Abstract :Oliver Twist by Dickens is characterized by a few coincidences especially happy encounters ,about which somereviewsare unfavorable.Thispaper,sharingquiteoppositeopinionsto the unfavorableones,provescoincidences have advantages by means of systematic analysis from the following four points : background of production and publication ,Dickens’radical ideas ,his unique artistic style as well as his firm belief“good is rewarded with good ,and evil with evil. ”
Key words :coincidence ;happy encounter ; advantage 摘 要: 法国着名批判现实主义作家狄更斯所着雾都孤儿,其创作的特点之一是多处情节的巧合。从雾都孤儿创作背景、发表形式、狄更斯的激进思想、独特的创作风格以及坚定的善恶有报的信念等四个方面作以全面、系统地略论,以此说明情节的巧合是这部小说的优势。
关键词:巧合;奇遇;优势 Oliver Twist is Charles Dickens’first fully crafted with hard -heartedness ,tyranny and hypocrisy. He used novel. It centers on the hard years of an orphan , Oliver his unique humor , fierce satire and penetrating insight to Twist , and is set against the seamy underside of the Lon2 expose the dark sides of the then society. Meanwhile he don criminal world. Dickens created a lively picture of low showed his great sympathiy for the miseries and hardships life under the capitalistic system. As the author of the suffered by the working people. It is widely acknowledged novel ,he mounted a direct attack on the cold impersonali2 that the book’s main theme is positive and optimistic, ty of the workhouse system representing the class people which reflects Dickens held radical ideas at that time,and reviews were and are generally favorable. However, Dickens was severely criticized for introducing many coincidences in the plot of the story. For example , the first person that Oliver Twist pickpockets happens to be Mr.Brownlow , a good friend of his father’s. Later , Oliver is forced by Fagin to accompany Sikes in an attempted robbery of a house , (needing a small boy to enter a window and open the door for the housebreakers) , whose owner , Mrs. Maylie , by chance is his mother’s elder sister -his aunt. Such incidents which seem to be unbelievable are regarded by many as“uneven and contrary to the real life. ”Seemingly , coincidences become the negative side of the novel. Some even go so far as to think Dickens was not well -thought in plotting the story. As a novelist , Dickens represented English critical realism writing during the 19th century. He was highly praised by Karl Marx as put emphasis on readers’dramas. Considering that Oliver Twist appeared in a sult , he did not have the sufficient time that other writers such as Gustave Flaubert , who spent one week in choosing“a precise word ”, and Anatole France ① , who once had his works retype -set seven times , possessed. Under these restricted conditions , it was not easy for Dickens to produce such a compact and well -organized novel with a very complicated plot and vivid portraits of characters. His accomplishment proved that his plot of a story was ingeniously conceived and well -done.
Dickens was stage -struck , and he haunted the London theaters. This benefited him a great deal , providing him with inspiration for his writings and experiences that proved useful for his fiction publications , from Oliver Twist onwards. The plot of his story is unavoidably theatrical , to some degree , as a result of the influence of “one of the excellent novelists in Britain. ”Such a great monthly installment “Bentley’s Misscellany”, Dickens novelist did not arrange coincidences in the story without reaction and always kept an eye purposes.
ly , we
rather than the one -sided approach.
must Therefore , to understand coincidences correctanalyze them systematically from all sides on the sales figures , for which he drew on the theatrical Background with which Oliver Twist was produced and published.
During his whole life , Dickens produced as many as 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles, most of which he wrote to keep the promises made to publishers. They were published in serial texts , sometimes weekly but usually monthly. Oliver Twist happens to fall in the latter situation -monthly serial publications.
Knowing this is the key to have a deep understanding of these coincidences of the story. Very often he had to hurry to finish his part of the story within a month or sometimes even in less than one week before the next number came out. Indeed , he began to provide installments of Oliver Twist (1837 -1839) for the magazine while still writing Pickwick Papers , and Oliver Twist was not completed until November 1839 , but Dickens had already begun another , entirely different novel , Nicholas Nickleby.
With a rough outline of the plot and characters sketched in advance , he carefully confined himself to limited space of page , strict schedule and a set writing plan. As a retraditions of the melodramas that he had seen in Chatham and London , creating a climax in every number , even changing direction when necessary to keep readers’attention and interest. Thus the magazine installments became the equivalent of stage scenes in which good and evil were starkly opposed. This gave little cause for criticism because we should judge a plot not by whether it is real or not but by what it is meant for. So Dickens , without any hesitation , put coincidences where he thought to be needed to make the story complicated , unexpected and exciting.
To escape the ill -treatment of the undertakers , the foundling Oliver runs away to London alone. On the outskirts of the city , Oliver , who is tired and hungry , happens to meet the pickpocket Jack Dawkins who offers him a place to stay in London. Thus Oliver is thrown together with the band of thieves run by the sinister Fagin. This is exactly what we call “out of the frying -pan into the fire”. It is a coincidence that not only arouses the emotions but also engages the sympath of his readers for the parentless , penniless hero and creates concerns for his future. At the Brownlow home Oliver is treated kindly and, after a period of recuperation , is sent on an errand by Mr. Brownlow to pay a local merchant five pounds and to return some books. On carrying out this charge Oliver happens to be captured by Nancy and Bill Sikes and returned to Fagin’s den of thieves. This small coincidence makes the story no less dramatic. What’s more , Dickens was better at vivid portraits of trifling matters of everyday life , in which lies his artistic charm. Thus he kept us fully attracted and left us thinking of coincidences as true rather than“uneven or contrary to the real life. ” |
