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Abstract:The whole thesis is to study the delicate techniques of displaying arts and literature exercised by Dickens. Furthermore, the thesis is to guide readers to know about the wordings and humour of Dickens and appreciate the charm of Great Expectations through a large number of examples.
Key words:humourGreat expectationsgentleman
Part One
Dickens was a novelist, born at Landport, near Portsmouth, where his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office. The hardships of his early life, his want of regular schooling, and his miserable time in the blacking factory, which form the basis of the early chapters of David Copperfield, are largely accounted for by the fact that his father was to a considerable extent the sample of the immortal Mr. Micawber; but partly by his being a delicate and sensitive child, unusually susceptible to suffering both in body and mind. Oliver Twist was coming out in Bentley’s Miscellany. Thence forward Dickens’ literary career was a continued success. American Notes appeared in 1842, the first of the Christmas books—the Christmas Carol—appeared in 1843, Hard Times in 1854, and started All the Year Round, in which appeared A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860-61).
One of Dickens’ most marked characteristics is the extraordinary wealth of his invention as exhibited in the number and variety of the characters introduced into his novels. Another, especially, of course, in his earlier works, is his boundless flow of animal spirits. Others are his marvelous keenness of observation and his descriptive power. And the English race may well, with Thackeray, be “grateful for the innocent laughter, and the sweet and unsullied pages which the author of David Copperfield gives to [its] children.” On the other hand, his faults are obvious, a tendency to sarcasm, a mannerism that often tires, and almost disgusts, fun often forced, and moving power not seldom degenerating into sickishness. But at his best how rich and genial is the humour, how tender often the moving power. And when all deductions are made, he had the laughter and tears of the English-speaking world at command for a full generation while he lived, and that his spell still works is proved by a continuous succession of new editions.
Dickens is best remembered, perhaps, for his ability to create humour out of farce, nonsense, and satire, using such types as the drunk, the abnormal, the affected actor, the farce actor, the hypocrite, snobbish physician and his ally, the undertaker, and such subjects as education, child abuse and neglect, and keeping up with the Joneses.
Part Two
Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens is regarded as a masterpiece of the American novels. The main characters invented by Charles Dickens in the book have displayed their own charms completely because of the extraordinary wealth of Charles Dickens’ invention as exhibited in the number and variety of the characters introduced into his novels, his marvelous keenness of observation and his descriptive power, and also his creative power of humour. As the main character and narrator of Great Expectations, Pip begins the story as a young orphan boy being raised by his sister and brother-in-law in the marsh country of Kent, in the west of England. Two important childhood events change his life forever and remain irrevocably intertwined with his subsequent history, he meets a convict in a cemetery and aids him by stealing food and a file from home, and he is taken to play at the home of Miss Havisham, a rich old eccentric, where he meets a beautiful young girl named Estella. Pip is passionate, romantic, and somewhat unrealistic at heart, and he tends to expect more for himself than is reasonable. Pip also has a powerful conscience, and he deeply wants to improve himself, both morally and socially. A fearsome criminal, Abei Magwitch (“The Convict”) escapes from prison at the beginning of Great Expectations and terrorizes Pip in the cemetery. Pip’s kindness makes a deep impression on him, and he subsequently devotes himself to making a fortune and elevating Pip into a higher social class.
Key words:humourGreat expectationsgentleman
Part One
Dickens was a novelist, born at Landport, near Portsmouth, where his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office. The hardships of his early life, his want of regular schooling, and his miserable time in the blacking factory, which form the basis of the early chapters of David Copperfield, are largely accounted for by the fact that his father was to a considerable extent the sample of the immortal Mr. Micawber; but partly by his being a delicate and sensitive child, unusually susceptible to suffering both in body and mind. Oliver Twist was coming out in Bentley’s Miscellany. Thence forward Dickens’ literary career was a continued success. American Notes appeared in 1842, the first of the Christmas books—the Christmas Carol—appeared in 1843, Hard Times in 1854, and started All the Year Round, in which appeared A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860-61).
One of Dickens’ most marked characteristics is the extraordinary wealth of his invention as exhibited in the number and variety of the characters introduced into his novels. Another, especially, of course, in his earlier works, is his boundless flow of animal spirits. Others are his marvelous keenness of observation and his descriptive power. And the English race may well, with Thackeray, be “grateful for the innocent laughter, and the sweet and unsullied pages which the author of David Copperfield gives to [its] children.” On the other hand, his faults are obvious, a tendency to sarcasm, a mannerism that often tires, and almost disgusts, fun often forced, and moving power not seldom degenerating into sickishness. But at his best how rich and genial is the humour, how tender often the moving power. And when all deductions are made, he had the laughter and tears of the English-speaking world at command for a full generation while he lived, and that his spell still works is proved by a continuous succession of new editions.
Dickens is best remembered, perhaps, for his ability to create humour out of farce, nonsense, and satire, using such types as the drunk, the abnormal, the affected actor, the farce actor, the hypocrite, snobbish physician and his ally, the undertaker, and such subjects as education, child abuse and neglect, and keeping up with the Joneses.
Part Two
Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens is regarded as a masterpiece of the American novels. The main characters invented by Charles Dickens in the book have displayed their own charms completely because of the extraordinary wealth of Charles Dickens’ invention as exhibited in the number and variety of the characters introduced into his novels, his marvelous keenness of observation and his descriptive power, and also his creative power of humour. As the main character and narrator of Great Expectations, Pip begins the story as a young orphan boy being raised by his sister and brother-in-law in the marsh country of Kent, in the west of England. Two important childhood events change his life forever and remain irrevocably intertwined with his subsequent history, he meets a convict in a cemetery and aids him by stealing food and a file from home, and he is taken to play at the home of Miss Havisham, a rich old eccentric, where he meets a beautiful young girl named Estella. Pip is passionate, romantic, and somewhat unrealistic at heart, and he tends to expect more for himself than is reasonable. Pip also has a powerful conscience, and he deeply wants to improve himself, both morally and socially. A fearsome criminal, Abei Magwitch (“The Convict”) escapes from prison at the beginning of Great Expectations and terrorizes Pip in the cemetery. Pip’s kindness makes a deep impression on him, and he subsequently devotes himself to making a fortune and elevating Pip into a higher social class.