狄更斯的《远大前程》和萨克雷的《名利场》的人物比较研究

A Comparative Study of Figures in Dickens’ Great Expectations and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair
Abstract
Great Expectations and Vanity Fair are the two masterpiece works in 19th century in Britain. They are the work of Dickens and Thackeray respectively. There are a large scale similarities and differences between the two works. Both of them have a detailed concerned about society and civilians by the comprehensive analysis on the fate of characterism the novel. As to the figures chosen, the figure of Great Expectations is an innocent child who are easily to be affected by the outside environment of society; the figures of Vanity Fair are come from the upper ten and the author showed his negative attitude to them. This paper tries to have a comparative study of figures from the perspective of critical realism. In addition, the paper tries to figure out the various causes of the fate of different characters. The limitations in the aspect of of social, cultural and political are the fundamental causes for the different life of figures.
Key words: Great Expectations; Vanity Fair; figures; critical realism; causes
摘要
《远大前程》和《名利场》作为19世纪英国的两部旷世之作，是分别由狄更斯和萨克雷两位大师级的作家完成的。

两部作品存在着大量的相似点和差异。

两部作品都不约而同的通过对主人公命运的展示表现了对平民和社会深沉的关注。

至于角色选定，《远大前程》用容易受到社会环境影响的天真儿童作为作品的主人公；《名利场》所选择的的任务大部分来自于上流社会，萨克雷对这类群体采取十分消极的态度。

本文将尝试从评判现实主义的角度对两部作品中的不同人物进行对比分析。

同时本文将探析造成文中角色不同命运的多种原因。

并得出在社会，经济和文化方面的限制才是造成不同任务的不同命运的根本原因。

关键词：《远大前程》；《名利场》；人物；评判现实主义；原因
Content
Introduction (4)
Brief Introduction to the Author (4)
Brief Introduction to the Work (5)
Significance of the Thesis (6)
Organization of the Thesis (6)
1.The Critical Realism (6)
1.1 Critical realism in economics (6)
1.2.Critical realism and Marxism (7)
1.3. Contemporary critical realism (7)
2. The Tragic Lives of Main Characters (9)
2.1 Estella Havisham: Imprisonment of Marriage, Slave of Money (9)
2.2 Sharp: Break of Dream (10)
3. The Causes of the Formation for Difference Figures (11)
3.1 Self-destruction Caused by the Deficiency in Personality (11)
3.1.1 Estella Havisham’s Selfness and Superficiality (11)
3.1.2 Sharp’s Vanity and Ignorance (12)
3.2 The Victim of Patriarchal Society (13)
3.2.1 Pirrip’s “Materialization” of Estella Havisham (13)
3.2.2 Compeyson’s Imprisonment of Estella Havisham (14)
3.2.3 Osborne’s Toying with Sharp (14)
3.2.4 Cra wley’s Indifference to Sharp (15)
4. Conclusion (15)
References (16)
Introduction
Brief Introduction to the Author
Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. Although he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed. Over his career he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, 5 novellas and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered theserial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback.
William Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. On reaching the age of 21, he came into his inheritance but he squandered much of it on gambling and by funding two unsuccessful newspapers, The National Standard and The Constitutional for which he had hoped to write. He also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. Forced to consider a profession to support himself, he turned first to art, which he studied in Paris, but did not pursue it except in later years as the illustrator of some of his own novels and other writings. He achieved more recognition with his Snob Papers, but the work that really established his fame was the novel Vanity Fair, which first appeared in serialised installments beginning in January 1847. Even before Vanity Fair completed its serial run, Thackeray had become a celebrity, sought after by the very lords and ladies whom he satirised; they hailed him as the equal of Dickens. In 1860 Thackeray became editor of the newly established Cornhill Magazine, but was never comfortable as an editor, preferring to
contribute to the magazine as a columnist, producing his Roundabout Papers for it.
Brief Introduction to the Work
Vanity Fair: The book's title comes fromJohn Bunyan's allegoricalstory The Pilgrim's Progress. "Vanity Fair" refers to a stop along the pilgrim's progress: a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to represent man's sinful attachment to worldly things. The story opens with Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies, where Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley have just completed their studies and are preparing to depart for Amelia's house in Russell Square. Becky is portrayed as a strong-willed and cunning young woman determined to make her way in society, and Amelia Sedley as a good-natured, lovable though simple-minded young girl. Had he outlived his brother by even a day he would have become Sir Rawdon Crawley and Becky would have become Lady Crawley, a title she uses anyway in later life. There is also a final appearance for Becky, as cocky as ever, selling trinkets at a fair in aid of various charitable causes. She is now living well again as her son, the new baronet, has agreed to financially support her however he declines any further relationship or communication.
Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and the story genre is Victorian Literature. It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early to mid-1800s. From the outset, the reader is "treated" by the terrifying encounter between Pip, the protagonist, and the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is a graphic book, full of extreme imagery, poverty, prison ships, "the hulks," barriers and chains, and fights to the death. It therefore combines intrigue and unexpected twists of autobiographical detail in different tones. Regardless of its narrative technique, the novel reflects the events of the time, Dickens' concerns, and the relationship between society and man. Great Expectations has a colorful cast that has remained in popular culture: the capricious Miss Havisham, the cold and beautiful Estella, Joe the kind and generous blacksmith, the dry and sycophantic Uncle Pumblechook, Mr Jaggers, Wemmick and his dual personality, and the eloquent and wise friend, Herbert Pocket.
Significance of the Thesis
Because of the limitation of cultural and social factors, there are some difficulties in having a comprehensive understanding of Great Expectations and Vanity Fair. The fate of characters is the core point of novel. Critical realism is the theory that some of our sense-data can and do accurately represent external objects, properties, and events. The research from the perspective of critical realism can reveal the true essence of human beings as to manifest human beings’ consciousness and fantasy and explore the truth of human’s inner world. By means of analyzing the figures in Great Expectations and Vanity Fair, and the clear understanding about similarities and differences can be build.
The figures in Dickens’ Great Expectations and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair reminds us that under the prosperity of material life, we still need to be aware of the moral degradation. This paper will give readers, who fancy Dickens and Thackeray, developing understanding of the warning significance of these two fictions in modern society.
Organization of the Thesis
So far, it has presented the brief introduction about Dickens and Thackeray, and Great Expectations and Vanity Fair. The second section will discuss about critical realism. The third part is the similarities and differences of figures in Great Expectations and Vanity Fair. Finally, it will introduce the causes of the formation of different fates in this play.
The Critical Realism
1.1 Critical realism in economics
According to critical realist economists, the central aim of economic theory is to provide explanations in terms of hidden generative structures. This position combines transcendental realism with a critique of mainstream economics. It argues that mainstream economics (i) relies excessively on deductivist methodology, (ii) embraces an uncritical enthusiasm for formalism, and (iii) believes in strong conditional predictions in economics despite repeated
failures. The world that mainstream economists study is the empirical world. But this world is "out of phase" (Lawson) with the underlying ontology of economic regularities. The mainstream view is thus a limited reality because empirical realists presume that the objects of inquiry are solely "empirical regularities"—that is, objects and events at the level of the experienced.
The critical realist views the domain of real causal mechanisms as the appropriate object of economic science, whereas the positivist view is that the reality is exhausted in empirical, i.e. experienced reality. Tony Lawson argues that economics ought to embrace a "social ontology" to include the underlying causes of economic phenomena.
1.2.Critical realism and Marxism
A development of Bhaskar's critical realism lies at the ontological root of contemporary streams of Marxist political and economic theory. The realist philosophy described by Bhaskar in A Realist Theory of Science is compatible with Marx's work in that it differentiates between an intransitive reality, which exists independently of human knowledge of it, and the socially produced world of science and empirical knowledge. This dualist logic is clearly present in the Marxian theory of ideology, according to which social reality may be very different from its empirically observable surface appearance. Notably, Alex Callinicos has argued for a 'critical realist' ontology in the philosophy of social science and explicitly acknowledges Bhaskar's influence (while also rejecting the latter's 'spiritualist turn' in his later work). The relationship between critical realist philosophy and Marxism has also been discussed in an article co-authored by Bhaskar and Callinicos and published in the Journal of Critical Realism
1.3. Contemporary critical realism
Critical realism is presently most commonly associated with the work of Roy Bhaskar. Bhaskar developed a general philosophy of science that he described as transcendental realism, and a special philosophy of the human sciences that he called critical naturalism. The two terms were combined by other authors to form the umbrella term critical realism.
