Hitesh S. Vaghani
Roll no. - 21
SEM - II
Paper no. – 9
Year – 2010-11
Topic: Structure of the novel Oliver Twist
Submitted to Ruchira Madam
Department of English,
Bhavnagar University.
Oliver Twist is a typical Dickens novel, fashioned around a core of tangled intrigue that brings together a large number of people. These characters are of varied origins and diverse backgrounds. On the surface, it would seem unlikely that their paths should ever cross, but they are all inexorably drawn into the same web of circumstances. Dickens suggests that the lives of people of all stations may become intertwined. No one, he says, is safe from being influenced by the actions of others — possibly even completes strangers. The resulting complications and their unraveling contribute a large measure of mystery and suspense. Writers and critics sometimes use the term denouement in connection with the resolution of a story. The French word simply means an unknotting or an unscrambling of a jumble of twine. See how easily that relates to the complex interactions of a Dickens story.
The characteristic distinguishing ingredients of plot are conflict and resolution. In Oliver Twist, there are dual conflicts: the one between Monks and Oliver, the other between Fagin and Sikes. Through his conspiracy with Monks, Fagin becomes involved in both conflicts. He also becomes the agent whose decisions trigger the two lines of inevitable action, which subsequently converge.
The crisis in Oliver's conflicts involves no significant desire on his part. Fagin makes one critical decision when he maneuvers Oliver into the Chertsey fiasco. The unsuccessful burglary is the climax in the boy's misadventures. The grim disaster leaves him utterly helpless, but it is a turning point and his fortunes steadily improve from there. The resolution of his difficulties is achieved by Brownlow's triumph over Monks.
In the smoldering rivalry between Sikes and Fagin, the crisis is reached when Fagin actually plans to have Sikes murdered. Fagin's first step to eliminate Sikes involves having Nancy spied upon. This leads directly to the climax of the girl's murder. With that bloody deed, the entire company of thieves is drawn into a whirlpool of events, which ultimately brings them all to ruin. The denouement discussed earlier — the unknotting of story complications — comes with Sikes literally being hanged in his own noose, at the end of the day when the gang has been demolished.
Dickens's illustrations of the complications and their unraveling are accomplished by means of a complex mosaic of back-illumination. This technique offers several distinct advantages. It makes it easier to raise suspense to a high pitch and keep reader interest at a lively level. In order to draw the numerous persons into the current of events, Dickens is forced to make liberal use of accident and coincidence. By using the tricks and techniques of the dramatist that he was, Dickens is able to obscure his coincidences and accidents to the point where the reader scarcely notices. Other improbabilities are also made to seem real through Dickens's manipulation. In Chapter 49, for example, Brownlow undermines Monks's resistance with the startling words "the only proofs of the boy's identity lie at the bottom of the river, and the old hag that received them from the mother is rotting in her coffin." These are the exact words that Nancy claimed to have overheard from Monks while she was engaged in her risky game of eavesdropping on Monks’ secret meeting with Fagin. Then Rose precisely remembered this statement after her tempestuous meeting with Nancy in Chapter 40 and passed it on to Brownlow, who uses it to demoralize Monks with the very words that he spoke to Fagin in supposed secret. This flawless transmission would verge on the absurd if it were methodically reported in normal time-sequence. But as it is, the implausibility is lost sight of in the intricate patterns of disclosure.
The novel exhibits many characteristics of melodrama. The quality of pathos (sentimentality) is freely injected, most gratuitously in the case of Oliver's friend, "little Dick." The portrait of Oliver's mother and Monk’s scar are signs used as recognition devices. Other examples of standard melodramatic apparatus include the doings of the evil brother, a destroyed will, assumed names, and the discovery of unknown relatives.
The romantic subplot between Rose and Harry uses elements of melodrama. In the contest between the evil and good forces of the book, Rose stands out in a dazzling display that would today be called "goody-goody." Hurry’s noble abandonment of fame and fortune for the sake of true love is a lofty tribute to virtuous sentiment — it could happen in real life, but it often does not. Although the romance is hardly a vital element of the plot, it does follow established literary tradition and provides a center of interest for bringing the book to a conclusion.
