...Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second of eight children. Charles parents became debtor prisoners and during that time, at the age of twelve Charles went to live with a family friend Elizabeth Rylance. There Charles attended a private school for three years. In May 1827 Charles worked as a junior clerk for the law offices of Ellis and Blackmore. In 1832 at the age of 20 Charles submitted his first story A Dinner at Poplar Walk. As a young man Charles also mastered shorthand, and before long was employed as a Parliamentary reporter. In 1836 at the age of 25 he started working at Pickwick Papers. At Pickwick Papers he published many of his novels in monthly installment in the paper. The first of these installments were from the novel Oliver’s Twist, which would later be published in 1838. Some of Charles Dickens other novels include Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Story, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens first love was a woman by the name of Maria Beadnell, after Maria’s parents disapproved of their courtship Maria was sent away to school in Paris. On April 2, 1836 after a one year engagement Charles married Catherine Thomson Hogarth. Together Charles and Catherine would have 10 children and be together for 18 years. In 1857 however Charles would hire Ellen Ternan to star in one of his plays and...
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... I did not know what I had done. What have I done” (Dickens 399). Her admittance of her mistake and her unwillingness to move on suggests this idea of a figurative suicide as she no longer lived a life in the present, but rather in a house of memories. The only action Havisham took after the wedding was a vow to “save her from misery like mine” (Dickens 403). Oddly enough, Havisham succeeded and this leads to one of the great ironies of this story that produces an undesirable effect on Pip and his life. Estella was only adopted to break other men’s hearts and successfully breaks Pip’s. However, Pip’s heartbreak ironically removes Havisham from her desire to break his heart. In Chapter 49, Havisham finally comes to regret her decision as she constantly shouts “What have I done” (Dickens 403) and breaks free from her past shown by the symbolism of the burnt dress and ruined cake. The question is whether Havisham truly freed herself as Pip notices that “Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, [...] she still had something of her old ghastly bride appearance” (Dickens 403) as if suggesting she could never escape her past even with the dismissal of her...
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...Prose Study ‘Great Expectations’ How does Dickens use setting and characterization to interest and intrigue the reader? Throughout the novel, Dickens uses a range of techniques to interest and intrigue the reader. One way in which he does this is through the setting, which is the place and time in which the story takes place, also establishing the mood or atmosphere. Another method is characterization, the way the characters are portrayed, such as through their gestures and dialogue. All these devices help to arouse and sustain the reader’s curiosity and make us feel sympathy towards the character, which is especially shown in Pip’s initial encounter with Magwitch in the marshes and Pip’s first experience of visiting Miss Havisham and Estella in ‘Satis House.’ These represent different social situations, with Pip and Magwitch in the lower class, and Estella and Miss Havisham in the upper middle class. No matter which situation he is in, he still feels uncomfortable, and consequently we too feel a sense of uneasiness for him. In the Nineteenth Century, Dickens was a supporter of social reform, and therefore used his writing as a means of communicating his views to the readers. He wanted to make his Victorian readers, particularly the middle and upper classes, aware of some of the inequality in society, such as the lack of support, education and opportunity for the lower class. He was a sympathiser for the poor and the oppressed, especially...
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...1. With the emphasis on Dickens’ Great Expectations and with wider reference to Kincaid’s Lucy, compare and contrast the writer’s intentions and achievements arising from their presentation of women. Throughout ‘Great expectations’ by Charles Dickens and Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Lucy’, both authors seem to present women intentionally to relate to the idea of patriarchy (a system or society governed by men) and how independence or obedience links to their social class’s expectations. Dickens does this by upholding the Victorian ideology of gender, which in ‘Great Expectations’ addressed women as either an angel in the house- the ideal wife, obedient, devoted and submissive to their husband or alternatively, the whore. Independent with the desire for more power than their social class expectations allows, very anti-men. Being an angel in the house was expected of all women in the Victorian era, they had a limited amount of power, enough to be the ideal wife who would be generally rewarded, represented by Biddy. However those women whom abused their power and went against all expectations of social class, the whores, were physically punished by Dickens but given a chance of redemption, evidence of this is shown by Estella and Miss Havisham. Kincaid follows the same idea as Dickens to a certain degree in ‘Lucy’. She focuses on the character of Lucy and her journey to independence, constantly trying to prove her power to break free from her homeland and mother, she manages to achieve...
