An Interpretation Of Great Expectations From The Perspective Of Eco-criticism

As the greatest critical realism writer in the history of British literature,Charles Dickens in his works reveals the vices and darkness of the British society in the Victorian Age.In Great Expectations,one of the representative works in his later literary creation,Dickens reveals the environmental issues,social evils and spiritual crises in Victorian England during the stage of early industrialization and the primitive accumulation of capitalism.In this work Dickens expresses his visions about ideal ecological situation,which provides great value and significance for conducting the eco-critical study on it.This thesis provides in-depth analysis of Charles Dickens’ s ecological thoughts in Great Expectations with the help of the theories of Tripartite Division of Ecology and Ecological Holism.Lu Shuyuan,in Ecological Research In Literature And Art,puts forward systematically his theory of Tripartite Division of Ecology,dividing the ecological study into three factors: natural,social,spiritual ecologies.The three factors are not separated and isolated from each other,but constitute an organic unity in which they play different roles and interact with each other.Aldo Leopold’s ecological thoughts are presented in his work A Sand County Almanac,in which he raises land ethic,emphasizing objective thinking,the value of wilderness and the land community.Both Lu Shuyuan and Aldo Leopold stress that the ecological system consists of various factors and meanwhile every factor works.According to them,this thesis fully examines and explores the ecological crises and beauties in Great Expectations which exactly reflects the ecological reality of Dickens’ s time,and thus finds out that,in the novel,the natural,the social and the spiritual ecologies form an organic community in which the shake of any one may spoil the integrity,stability and beauty of the community,and vice versa.The natural ecology in Great Expectations suffers a severe deterioration with natural surroundings being ravaged and dwelling space being disordered;this thesis makes an elaborate study into Dickens’ s ideal natural ecology and points out that a pristine natural surrounding and an organized dwelling space are beneficial to achieve a harmonious man-and-nature relationship.An extremely decadent social ecology is depicted in Great Expectations,which reveals the corruption in judicial system and imbalance of social relationships;this thesis conducts a thorough analysis into Dickens’ s criticism to the social inequality and acclaims the righteous quality in front of the injustice of law and the unyielding rebellion against oppression and exploitation.Moreover,faced with the withered spiritual ecology full of crises such as revenge complex,emotional absence and heritage illusion in Great Expectations,this thesis fully examines Dickens’ s solutions and interprets redemption-and-sympathy,sincerity-and-caring and self-help spirit as the countermeasures.Thus,conclusion can be achieved that Dickens has recognized the ecological crises in the Victorian Age and provided his solutions to the crises.He holds the strong belief that it is desirable for human beings to immerse themselves harmoniously into the nature,it is progressive for human beings to strive for a society with no oppression and exploitation,and it is wholesome for human beings to achieve spiritual integrity.In a word,by making a sharply contrastive analysis of the crises and beauties of the Victorian ecology,this thesis finds out that it is of great importance for human beings to strive for the ecological integrity,stability and beauty in the fields of natural,social and spiritual ecologies,which may give a thought to the future ecological study and construction.