...Explain how Dickens uses chapters 1 and 2 to prepare the reader for what is to come. * SPOOKINESS (make a few points here ensuring you attach quotes for your points) ‘Not a knocker...but Marley’s face’- this shows that there was a supernatural face of Jacob Marley on a plain old door knocker, we know it wasn’t a trick of the mind because it was a plain knocker and had no patterns to show a kind of face. ‘Knocker...but’ – the ellipsis builds up suspense and shows something might happen next. When the bell rings, it shows that it’s not normal for 1 bell to ring ever so softly it doesn’t make any noise and all of the sudden all 4 bells start to ring like crazy and all the bells in the house. The reader might something is going to happen after like paranormal behaviour in the house and they might sympathies for him because his old dickens uses a very good technique in this very chapter. ‘The cellar door flew open with a booming sound , and then he heard the noise much louder on the floors below, coming up the stairs, then coming straight towards his door.’- this sentence gets the reader attached to read more. Scrooge is in his house all alone and it is not normal for the door knob to be turning all by itself, then Marley flew in with lots of chains attached to him. Chains so long that they were still on the floor below while Marley was already upstairs. Spookiness= where is it built/hinted at? Why? What is the effect? How does it make us want to read on? ...
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...Charles Dickens, a most accomplished writer, has ended “The Signalman” in a most remarkable and memorable way. This extract is of the end of the story. Previously, the narrator had been confided in by a most peculiar man, the Signalman, who in the narrator’s opinion is suffering from hallucinations. He claims to see an apparition which has proved to be a bad omen by bringing about two unnerving incidents, which in both cases had involved death. During the past week it had often appeared, according to the Signalman, who was puzzled by what this appearance foretold this third time. At this point in the story, the narrator is on his way for the third visit to his friend, the Signalman. The author uses atmosphere as a tool to make the ending of this story very effective. The evening is described as “lovely” and “the sun was not yet down”. These happy descriptions deceive the readers into thinking that something wonderful is about to happen but in actual fact they are going to be experiencing the exact opposite. The lack of preparation by the author for such a dreadful event makes the death of the Signalman all the more surprising as it is totally unexpected. This use of surprise makes the story much more outstanding. As the narrator approaches the scene, he witnesses what he thinks is the apparition. For a brief moment, he believes his friend for he too has finally caught sight of this daunting spectre that had been troubling his friend. But what does it matter now? The...
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...Van Buren. "The Bleak Houses of Bleak House." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 25.3 (1970): 253-68. JSTOR. Web. 17 Sept. 2012. AUTHORITATIVE ESSAY - Callow, Simon. "Getting to Know Charles Dickens." The New York Times. N.p., 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/books/review/getting-to-know-charles-dickens.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www> BLEAK HOUSE: BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR: Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. New York: Ronald Press, 1960. Print. BOOK IN A SERIES: Johnson, Edgar. “The Anatomy of Society.” Bleak House. Ed. A.E. Dyson. Aurora: Nashville, 1969. 136-156. Print. Rpt. of “The Anatomy of Society.” Charles Dickens; His Tragedy and Triumph. N.P., N.C., 1953. N.Pag. BOOK IN AN ANTHOLOGY Harrison, Fredrick. “Charles Dickens.” Charles Dickens. Ed. Harold Bloom. Bloom’s Literary Criticism: New York, 2008. 72-79. Print. Rpt. of “Charles Dickens.” Studies in Early Victorian Literature. N.P., N.C.,1895: 133-44. BOOK/ESSAY THAT PLACES YOUR WORK IN ITS HISTORICAL/CULTURAL CONTEXT Marks, Patricia. “Charles Dickens.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Carl Rollyson. Vol. 2. Salem Press: California, 2000. Print. CHARLES DICKENS: BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR: Marcus, Steven. Dickens from Pickwick to Dombey. New York: W.W.Norton, 1965....
