly terms with anyone who comes from a lower class.
Dombey dismisses the nurse, and Paul's health suffers. At
the age of five he is a very delicate child with a face that
looks old and tired. Mr. Dombey wants him to get through his
education as quickly as possible: he plans and projects not
for the well-being of his son, but for the welfare of his firm.
His son must rise from Son to be the next magnificent
Dombey. Money, he thinks, will do everything. Here Dickens
shows that money, though powerful in a bourgeois society,
cannot bring happiness.
One evening little Paul was sitting by the fire with his
father. After a long silence the boy suddenly asked:
"Papa! What's money?"
The abrupt question had such immediate reference to the
subject of Mr. Dombey's thoughts, that Mr. Dombey was
quite disconcerted. "What is money, Paul?" he answered.
"Money?"
"Yes," said the child, laying his hands upon the elbows of
his little chair, and turning the old face up towards Mr.
Dombey's; "what is money?"
Mr. Dombey was in a difficulty. He would have liked to
give him some explanation… but looking down at the little
chair, and seeing what a long way down it was, he answered:
"Gold, and silver, and copper. Guineas, shillings, halfpence.
You know what they are?"
"Oh yes, I know what they are," said Paul. "I don't mean
that, Papa, I mean what's money after all?"
"What is money after all!" said Mr. Dombey.
"I mean, Papa, what can it do?" returned Paul, folding his
arms (they were hardly long enough to fold), and looking at
the fire, and up at him, and at the fire, and up at him again.
Mr. Dombey drew his chair back to its former place, and
patted him on the head. "You'll know better by-and-by, my
man," he said. "Money, Paul, can do anything." He took hold
of the little hand, and beat it softly against one of his own,
as he said so.
But Paul got his hand free as soon as he could; and
rubbing it gently to and fro on the elbow of his chair, as if his
wit were in the palm. and he were sharpening it - and
looking at the fire again, as though the fire had been his
adviser and prompter - repeated, after a short pause:
"Anything, Papa?"
"Yes. Anything - almost," said Mr. Dombey.
"Anything means everything, don't it, Papa?" asked his
son: not observing, or possibly not understanding, the
qualification. "It includes it: yes," said Mr. Dombey.
"Why didn't money save me my Mama?" returned the
child. "It isn't cruel, is it?"
 "Cruel!" said Mr. Dombey, settling his neckcloth, and
seeming to resent the idea. "No. A good thing can't be
cruel."
"If it's a good thing, and can do anything," said the little
fellw, thoughtfully, as he looked back at the fire, "I wonder
why it didn't save me my Mama."
He didn't ask the question of his father this time. Perhaps
he had seen, with a child's quickness, that it had already
*made his father uncomfortable.
Mr. Dombey, recovering from his surprise, not to say his
alarm, explained to him how that money "could not keep
people alive, whose time was come to die; and how that we
must all die, unfortunately, even in the City, though we were
never so rich. But how that money caused us to be
honoured, feared, respected, courted and admired, powerful
and glorious in the eyes of all men...”
What should be the education of a child at the age of five
Mr. Dombey never understood. He sent little Paul to one of
the awful private boarding-school, the school of the widow
Mrs. Pipchin, one of those criminals who made money by
keeping and 'educating' children. The old woman crippled
their minds by frightening them and this was called
'managing children'. But Mr. Dombey preferred to others,
because her husband had been a mine-owner.
When Paul was six years old, he was sent to another
boarding-school, the school of Mr. Blimber, who had made a
name for himself teaching Latin to little boys and making
them read ancient writers. Dickens calls this sort of teaching
'stuffing children with scholastic straw'. This unnatural
upbringing and his loneliness at school was such a strain on
Paul that he grew weaker and weaker and within a year he
died.
Having lost his son and heir, Mr. Dombey was heart-
broken. Florence wanted to be a comfort to her lonely father,
but she did not know how to win his heart. She felt that he
hated her because he thought of her as having been a rival
to her brother in health and years. Why had she not died?