Oliver Twist is a novel teeming with many closely interrelated ideas. There is preoccupation with the miseries of poverty and the spread of its degrading effects through society. With poverty comes hunger, another theme that is raised throughout the book, along with Dickens's notion that a misguided approach to the issues of poverty and homelessness brings many evils in its wake.
One of the worse consequences of poverty and being deprived of life's essentials is crime, with all of its corrosive effects on human nature. Dickens gives a great deal of attention to the painful alienation from society suffered by the criminal, who may come to feel completely isolated as the fragile foundations of his own hostile world snap. Crime is bad enough in itself, Dickens seems to be saying. When crime is the result of poverty, it completely dehumanizes society.
On the positive side, Dickens places heavy value on the elevating influence of a wholesome environment. He emphasizes the power of benevolence to overcome depravity. And goodness — like criminal intent — may expect to earn its own suitable reward. Sound familiar? The Dickensian theme of virtue being its own reward has its roots in the novels and poems of chivalry and redemption, where the good prosper and the "wicked" are sent packing.
A novel may have many levels of symbolism. Setting and characters may convey symbolic meaning aside from their plot functions. Some trait or gesture of a person may symbolize an aspect of his character, as Bumble's fondness for his three-cornered hat serves to illuminate his devotion to a tradition of recognition, status, and power.
A purely symbolic character is one who has no plot function at all. The chimney sweep, Garfield, may be looked upon in this light. He contributes nothing to the development of the plot but stands forth as a significant embodiment of unprovoked cruelty. Ordinarily, symbolic statement gives expression to an abstraction, something less obvious and, perhaps, even hidden. In spite of his conspicuous role in the plot, Brownlow exemplifies at all times the virtue of benevolence.
The novel is shot through with another symbol, obesity, which calls attention to hunger and the poverty that produces it by calling attention to their absence. It is interesting to observe the large number of characters who are overweight. Regardless of economics, those who may be considered prosperous enough to be reasonably well-fed pose a symbolic contrast to poverty and undernourishment. For example, notice that the parish board is made up of "eight or ten fat gentlemen"; the workhouse master is a "fat, healthy man"; Bumble is a "portly person"; Giles is fat and Brittles "by no means of a slim figure"; Mr. Losberne is "a fat gentleman"; one of the Bow Street runners is "a portly man." In many ways, obesity was as much a sign of social status as clothing.
Setting is heavily charged with symbolism in Oliver Twist. The physical evidences of neglect and decay have their counterparts in society and in the hearts of men and women. The dark deeds and dark passions are concretely characterized by dim rooms, smoke, fog, and pitch-black nights. The governing mood of terror and merciless brutality may be identified with the frequent rain and uncommonly cold weather.
Dickens's style is marked by a kind of literary obesity that is displeasing to some modern tastes. But in this connection — as in all others — we need to look at Dickens from the standpoint of his contemporaries. This means judging his art in one instance as it was viewed by the audience he addressed, whose tastes and expectations were vastly different from our own. A tribute to the greatness of his work is that it can still be read with pleasure today in spite of some of its excesses.
In many ways, the pace of life was more unhurried and deliberate in the early-nineteenth century than it is now, so readers would have the time to savor Dickens's rich use of language. In a period when people were thrown much on their own resources for diversion, without the intrusions of movies, radio, or television, they could enjoy a display of literary virtuosity for its own sake. The practice of reading aloud helped to bring out the novelist's artistry. When Dickens read from his books, his audiences were entranced, so he must, at least unconsciously, have written with some thought for oral effect.
The conditions of publication undoubtedly were instrumental in shaping the writer's technique. When he was faced with the challenge of holding his readers for over a year, he had to make his scenes unforgettable and his characters memorable. Only a vivid recollection could sustain interest for a month between chapters. Also, there was a need to cram each issue with abundant action to satisfy those who would re-read it while waiting impatiently for the next installment. What may seem excessively rich fare to those who can read the novel straight through without breaking may have only whetted the appetites of the original readers. The immediate popularity of Dickens's works bears witness to the soundness of his literary judgment.
this is cliffnotes copied out
ReplyDelete