Transcendental realism attempts to establish that in order for scientific investigation to take place, the object of that investigation must have real, manipulable, internal mechanisms that can be actualised to produce particular outcomes. This is what we do when we conduct experiments. This stands in contrast to empiricist scientists' claim that all scientists can do is observe the relationship between cause and effect and impose meaning. Whilst empiricism, and positivism more generally, locate causal relationships at the level of events, Critical Realism locates them at the level of the generative mechanism, arguing that causal relationships are irreducible to empirical constant conjunctions of David Hume's doctrine; in other words, a constant conjunctive relationship between events is neither sufficient nor even necessary to establish a causal relationship.
The implication of this is that science should be understood as an ongoing process in which scientists improve the concepts they use to understand the mechanisms that they study. It should not, in contrast to the claim of empiricists, be about the identification of a coincidence between a postulated independent variable and dependent variable. Positivism/falsification are also rejected due to the observation that it is highly plausible that a mechanism will exist, which results in its having unpredictable effects. Thus, non-realisation of a posited mechanism cannot be taken to signify its non-existence.
Critical naturalism argues that the transcendental realist model of science is equally applicable to both the physical and the human worlds. However, when we study the human world we are studying something fundamentally different from the physical world and must therefore adapt our strategy to studying it. Critical naturalism therefore prescribes social scientific method which seeks to identify the mechanisms producing social events, but with a recognition that these are in a much greater state of flux than those of the physical world. In particular, we must understand that human agency is made possible by social structures that themselves require the reproduction of certain actions/pre-conditions. Further, the individuals that inhabit these social structures are capable of consciously reflecting upon, and changing, the actions that produce them—a practice that is in part facilitated by social scientific research.
2. The Tragic Lives of Main Characters
The success of G reat Expectations and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair have a close relationship with its female images. The female images are the best reflection for the special social and cultural background. However, the main images did not lead a very happy life, all of them have a very tragic life. Although they have the similar fate, great differences can be found in their respective tragedies.
2.1 Estella Havisham: Imprisonment of Marriage, Slave of Money
Estella Havisham is an angel, as well as evil. There is no doubt that Estella Havisham is the most important female role in G reat Expectations. She is the motivation why Pirrip can be so successful and be murdered at last. Pirrip was falling in love with Estella Havisham at the first sight. In her teenage, Estella Havisham was so beautiful and innocent, that’s why she can always be the focus of others. In story, author always ties Estella Havisham and all the things related to her with beautiful flowers, which emphasizing her breathtaking beauty. However, she got nothing at last. Her tragic marriage and the misunderstanding about money resulted in her tragedy.
Marriage directly changed her life. She once had a beautiful thinking about her future. She did not take the physical matters into consideration, all she wanted is to be with her family. But because of the special historical condition, She did not spend too much time in Pirrip and married Compeyson. It was not right wrong to put her fate in the unknown future. But she did not know clearly about her husband, either. The happiness life did not embrace her. Instead, her husband still lived in his own lifestyle and did not pay too much attention to take care of Estella Havisham. She was still alone and did not find a man to rely on. In Compeyson’s opinion, marriage means nothing to him, Estella Havisham is no more important than his outside lover. Compeyson could not step into the house more than one month, Estella Havisham can not attract the attention from him. There are a lot of sufferings in her marriage. She was trapped in marriage. Because of the existence of marriage, Estella Havisham could not maintain the relationship with Pirrip when he appeared in front of her.
As to money concept, she was contaminated by money. ”Then wear the gold hat, if
that ill move her; if you can bounce high, bounce for her too, till she cry ‘lover, gold-hatted, high bouncing lover, I must have you’”. We can not deny that there was a love relationship between Estella Havisham and Pirrip, the reasons for why they did not be the couples is that Pirrip is so poor that he could not afford the dreamed life of Estella Havisham. Therefore, she chose the cosy life when Pirrip went away. Comparing with money, the friendship and love ship mean nothing. Estella Havisham is not the image in Pirrip’s mind, the changes have been taken place both in her face and her heart. It is very ridiculous to talk about invisible things with her, money is the only standard to weigh what is right and what is wrong. She could not get the happiness from Compeyson and marriage. Gradually, she realized that money can make possibilities for her to enjoy the “invisible comfortable”. That is the main reason for her tragic life. The abnormal relationship with Pirrip and the resentment to Compeyson and his lover are dominated by her money concept.