Florence had no friend in her own family. She did not like
Mr. Dombey's sister, her aunt, or the ever-present Miss Tox, a
friend of the family. Their foolish behaviour and their endless
flattery of Mr. Dombey kept Florence away from them. She
was constantly reminded by her aunt of the fact that she
was not a Dombey, and told that she made no effort to gain
her father's love. But Florence loved her father in spite of all.
Dickens describes the pride and tyranny of the rich, who
have no consideration for others, and contrasts it with the
humane kindly nature of the working people.
Florence finds comfort with the servants of the house:
Paul's nurse, the maid, Susan Nipper. Florence makes friends
with Walter Gay and his old uncle, Solomon Gills, and the
honest Captain Cuttle. Solomon Gills keeps a little shop
selling ship's instruments, barometers, compasses,
telescopes and the like. But hardly anyone ever buys his
instruments, and old Sol gets poorer and poorer. Yet he never
refuses to help other people who are in trouble. Walter Gay
works for the firm of Dombey and Son. He is kind and good,
and Florence grows fond of him. When the girl comes of age,
she marries Walter Gay.
In Dickens's time there were many scoundrels in rich and
prosperous firms who knew how to make a fortune by
pretending to be devoted to their masters, and by deceiving
and oppressing their inferiors.
Dickens introduces such a scoundrel in the character of
Mr. Corker, the manager of the firm. He is the only man who
does not sympathize with Mr. Dombey on the loss of his son.
Dickens describes him on the day of the funeral as having
his usual smile on his face: "... in his own room he (Carker)
shows his teeth all day; and it would seem that there is
something gone from Mr. Carker's path - some obstacle
removed - which clears his way before him."
 Planning to become the head of the firm, Carker pays
much atten- tion to Florence, who hates him. He thinks he
may perhaps marry Florence one day; and he goes round the
House of Dombey and Son like a sly fox. He sends Walter
Gay on a dangerous voyage to Barbados so as to get rid of
him, and keeps a sharp eye on Mr. Dombey himself.
The second part of the novel tells of the downfall of the
firm of Dombey and Son. Mr. Dombey wants to marry again.
He meets Edith Granger, a young widow from a poor
aristocratic family. Mr. Dombey believes that the secret of
attracting rich people to do business with the firm lies in
having a good-looking, clever wife. Edith has beauty, blood
and talent: money will buy everything. And Mr. Dombey
marries Edith.
Edith feels moral degradation, her pride is wounded. She
cannot love her husband, that cold heartless merchant. The
luxury that surrounds Edith does not make her happy and
she exclaims, "What is money? ... What can it do, after all?"
On seeing Florence neglected by her father and just as
unhappy as she is, Edith grows fond of her. Mr. Dombey
cannot stand it. He is jealous and angry. Dombey's arrogance
comes into conflict with Edith's pride. She despises him. She
refuses to be the mistress of his house.
Dombey says to Edith: "I have made you my wife. You
bear my name. You are associated with my position and
reputation... I will say that I am accustomed to 'insist', to my
connections and dependants." Yet Edith wants to get free of
every tie.
Carker, who has brought the firm almost to bankruptcy,
takes advantage of Edith's state of mind and escapes with
her from England. But he gains nothing for himself. As soon
as Edith reaches France, she drives the scoundrel away.
Carker's plans are ruined; finally he gets killed by a train.
Florence shows pity and tenderness towards her father.
She runs to him with outstretched arms, but Dombey, in fury
and despair, strikes her across the face. He accuses her of
being in league with Edith. Florence runs away from home
and goes to Solomon Gills. She stays in his house till Walter’s
return.
All the blows that have fallen upon Mr. Dombey are
considered by Dickens as punishment deserved. Mr. Dombey
is the symbol of all that was cruel and inhuman in the upper
middle class in Dickens's time.