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...In 1832, at age 20, Dickens was energetic, full of good humour, enjoyed mimicry and popular entertainment, lacked a clear sense of what he wanted to become, yet knew he wanted to be famous. He was drawn to the theatre and landed an acting audition at Covent Garden, for which he prepared meticulously but which he missed because of a cold, ending his aspirations for a career on the stage. A year later he submitted his first story, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" to the London periodical, Monthly Magazine.[30] He rented rooms atFurnival's Inn becoming a political journalist, reporting on parliamentary debate and travelling across Britain to cover election campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals, formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz—Boz being a family nickname he employed as a pseudonym for some years—published in 1836.[31][32] Dickens apparently adopted it from the nickname Moses which he had given to his youngest brother Augustus Dickens, after a character in Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. When pronounced by anyone with a headcold, 'Moses' became 'Boses', and was later shortened to Boz.[32][33]Dickens's own name was considered "queer" by a contemporary critic, who wrote in 1849: "Mr Dickens, as if in revenge for his own queer name, does bestow still queerer ones upon his fictitious creations." He continued to contribute to and edit journals throughout his literary career.[30] The success of these sketches...
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...Charles Dickens by, Charlotte Toal “Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.” These inspirational words spoken by Charles Dickens are not what come to mind when people think of this remarkably talented and widely appreciated author, but his great and timeless works are. As a man of compassion, insight, and aptitude, the English author had many thoughts, both those he incorporated into his books, and those he did not. As a young boy in England, Dickens got a generous taste of hardship and suffering. Many poor families—like his—worked in factories. The particular factory, in which he worked for several years, was a shoe polish factory. While his father was in debtors’ prison, Dickens’ family moved away from him to be close to the prison. The twelve-year-old boy was forced to live alone and work. Although the first years of his life were neither the most pleasant nor advantageous, it was not always that way for Dickens. Though most present-day authors, business men, or politicians don’t establish themselves in a particular working venue or business until later in life, Charles Dickens became an accomplished freelance reporter and stenographer, and by age twenty he had become a reporter for two newspapers. Shortly after beginning his writing career, Dickens began submitting—and publishing—sketches...
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...TOPIC:-What is Moral Fable? How can you say that Hard Times is a Moral Fable? BY: CHETAN ANKUR Moral fable combines the left (logical) & right (creative) side of the brain, so it both entertains creatively and validates certain types of behaviour, morally. The creative part is the fairy tale which often involves animals rather than humans. It speaks to our hearts as it entertains us; the ending is the logical, moral conclusion that satisfies our logical brains and seems "right". The problem with all moral fables is that there are often 2 sides to the same story ... things are rarely so black and white in reality ... so there could be more than one ending ... e.g. there are times when speed is necessary over steadiness - of course, there also has to be good judgement. Although it is not appropriate to describe a work of art, which Hard Times undoubtedly is, as a moral fable or a morality play, yet the fact remains that there is a strong moral intention behind this novel. Hard Times is a satirical attack on some of the evils and vices of Victorian society. Satire has always corrective purpose and is therefore basically moral in its approach to the subjects it deals with. Apart from that, there are passages of direct moralising in this novel. Hard Times is a novel which from the moment of its publication aroused very different sentiments in the reading public. Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times were mostly monetary. Sales of...
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...lives or walk their journeys because they have no idea where they are going. It is exactly as if they are driving a car but do not have a destination. If the road leads them to the gutters they will follow and if it carries them back to their starting point they will never mind. Those kind of people have chosen death one day while others have chosen immortality, by living a dream, having a destination and doing whatever it takes to reach it; by wanting to have an impact on people's lives and by changing the world. They could be one day engraved in people's hearts and minds such as men of peace and men of war, men of science and men of literature. Like Thomas Edison, Napoleon, Columbus, James Cook, Adolf Hitler, Anwar El Sadat and Charles Dickens for instance. These impacters have yes died but they are still alive for they are stamped in our minds, some even in our hearts. Therefore, they will never die for they are eternal and everlasting. I would like to seal my speech by a quotation I came across and thought was quite relevant to my topic: " It is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sale sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it but we must sail and not drift nor lie at anchor." Anonymous. So I ask you: How dare you drift and not sail? How dare you walk your journey and not dream it? How dare you die and not live? So please from now on know where you are going have a vision and work toward achieving...
