Dickens Literary Creation In Ethics

Charles Dickens is the greatest British novelist of critical realism in the19th century. Dickens’works contain rich ethical connotations. Dickens’s novels, in the pursuit of social criticism and ethical moral preaching, were among other things works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of all sorts of dark side and social stratification of Victorian society, and has made the contribution to British social progress. In recent years, a good many important studies of Dickens with different perspectives have appeared both at home and abroad. These unitary analysis methods nowadays are getting diversified, and ethical literary criticism is one of the multiplex approaches.Ethical Literary Criticism is an approach recently introduced into literary studies, supported by well-developed literary theories. Ethical criticism examines a work of art (in this case literary work) in order to reveal its system of morality by analyzing the moral relationship between man and man, as well as man and society from a point of view of social, political, economic and legal situations. Adopting the method of ethical criticism, this thesis intends to conduct a more in-depth interpretation of the works of Dickens from the perspective of ethical criticism. Specifically, this thesis attempts to interpret historically and dialectically the moral connotations and features of Dickens’works, and present an dialectical analysis of the characters in view of the ethics.The thesis consists of four chapters, in which five novels spanning Dickens’ career are selected as examples for exploration. Chapter One is an introduction to the studies on Dickens’works and the key concepts in Ethical Literary Criticism. This chapter also examines the feasibility of adopting ethical criticism approach into the interpretation of Dickens’creation. Chapter Two, based on three pieces of works of Dickens, reveals the social reality and Dickens’moral Judgments on characters from different classes in the view of the relationship of man and society. Chapter Three takes two novels as examples to show Dickens’ethical thoughts about human nature and self-reflection from the perspective of the relationship between man and man. Chapter Four examines the origin of Dickens’ethical thinking and the social background. Meanwhile, this chapter explores the ways in which Dickens’s ethical and moral concepts are reflected in his creations. The epilogue summarizes Dickens’ great achievement as well as the significance and limitations of his ethical values.