Dickens always wanted to reconcile people with one
another. So the character of Mr. Dombey changes
unexpectedly at the end of the novel. The storm of
misfortunes softens him and he becomes a good man. He
goes to live in the happy home of Florence, who is now
married to Walter Gay. The love Dombey never gave his
daughter he now gives to his grandchildren.
Remarks
When Belinsky read Dombey and Son he called it a
miracle that made all other works written by Dickens seem
pale and weak. He said that is was “something ugly,
monstrously beautiful”. Dickens managed to disclose the
ugliness of relations based on money in a work of art.
Dickens had an eye that penetrated into the very depths of
contemporary society. The principle of the very beginning of
his creative work. It remained throughout his life though his
criticism of reality became sharper, as his world outlook and
his art matured. As the years padded, the soft humour and
light-hearted laughter of his first works, gave way to
mockery and satire.
Thus, the sombre Dombey was shown as a cold and tragic
figure, a product of the money-making environment.
Opposed to him are his two children Florence and Paul.
Dickens made them loving and lovable creatures who
despised money. That is why the novel sounds at time as the
story of the two children, rather than that of their money-
making father.
The richness of Dickens’ language can be traced back to
the everyday speech of the people. A master of his pen
made the contemporary reactionary critics fear him; even
now the reaction fears his merciless truth, directed against
the evils of bourgeois society.
In Russia his works became known within a very short
time after being published. Up to our days Dickens has
remained one of the great realistic writers. He is loved and
honoured by the Soviet readers, both young and old by the
democratic-minded people of the world.
DICKENS - THE FIRST NOVELIST IN THE TREND OF CRITICAL REALISM IN
ENGLISH LITERATURE

In the preface to his first work Sketches by Boz Dickens wrote that his aim was to
show 'everyday life and everyday people'. He is famous for having used everyman as
a hero. No one has conveyed the spirit of 19th century English life better than he. His
world was a hurrying breathless city of workers, sailors and the lower middle class,
who lived where there was 'nothing to see but streets, streets, streets. Nothing to
breathe but streets, streets, streets.'

DICKENS'S ORIGINAL STYLE

Dickens has a style of his own. Everything Dickens gives
the reader was learnt in suffering, even the most comical
situations. Let us examine his style. The secret of Dickens's
style lies in the combination of the strictest realism of detail
with fantasy. He draws a distinct line between all that is good
and all that is bad Every thing or being that is good he
describes as having human qualities, the best ones. Thus the
kettle in one of his Christmas stories The Cricket on the
Hearth brings warmth and happiness in the home of good
people, and so it is given human qualities.
But when Dickens describes a man whose existence does
not make the world happy, that man becomes a cold unliving
thing, or a beast. For example Mr. Dombey is compared to
the fire-tongs or the poker. He is cruel and unbending. Mr.
Dombey's appearance causes the temperature fall. Sun-rays
vanish from his room.
In the same way Mr. Carker, the wicked manager, is given
the features of a beast, and his glistening teeth are many
times likened to the teeth of a wild animal. For instance this
is how Dickens describes Calker when he talks to his
inferiors:
“Carker grinned at him like a shark...,"
“A cat, or a monkey, or a hyena, or a death's-head could
not have shown the Captain more teeth at one time, than Mr.
Carker showed him...”
DICKENS'S CHARACTERS
Dickens's characters are at first sight caricatures because
of t he exaggeration of facts; but this exaggeration is always
a logical extension of something that really exists. His
characters are static, but at the same time they are varied,
vivid and distinct. They may be divided into three types:
heroes, villains and quaint people notable for their whims.
These three types call up three emotions: pathos, or a
feeling of pity, for the virtuous characters when
circumstances have turned against them; contempt for the
villains, whom Dickens describes in a satirical manner which
helps to tear off their mask of respectability; and a warm
liking for the whimsical but generous persons.
Dickens was exceedingly sincere when creating his
personages. He said of himself: "... no one can ever believe
this narrative in the reading more than I believed it in the
writing."