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...Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native,is a very interesting commentary on the role of fate in life, choices that lead individuals down questionable paths, and ultimately, how a person's refusal to live by the standards of society find themselves outcasts and the subjects of gossip and superstition. In the field of characterization,Thomas Hardy’s talent, as compared with that of some great novelists, is remarkably narrow. His memorable characters all have a family likeness, along with realistic quality. He makes his characters live in almost vital manner. However, Hardy portrays different characters in his novels but the treatment he has given to his women characters is noteworthy. His female characters and the situations they face has long been a source of fascination. At times, these characters are hopelessly virtuous and innocent, and any sexual freedom which they embrace or obtain does not end well for them. Actually,in his every novel,Hardy has presented his insight to portray female in such a way that the readers feel that they are the founder and destroyer of man’s courage. One major thing Hardy has presented in his novels is his insight to portray female in such a way that the readers feel that they are the founder and destroyer of man’s courage. Victorian Era also faced the problems of materialism and mechanism through the age of industrialization. It reached to its pinnacle and Hardy shares his views with the reader that women were highly attracted by this modernity...
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...English: Education System and school reforms during the Victorian Age; Charity schools, the theme of the educational model in “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte; the theme of Utilitarianism in the novel “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens The Cultural context during the Victorian period and the Education Act of 1870 Before 1870, education was largely unregulated and emerged in various forms such as the dame schools and charity schools. Dame schools were run by women who had little or no educational training themselves and were unsanitary, sometimes exploitative businesses where working-class children were taught basic literacy in overcrowded classes. The charity schools movement ensured basic education for children of low income families. These schools were run and owned by private individuals and were financed partly by student subscriptions and partly by endowments. The curriculum was based on strict moral and religious discipline, lessons were often taught from the Bible and students learned to be submissive and accept their lowly position in society. The upper and middle class sent their male children to expensive public (private) boarding schools and to college to become gentlemen, future heads of industry, finance and business, or top-rank civil servants to be employed throughout the Empire, in other words the future ruling class. Upper and middle-class girls were closely guarded by their parents till marriage and were generally educated at home by a governess. They had to...
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...AUTHOR British author Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England. He was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk. Charles Dickens’ mother, Elizabeth Barrow, aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old. Following his father’s imprisonment, Charles Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the rundown, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six shillings a week labeling pots of “blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best he could do to help support his family. The horrific conditions in the factory haunted him for the rest of his life. Apparently, Dickens never forgot the day when a more senior boy in the warehouse took it upon himself to instruct Dickens in how to do his work more efficiently. For Dickens, that instruction may have represented the first step toward his full integration into the misery and tedium of working-class life. The more senior boy’s name was Bob Fagin. Dickens’s residual resentment of him reached a fevered pitch in the characterization...
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...Both texts use place/setting in imaginative ways to highlight various aspects of characters identity in relation to the various surroundings. Firstly Pip grows up on the marshes and returns there many times when he's older. The rough marshes stand in contrast to the civilized city of London. One of the convicts describes the marshes as: 'A most beastly place: mudbank, mist, swamp, and work'. But Dickens's depiction of London, however, doesn't exactly fall in line with this notion of England as all-powerful, rich, and healthy. Great Expectations takes place in 19th century England, this is a busy time for England, seeing the momentum of the Industrial Revolution. Furthemore there is great unity in this novel: it is principally about guilt and shame, and these ideas are reinforced in many ways one being through the use of place such as where Pip grows up, in the marshes, representing a dark and unwelcoming atmosphere that Pip considers embarrassing and does not wish to identify himself with the place. In comparison to Behind the Scenes at the Museum place is used to contribute to the understanding of character relationships such as the holiday to Scotland. The holiday and change of scenery for the Lennox family bring with it nothing but arguing curtesy of George showing the tension in the family relations. Furthermore on the holiday almost everyone becomes sick showing the uneasiness due to a change In place. Most of the characters in "Behind the Scenes at the Museum"...
