Età Vittoriana e Charles Dickens: riassunto
Breve riassunto del pensiero di Charles Dickens e del suo contesto storico, la "victorian age" (1 pagine formato doc)
ETA' VITTORIANA E CHARLES DICKENS
English test.
Età Vittoriana e Charles Dickens - The Victorian Era is generally agreed to stretch trough the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). It was a tremendously exciting and ambiguous period when many artistic styles, literary schools, as well as, social, political, economic and religious movements flourished together with the poverty and suffering of the mass of the people.Victorians promoted a code of values (respectability, optimism, conformism) which reflected the world as they wanted it to be, hiding what was actually happened in society: this was the so-called “Victorian compromise”.
In cultural field, literary production gained great improvements thanks to the novel which became the most read one among all urban classes. Novelists and poets took a role of extraordinary social importance since there was a sort of communion of interests and opinions between them and their readers. It explains why early Victorian novels presented conformity to accepted moral standards and had to avoid some topics that would offended the reading public (for instance, the sexual matter was banned).
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist e Victorian age: riassunto
CHARLES DICKENS AND THE VICTORIAN AGE
Many critics regard Charles Dickens as the best loved English novelist. He was always on the side of the poor and working class (the setting of his works was the city: the main expression of anonymous lives and lost identities). He criticized the social injustice related to the profound differences between rich and poor, the hard condition in which Victorian children found themselves, the political incompetence and corruption; nevertheless he never encouraged the lower classes to rebel.
Oliver Twist is a perfect example of the best qualities of Dickens’ art, in which he managed to mixes the story of the bad treatment of an orphan in a workhouses with grim realism and merciless satire. The comic element helps him to highlight serious issues such as the effects of industrialism and the harsh Poor Law or the social hypocrisy.
Another unforgettable work is Hard Times through which Dickens wished to educate readers about the working conditions in the factories in the industrial towns and the false appearance of the utilitarian philosophy in teaching matter.