DICKENS AND THE CHILDREN
Dickens believed in the virtuous nature of man in the
same way as the writers of the age of the Enlightenment did.
He makes this especially clear when he writes about
children. The fate of poor children caused him much alarm:
no writer of the time knew better than Dickens what child
labour was. He also knew how terribly a child could change
in an unwholesone environment; he was too familiar with the
common misery, and knew how good can turn into bad. Yet,
in his works, his child heroes and heroines remain pure till
the end. They pass through dirty crowded streets and keep
themselves unspotted. This was Dickens's peculiar way of
defending children's innocence. Hans Andersen, the Danish
writer of fairy-tales, greatly admired Dickens for his child
heroes.
DICKENS'S CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD LITERATURE
Dickens has given a full picture of 19th century English
life. He revealed all that was irrational and monstrous and
through his wit and humour people began to see their own
time and environment in a new light. His method of writing
inspired many others to write realistically, and great works of
critical realism appeared after him. Dickens never loses his
warmth of feeling and quickness of sympathy. This impresses
all readers, and they follow the writer in his pilgrimage along
the roads of England and witness the administration of law,
the treatment of children in schools, life in workhouses and
the insincerity of bourgeois philanthropy. He describes
offices of large firms, factories, prisons and the slums of
London.
Dickens portrays people of all the types seen in the
streets of great cities in his time. We meet commercial
agents, manufacturers, parliamentarians, political
adventurers, scoundrels of all sorts, lawyers, clerks,
newspaper reporters, schoolmasters, tradesmen, factory-
workers, priggish aristocrats, circus-players, homeless
children, pickpockets and convicts. Dickens lived for the
people. It was said of him that he, Dickens, “never talked
down to the people, he talked up to the people”.
Some social improvements in England were attributed to
the influence of Dickens's works. To many European critics
Dickens ranked only among the moralists and reformers of
the 19th century. His works were not considered works of art,
because in his writing he was not inspired by beauty but by
human suffering. Such an opinion underrates the great
artistic value of Dickens's works.
In the fifties of the 19th century, however, Russian writers
of democratic revolutionary thought gave him a place among
the English classics. Chernyshevsky, Belinsky and others
held that all great writers found inspiration in ideas which
resulted from the desperate struggle of the people, and
which were generally recognized as the only progressive
ideas of the time. The works of Dickens, they said, were
emotions of a humane mind. The novelist condemned the
hypocrisy and greed of the bourgeoisie.
The English critic and poet, Algernon Swinburne, when
travelling in Russia, visited Leo Tolstoy. He reported that the
great writer had said about Dickens: "All his characters are
my personal friends. I am constantly comparing them with
living persons, and living persons with them. And what a
spirit there was in all he wrote." And Maxim Gorky said that
Dickens had achieved one of the most difficult things in
literature and art: he developed in his readers a love for
man.
Questions and Tasks
1. What famous historical events took place in Dickens's time?
What incidents in Dickens's life were used by the writer in his
novels?
2. How did Dickens's outlook on the fate of the working class
change as years went by?
3. How does Dickens's humour change in the works written at
different periods?
4. Why is the novel Dombey and Son considered to he one of
Dickens's greatest works? Describe Mr. Dombey as a typical
representative of the English 19th century bourgeoisie.
5. What are the three principal types of characters met with in
Dickens's novels? How are they described by the author?
6. Most of the characters that appear in Dickens's novels came
from what social ranks? Explain what is meant by the phrase “the
world of Dickens”.
7. Why do Dickens’s child heroes remain pure in the most awful
environments?
 The Bronte Sisters
(1816-1855)

The Bronte collection - 1944

Besides George Eliot, there were at least two great woman
novelists during the Victorian age. They were the Bronte
sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855) and Emily (1818-1848). Their
younger sister, Ann Bronte (1820-1849) was also a novelist
with two works. But unlike Eliot, none of the Bronte sisters
enjoyed a long life span and all died young. Though they
were each grudged a brief life, their lives were long enough
for them to offer the cream of it to the whole world.