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...Expectations by Charles Dickens i Meet Charles Dickens In addition to writing short stories and novels, Dickens wrote essays and journalistic pieces, and edited a weekly periodical filled with fiction, poetry, and essays. First titled Household Words, the magazine was later retitled All the Year Round. Dickens contributed to this publication several serialized novels, including Great Expectations, and writings on political and social issues. Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He was the second child and eldest son of eight children. Dickens’s father, who worked as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, was a spendthrift who often mismanaged the family money. In 1822 the family moved to London and soon found itself in financial crisis. The family was forced to live in poverty, and Dickens was no longer able to go to school. One of the most traumatic periods of his life began in February 1824, when his father was sent to debtors prison. Young Dickens, only twelve years old, was forced to go to work for several months pasting labels on bottles. This experience was painful and socially humiliating to him, and images of the factory haunted him for the rest of his life. These images provided a backdrop to much of his fiction, which often focused on class issues; the plight of the poor and oppressed; and lost, suffering children. As an adult, he championed social and political causes designed to help the poor, prisoners, and children. Dickens became a reporter...
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...Charles Dickens EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Justin Kestler EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ben Florman TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Tammy Hepps SERIES EDITORS Boomie Aglietti, Justin Kestler PRODUCTION Christian Lorentzen WRITERS Brian Phillips, Wendy Cheng EDITORS Ben Florman, Jennifer Burns Copyright ©2002 by SparkNotes llc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes llc. sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes llc. This edition published by Spark Publishing Spark Publishing A Division of SparkNotes llc 120 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor New York, NY 10011 USA Context All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC. SPARK ARKNOTES W W W. S PA R K N O T E S . C O M Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, and spent the first nine years of his life living in the coastal regions of Kent, a county in southeast England. Dickens’s father, John, was a kind and likable man, but he was incompetent with money and piled up tremendous debts throughout his life. When Dickens was nine...
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...characters have been presented in the texts I have studied. I will be referring to a range of poems by Carol Ann Duffy and Macbeth by Shakespeare. Carol Ann Duffy chooses to use emotive language in Havisham by using the words “beloved sweetheart bastard”. This is an oxymoron to show the contrast in her feelings and shows that they are very mixed. The poet is showing how she is both still in love with her husband however still angry at him for leaving her at the altar. Havisham is angry at being an old unmarried woman and uses the word “Spinster” as a sentence on its own at the start of the stanza emphasising Havishams own isolation. The short sentence shows how the word is almost spat out to show the speakers disgust with what she has been forced to become. This also shows us that she is a disturbed character since she is unclear about her own feelings but she feels them very violently. This is similar in the novel ‘Great Expectations’ by Dickens which also presents the character of Miss Havisham as disturbed by describing her dress as ‘faded and yellow’. This use of colour tells us that just like her wedding dress, Miss Havisham has become old. Dickens uses his narrator to show how he sees Havisham in his eyes. He describes her as a ‘skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress’ which shows how long she has stayed in her wedding dress. Both Salome and Lady Macbeth use enjambment to show the continuation of their thoughts. In Salome she says: “I knew I’d feel better For tea, dry toast...
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...The inevitable future of everyone is affected by the perspectives of others on you. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, social classes have eternally definite aspects of human existence; the several places that Pip stands in the social hierarchy changes Pip’s life and his own perspective of it, through the lens of how others look at him. The continuum all starts when Pip is a country boy. Pip’s life as a country boy changes how Estella, Miss Havisham and even Pip looks at himself. For example, when “Pip struggles throughout the story to become Estella’s love, but comes to realize she will have nothing to do with him as long as he does not have money” (http://staff.washington.edu/). This quote that was taken from a Washington University...
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...ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2015-2016) MEG-03 British Novel Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tuthors/Authors for the help and Guidance of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% accuracy of these sample answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the assignment. As these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/ Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer and for up-to-date and exact information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university. Answer all the questions. Q. 1. Trace the development of modern English fiction with specific reference to the major shifts in literary perspective during the nineteenth century. Ans. While Ian Watt in The Rise of the Novel (1957) suggests that the novel came into being in the early 18th century which witnessed the rise of increasingly realistic fiction, and...
