The Education And Growth Of Pendennis

Marx regarded Thackeray as one of the novelists of the brilliant generationand Thackeray deserved it. Vanity Fair, which won his name, vividly describes theeveryday life of the aristocratic upper society that is full of hypocrisy, selfishness andsnobbishness. He wrote Pendennis one year later, which features on the developmentof the young and emphasizes the function of the environment and education on thebasis of profoundly reflecting the complex relationship between the reality and humandrawbacks. Pendennis marks a new field of realistic novels. In the view of Francis,bildungsroman describes the growth experience of a young person. ThereforePendennis is categorized into bildungsroman. With the development of theenlightenment in Europe in 1800s, people gradually recognized that education playedan important role in the individual growth as well as social politics and economy. As aresult, in the field of literature, bildungsroman is getting more attention and influence.Bildungsroman focuses on the growth of the young people and and bears the apparentflavor of teaching and enlightening. It is in line with the nature of literature to lookinto people’s inner world. Which lies the meaning and glamour of bildungsroman.Under the context of bildungsroman, this thesis will go deeply into discussingthe meaning of the novel Pendennis and consists of three parts.The first chapter tries to define the feature, nature and significance ofbildungsroman from the perspective of the origin, the basic content and other factors.It discusses the relationship between bildungsroman the European Enlightenment andthe creative works of the era, especially those of Rousseau. Under the influence ofthe enlightenment, close attention was paid to people’s status, which leads to theemphasis on education. This is one of the important reasons for the prosperity ofbildungsroman. Rousseau wrote the famous book Emile. This novel conveysRousseau’s educational concept and its historical value and realistic meaning will beanalyzed. Then this thesis will discuss Thackeray’s Pendennis, which represents thedevelopment of bildungsroman in the 19th-century.Chapter II gives relatively comprehensive study of Pendennis by analyzing theleading character. From the two dimensions of the educated (the leading character)and the educators (those who had profound influence on the growth of the leading character), it discusses how Pendennis achieved inner transformation and grew up.The educators guide the educated in the process of growing up. This is an importantexternal factor. From the point-view of the internal factors, the educated has manychoices. He may choose to lead an ordinary or upper life. At last he would choose hisway of life and live his own life. The process would show signs of his growing up andthe track of an ordinary young people achieving life transformation.Chapter III presents the comparison between Pendennis and other bildungsroman,mainly David Copperfield and Emotional Education. Under the theme ofbildungsroman, Pendennis is not an isolated event. The image of young people can betraced in many works of that era, which means more importance was attached to theeducation of people. Moreover, bildungstroman in the 19thcentury is tends to be moreprofound and realistic than that in the 18thcentury. From a strong man who suffereda lot to skepticism-affected young people with complicated world view, they are all ofrich and typical significance. At the same time these images demonstrate the crystalimprinting of the authors’own life and emotional experience, which not only enrichesthe content of the novel, but also offers a special way to understand the ideas of theauthor, especially the educational concept of the author.