The sisters were born in the family of a poor country
clergyman at Haworth, Yorkshire, in northern England.
Charlotte and Emily, together with their two elder sisters,
were sent to a charity school with bad food and poor living
conditions, when~ they were cruelly treated. Their two elder
sisters did not survive the hardship and died of health
failure. Charlotte and Emily were removed from the school to
start a sketchy learning at home. Formal schooling was not
much in their youth, but wide reading and home education
seemed to give free play to their imagination. They wrote
stories and poems. Then they worked as governesses in rich
families for some time and tried in failure to open a private
school of their own. In 1842, they went to Brussels for nine
months to learn French. Charlotte worked there as a teacher
for one year.
In 1846, a small volume was published bearing the title of
Poems under the pennames of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, to
which all the three sisters contributed under their
pseudonyms. Although only two copies were sold that year,
the three sisters were not frustrated. Each then started
writing novels. Charlotte wrote her first novel Professor,
which was rejected by the publisher. The year 1837 seemed
to be a bright one for all the sisters: Charlotte's Jane Eyre,
Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were all
published. However, the brightness did not last long. In 1848
Emily died. In 1849 Anne followed her sister to the grave.
Charlotte died in 1855, less than one year after her marriage
to a clergyman.
Text 14
Jane Eyre
“Jane Eyre”, Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece tells the story
of a plain but intelligent orphan girl) whose ill-treatment at
the hands of hypocritical relatives leads her to be sent away
to a school with the sanctimonious Mr. Brocklehurst. Some
weeks after her arrival) while Mr. Brocklehurst is visiting the
school with his family) Jane drops her slate in class.

Jane Eyre - 1944

'A careless girl!' said Mr. Brocklehurst, and immediately
after -'It is the new pupil I perceive.' And before I could draw
breath, 'I must not forget I have a word to say respecting
her.' Then aloud: how loud it seemed to me! 'Let the child
who broke her slate come forward!'
Of my own accord I could not have stirred; I was
paralysed: but the two great girls who sat on each side of
me, set me on my legs and pushed me towards the dread
judge, and then Miss Temple gently assisted me to his very
feet, and I caught her whispered counsel:
 'Don't be afraid, Jane, I saw it was an accident; you shall
not be punished.'
Another minute, and she will despise me for a hypocrite,'
thought I; and an impulse of fury against Reed, Brocklehurst,
and Co., bounded in my pulses at the conviction. I was no
Helen Burns.
'Fetch that stool,' said Mr. Brocklehurst, pointing to a very
high one from which a monitor had just risen: it was brought.
'Place the child upon it.'
And I was placed there, by whom I don't know. I was in no
conditions to note particulars. I was only aware that they had
hoisted me up to the height of Mr. Brocklehurst's nose, that
he was within a yard of me, and that a spread of shot orange
and purple silk pelisses and a cloud of silvery plumage
extended and waved below me.
Mr Brocklehurst hemmed.
'Ladies,' said he, turning to his family. 'Miss Temple,
teachers, and children, you all see this girl?'
Of course they did; for I felt their eyes directed like
burning-glasses against my scorched skin.
'You see she is yet young; you observe she possesses the
ordinary form of childhood; God has graciously given her the
shape that He has given to all of us; no signal deformity
points her out as a marked character. Who would think that
the Evil One had already found a servant and agent in her?
Yet such, I grieve to say, is the case.'
A pause - in which I began to steady the palsy of my
nerves, and to feel that the Rubicon was passed; and that
the trial, no longer to be shirked, must be firmly sustained.
'My dear children,' pursued the black marble clergyman, with
pathos, 'this is a sad, a melancholy occasion; for it becomes
my duty to warn you, that this girl, who might be one of
God's own lambs, is a little castaway: not a member of the
true flock, but evidently an interloper and an alien. You must
be on your guard against her; you must shun her example; if
necessary, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports,
and shut her out from your converse. Teachers you must
watch her: keep your eyes on her movements, weigh well
her words, scrutinize her actions, punish her body to save
her soul: if, indeed, such salvation be possible, for (my
tongue falters while I tell it) this girl, this child, the native of
a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says
its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut - this girl
is - a liar!'