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...self-realization in Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Great Expectations and Lord Jim. It has also been tried to add some new concepts regarding these novels. Necessary and related information has been collected from various books and internet. Austen's serene world, in Pride and Prejudice which harbours dynamic action, goes unnoticed by the readers who read her novels on the surface level. But the readers who fathom the depths of her creativity can realize that active forces are working, reforming and psychologically molding the characters in her novels. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the most famous novels of Thomas Hardy. In this novel we see a tragic end of Tess with an ultimate realization. Great Expectations was one of Dickens’ best-known novels and was written in 1860. Great Expectations is a Bildungsroman and follows the progression of Pip from child to adult; from humble blacksmith to gentleman; from innocence to experience; from rags to riches and on his journey, Pip meets a range of interesting characters, from the comical Wemmick, to the cruel Estella. Perfection is not possible Joseph Conrad’s novel Lord Jim is set in the late 1800’s in the Far East. The protagonist, Jim, is a young, idealistic sailor who commits a crime early in the story. Jim is tortured from within with the feeling of worthlessness after this crime, and runs from his past searching for an opportunity to redeem himself after realizing his inner self. In Pride and...
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...Great Expectations By Charles Dickens Download free eBooks of classic literature, books and novels at Planet eBook. Subscribe to our free eBooks blog and email newsletter. Chapter 1 M y father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister - Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, ‘Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,’ I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine - who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle - I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state...
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...Charles John Huffam Dickens (/ˈtʃɑrlz ˈdɪkɪnz/; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period.[1] During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.[2][3] Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens was forced to leave school to work in a factory when his father was thrown into debtors' prison. Although he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed. Over his career he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms. Dickens sprang to fame with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.[4][5] The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction...
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...“Although terrifying, many of the stories are also darkly comic.” Consider at least two of the stories from The Bloody Chamber in the light of this comment. * candidates must consider at least two stories here – they may consider more * exploration of the ways in which the stories may be considered terrifying, an aspect of the gothic – likely reference to the numerous instances of horrific violence, sexual depravity, supernatural powers, psychological fear etc * exploration of the ways in which some of the stories may be considered comic – “Puss-in-Boots” is obviously comic – other stories have moments of sardonic humour, often created by surprise or defiance of our expectations * Response to the word “darkly” in the question and its implications of black comedy – laughing at things which are not normally considered funny – expect some personal response here – sense of humour is very individual! * some candidates may discuss Carter’s language – her intermingling of the poetic and literary with the bluntly crude may be seen as a source of dark humour, equally her choice of structure may make her writing darkly comic – her use of juxtaposition – some readers have seen the absurd brevity of “The Snow Child” as comic and it is unquestionably “dark” Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ certainly embeds an element of terror within the collection. However, despite claims of horror apparent in the Marquis from the very start, it is also reasonable to argue that...
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...HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS Visit our How To website at www.howto.co.uk At www.howto.co.uk you can engage in conversation with some of our authors – all of whom have ‘been there and done that’ in their specialist fields. You can get access to special offers and additional content but, most importantly, you will be able to engage with, and become a part of, a wide and growing community of people just like yourself. At www.howto.co.uk you’ll be able to talk to, and share tips with, people who have similar interests and are facing similar challenges in their lives. People who, just like you, have the desire to change their lives for the better – be it through moving to a new country, starting a new business, growing their own vegetables, or writing a novel. At www.howto.co.uk you’ll find the support and encouragement you need to help make your aspirations a reality. How To Books strives to present authentic, inspiring, practical information in their books. Now, when you buy a title from How To Books, you get even more than words on a page. HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS A step-by-step guide for all levels, with sample essays Don Shiach howtobooks ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author and publishers are grateful to Nicholas Murray and the Rack Press, Kinnerton, Presteigne, Powys LD8 2PF for permission to reproduce History from Nicholas Murray’s collection ‘The Narrators’. Published by How To Content, A division of How To Books Ltd, Spring Hill House, Spring...
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...MATILDA BOOKS FOR CHILDREN BY THE SAME AUTHOR James and the Giant Peach Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Fantastic Mr Fox The Magic Finger Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator Danny, the Champion of the World The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More The Enormous Crocodile The Twits George's Marvellous Medicine Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes The BFG Dirty Beasts The Witches Boy The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me Going Solo Roald Dahl MATILDA Illustrations by Quentin Blake VIKING KESTREL For Michael and Lucy VIKING KESTREL Published by the Penguin Group Viking Penguin Inc., 40 West 23rd Street, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1B4 Penguin Books |N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1988 First American edition published 1988 3 5 7 9 10 6 4 Text copyright © Roald Dahl, 1988 Illustrations copyright © Quentin Blake, 1988 All rights reserved Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint an excerpt from "In Country Sleep" from The Poems of Dylan Thomas. Copyright 1947,1952 Dylan Thomas. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. Library of Congress catalog card number: 88-40312 ISBN 0-670-82439-9 Printed...
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