On The Spirit Of Humanitarianism In Dickens’ Novels

Dickens is the outstanding representative of the critical realism, and his literarywork occupies a pivotal position in the history of English literature and even the historyof world literature. His works widely depict a broad picture of the Victorian Britishsociety, survey the modern life with the eyes of an eagle perspective, and reveal the evilsof the capitalist society. But he is a humanitarian and the main theme of his novels ishumanitarianism.Humanitarianism, as a kind of thought or ideological system, is firstly suitable forbourgeois thinkers, which is a view from the point of person, claiming that everyone is aseparate entity, respecting personal equality and freedom rights, admitting people’s valueand dignity, thinking of people as human being instead of a kind of tool. Bourgeoishumanitarianism is based on the abstract theory of human nature beyond classes and eraand starts from humanity and sets up their ideological system, which takes the pursuit ofsocial system to private ownership as the foundation and the individualism as the core.The humanitarians believe that human beings are kind and their morality could beimproved.They advocate that people should use the powerful weapon of humanitarianismto awaken and educate people. Thus they get their understandings of the society fromrationality and emotion. However, with the loss of the bourgeois revolutionary and therise of the movement of the proletariat revolution, it gradually loses the historical role ofprogress. Dickens’ humanitarianism also sets up on the human and stressed the "humanlove" which is the most important point in his novels.After reading his works, we can see that there are a lot of works on human nature,like Oliver Twist, Christmas Tales, Dombey and Son,David Copperfield, A Tale of TwoCities, Bleak House, Little Dorrit and so on. This paper is from the point of view ofhumanitarianism, through the interpretation of his three great works created in differentperiods-the early, middle, and late periods, analyzing in-depth from two aspects of thecharacterization and themes and exploring comprehensively how humanitarianism runsthrough the Dickens’ three works.This thesis is composed of three parts—the introduction, the body and theconclusion. The main contents are as follows: The first part is the introduction. The introduction section introduces the researchstatus of this field of research of the humanitarian spirit of Dickens, and the problem tobe solved and innovations in this thesis, the last part of the introduction describes thecreative purpose of this thesis and practical significance.The second part is the body, made up of four parts:The first chapter introduces the background of the times of Dickens, and theintroduction to his main works in different creative periods, and the formation anddevelopment of his humanitarian thought and characteristic, focusing on the impact of itsdistinctive life experiences on his thoughts and their ideological connotations, especially,the experience of his childhood had a great influence on him. After all the sufferings inhis life, he felt heartbroken after witnessing all kinds of evils and crimes, and as anidealist, he had no way to accept all the terrible fact and reality decided to showhumanitarianism in his works to express his own points and awaken and educate humanbeings. He hoped that the class contradiction would be eased through the showing of hishumanitarianism. Even though his great popularity had swept the whole country and themany other countries, he still believed in humanitarianism and showed his sympathy tothe poor and the weak.The second chapter mainly analyzes Dickens’ humanitarian ideology embodied inOliver Twist, which is created in the first periods of his creation. The chapter is dividedinto two parts, respectively, analyzing Dickens’ humanitarianism from the aspect ofsimple optimism characters and appealing to social concerns. Different life periods anddifferent life experiences will have a huge impact on everyone’s mind, of course, Dickensis no exception. The early childhood life made him become optimistic towards life in hisworks, and believed that human nature is good.The third chapter mainly states Dickens’ humanitarianism showed in DavidCopperfield created in the second periods of his creation.The chapter demonstrates howDickens’ humanitarian thought is vividly reflected in the characters full of slightconfusion and the creation of subjects. He hoped that people should treat each other withlove and kindness. All of this thought was produced after his return from the visit toAmerica in1942, and Dickens’ optimistic attitude toward the capitalist society changedand he decided to observe and think more deeply about the social evil and hypocrisy. He slowly began to become confused, lost the direction of life, the novel David Copperfieldis the vivid reflection of his inner mind. The most sufferings of the hero David in thenovel were the author’s own experiences, so the book and the author have a greatly closerelationship.The fourth chapter mainly shows the humanitarian thought of Dickens reflected in ATale of Two Cities finished in the third periods of his creation. This chapter discussesDickens’ mature humanitarianism which is revealed in two aspects, appealing humanisticreturn and rational reform. During this period, Dickens became mature, and his thoughtalso became deep and he owned his unique style, full of sharpness and critic instead ofthe early optimism and the middle confusion. He criticizes ruthlessly the evil humannature and dislikes the irrational and violent revolution, and even wishes the rationalreform and the return of human’s good nature.The last part is the conclusion. This part discusses the great practical significance ofthe humanitarian spirit of Dickens in literary creation and the real life and impact on thewriters of the future generations of the United Kingdom, the United States and China andother countries. Furthermore, it sums up the main content of the body, reiterates thesignificance of the humanitarian spirit of Dickens in today’s society.The humanitarianismwill contribute to the process of the building of a harmonious society.