Jane Eyre – 2006

The plot of Jane Eyre is too complex to be summarised but

later in the book she becomes a governess to Mr.
Rochester's family and a strange relationship develops
between her and her master culminating in Rochester's
proposal of marriage. However Rochester has a skeleton in
the closet: on their wedding day a solicitor stops the
ceremony declaring that he is already married. In fact, he
has a mad wife whom he married in the West Indies and
keeps hidden in a secret room in the house. Jane is horrified
and runs away. After various adventures (she has just been
proposed to by the rather insipid missionary St John) she has
failed to find true happiness when suddenly ...
All the house was still, for I believe all, except St. John and
myself, were now retired to rest. The one candle was dying
out, the moon was full of moonlight. My heart beat fast and
thick.
 I heard its throb. Suddenly, it stood still to an inexpressible
feeling that thrilled it through, and passed at once to my
head and extremities. The feeling was not like an electric
shock, but it was quite as sharp, as strange, as startling. It
acted on my senses as if their utmost activity hitherto had
been but torpor, from which they were now summoned and
forced to wake. They rose expectant, eye and ear waited
while the flesh quivered on my bones.
'What have you heard? What do you see?' asked St John. I
saw nothing, but I heard a voice somewhere cry:
'Jane! Jane! Jane!' - nothing more. '0 God! what is it?' I
gasped.
I might have said, 'Where is it?' for it did not seem in the
room nor in the house - nor in the garden; it did not come
out of the air - nor from under the earth - nor from overhead.
I had heard it - where, or whence, for ever impossible to
know! And it was the voice of a human being - a known,
loved, well-remembered voice - that of Edward Fairfax
Rochester, and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily,
urgently.
remarks
Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte's best literary production.
The novel is a frank and passionate story of the love
between a governess and a married man. When the story
opens, the heroine, Jane Eyre, is still in her childhood. She is
a penniless and unattractive orphan left in the rude and
unjust care of her aunt, Mrs. Reed, a harsh, unsympathetic
woman. Finding the injustice too much to bear; the girl tells
straight to her aunt's face what she thinks of her. The girl is
then sent to a charity school for poor girls. She stays there
for six years as a student through all kinds of hardship and
punishment and another two years as a teacher. Later she
becomes governess to the ward of a rich landowner; Mr.
Rochester. They fall in mutual love and on the wedding day
Jane has to break the engagement and leave Rochester
because she learns the secret that the man she is going to
marry has a wife, a mad woman. She runs away and nearly
perishes on the moors but for the help and care of the Rev.
St. John Rivers and his sisters. John Rivers is a man of
rigorous honour and ideals, who almost succeeds in making
her agree to marry him and go with him to India. Jane
refuses because, unlike the passionate but morally imperfect
Rochester; he does not love her. She returns to Rochester's
place only to find the mansion burned down. The mad wife is
killed and Rochester is blinded in the fire as he tries to
rescue his mad wife. In the end, Jane marries him in spite of
his misfortune and restores his happiness.
Questions and Tasks
1. Trace Jane Eyre’s sequences of emotions from when she
breaks the slate to when she is called a liar.
First she
is ...........................................................................................
.................................
Miss Temple tries to .................................... but
Jane .........................................................
Then she
is .....................................................................................
with Brocklehurst & co.
She can not note the particulars
because ............................................................................
Then she feels everybody’s
eyes ......................................................................................
...
Then she steadies her nerves
and .......................................................................................
and realizes that it is better
to ..........................................................................................
....
2. What negative effects might Jane’s humiliation have on a
weaker character?
3. How does Jane interpret the event in the last paragraph
of the extract – as the work of superstition or the work of
nature?