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...Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign (1837–1901) and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period. Victorian morality can describe any set of values that espouse sexual restraint, low tolerance of crime and a strict social code of conduct. Due to the prominence of the British Empire, many of these values were spread across the world. The term "Victorian" was first used during The Great Exhibition in London (1851), where Victorian inventions and morals were shown to the world. The Victorian Age was a complex era characterized by stability, progress and social reforms, and, in the meantime, by great problems such as poverty, injustice and social unrest; that’s why the Victorians felt obliged to promote and invent a rigid code of values that reflected the world as they wanted it to be, based on: * duty and hard work; * respectability: a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social standards (possessions of good manners, ownership of a comfortable house, regular attendance at church and charitable activity); it distinguished the middle from the lower classes; * charity and philanthropy: an activity that involved many people, especially women. The family was strictly patriarchal: the husband represented the authority and respectability, consequently a single...
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...likes leaping leopards. 2. ASSONANCE An excerpt from “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frosts “He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dar and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” 3. CONSONANCE An excerpt from “Shall I Wasting in Despair” by George Wither Great, or good, or kind, or fair, I will ne’er the more despair; If she love me, this believe, I will die ere she shall grieve; If she slight me when I woo, I can scorn and let her go; For if she be not for me, What care I for whom she be? 4. ANAPHORA An excerpt from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” 5. AMBIGUITY An excerpt from “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger: “I ran all the way to the main gate, and then I waited a second till I got my breath. I have no wind, if you want to know the truth. I’m quite a heavy smoker, for one thing—that is, I used to be. They made me cut it out. Another thing, I grew six and a half inches last year. That’s also how I practically got t.b. and came out here for all these goddamn checkups and stuff. I’m pretty...
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...The One Against the Many ---- Jane Eyre, a woman who resisted her times It is a sustaining social problem that the statues of women has remained to be lower than that of men. Although in the late 20th century feminist movements have begun to overspread in some countries, it is hard to change the fact that throughout history, women do not receive as much rights as men do, say nothing of the Victorian times. However, in such an era, there was an outstanding woman who betrayed the times she lived in ----Jane Eyre. All through her life, Jane has been fighting. She fought against her aunt and cousin when she was a little girl; she fought for true love and equality in the face of Mr. Rochester; and she fought to survive on her own as an independent individual. Unlike most of the so-called “ideal” woman of the Victorian era, she is a woman with conceptions of adamancy, equality and liberty, which were not features that a woman was supposed to have. Adamancy Childhood experiences as an orphan living under other’s roof had affected Jane a lot. It was at Gateshead that Jane learnt to hit back. It can be found at the very beginning of the novel that Jane Eyre had a soul of strong resistance. She fought back when John, who was much older and stronger, scolded her and hit her. She never gave in even when facing with her aunt Mrs. Reed. After Jane saw Helen was punished unfairly, she said “I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist...
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...long-lost family member? In The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, many characters are shown to be “recalled to life”. However, one man distinctly embodies this rejuvenation three times throughout the book. Charles Darnay, with the aid of his comrades, is recalled to life while on trial for treason in three individual circumstances. When Darnay is first introduced, he is on trial in England for allegedly plotting with the French and Americans against England. The general opinion in the courtroom is in agreement with this claim, and the situation does not bode well for young Darnay. Should he be pronounced guilty, any dreams or goals for his future would be shattered, for his punishment would be certain death. However, the public judgment sways after hearing the testimony of Lucie Manette, an earlier acquaintance of the accused who vouches for his kindness and honesty. Furthermore, when the lawyer for the defense reveals that a Mr. Sidney Carton bears a striking resemblance to Darnay, the accusations against the prisoner are crushed and he is acquitted of all charges. As Jerry Cruncher so aptly puts it: “Mr. Lorry handed him a paper through the throng. “Quick! Have you got it?” “Yes, sir.” Hastily written on the paper was the word “ACQUITTED.” “If you had sent the message, 'Recalled to Life,' again,” muttered Jerry, as he turned, “I should have known what you meant, this time” (Dickens) After his acquittal, Charles Darnay begins to court the idea...
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