2.2 Sharp: Break of Dream
Sharp is coming from the bottom of society who can not win too much attention from the public. She had a lot of similarities with Pirrip, she had a strong desire for her future life. There was a dream in her mind. The dream was broken when encounter with the tough reality, Sharp was confused and did not know what to do to make her dream come true. Being troubled by reality and dream, Sharp could not keep balance between two of them. That is the main reason for her tragedy. The inequality in social status indicates that there are thing will be done by Sharp if she wants to enter the upper ten. When Sharp firstly met Osborne, “she was falling in love with Osborne immediately”. It not only has the dispensable relationship with individual feelings, but also the has the relationship with the social background of Osborne. Sharp wanted to be the lover of Osborne without any hesitation. She considered Osborne as a very effective bond to tie herself with the upper ten. Because Osborne has advantages in wealth and social status can lay a solid foundation for the fulfillment of her dream.
After Sharp became the lover of Osborne, she spared no efforts to imitate the life style of the upper ten. She dressed on the glorious clothes, took the new carriage and even bought a
dog as her pet and etc. This kind of behaviors made her invisible dream much specified than ever before. Love is not the primary thing for Sharp to take into consideration, the fulfillment of her vanity has been placed in the first position. Therefore, she tried her best to show what she already had to his friends in her party. Sharp enjoyed envious opinion from others, she was proud of being the lover of Osborne. In our common sense, lover is not a good identity which is not easy to be accepted by others. On the contrary, Sharp attached great importance to it, because it is her only connection with the upper ten. Osborne is the physical foundation for her to make her dream come true. It might be impossible for her to fulfill her dream without the help of Osborne. This can be the explanation for why she was mad when Osborne tried to depart her. She realized the important position of Osborne in her dream. As a consequence, she still wanted to get on the carriage when Osborne was leaving. Osborne’s leave means the breaking of her dream.
3. The Causes of the Formation for Difference Figures
The reasons for the female tragedies are very complicated. There are a large scale of causes for tragedies of three female images. “The internal and external factors can lay a solid foundation for the tragedies”.
3.1 Self-destruction Caused by the Deficiency in Personality
Because of the differences in education level, social background and social identity, there are obvious differences in the deficiencies in personality. The deficiencies in personality are the internal causes of the female tragedies.
3.1.1 Estella Havisham’s Selfness and Superficiality
The selfness of Estella Havisham is should be responsible for the death of Pirrip. We can not put all the responsibilities on Estella Havisham, the defects of Compeyson should be taken into consideration. As we all know, “Estella Havisham had a hostile attitude towards to his husband”. So she attempted to take advantage of Pirrip. She was so selfish that taking revenge on Compeyson and his lover is the most important thing. This kind of revenge directly resulted in the loneliness of Estella Havisham and the death of Pirrip. This is the essence of
Estella Havisham’s tragic life, there is no one for her to rely on. She did not realize the faults of herself. It is innocent for the death of Pirrip, who did not do anything wrong. He was just falling in love with Estella Havisham, but Estella Havisham took advantage of this love to kill Pirrip, as well the hope for life. The death of Compeyson and Pirrip means that Estella Havisham had already lost everything she could have. She lost the capital to stay in the upper ten, as well as the eternal love for her. In addition, Estella Havisham’s superficiality can be expressed in her attitude to money. The primary reason why Estella Havisham wanted to build the relationship with Pirrip is that the wealth Pirrip owned beyond her imagination at the same degree. The fulfillment of physical is much more important than that of mental. She did not has the desire to pursuit mental ful fillment,which is the fundamental strength to support one’s life. She chose the cosy and comfortable life. In addition, she did nothing when she already knew something about her husband’s lover. It is all right to be betrayed by her husband and to keep the equivocal relationship with Pirrip. She lives without soul and desire, she is just doing “the routine work” in her daily. There is no passion and desire for her to survive, death maybe the best selection for her.
3.1.2 Sharp’s Vanity and Ignorance
In reality, Sharp was living at the bottom of society. She once had a happiness family, which is the highest standard for an ordinary female. However, Sharp did not satisfy what she had. In her opinion, entering into upper ten and lead a cosy life are the most charming parts in her life. Sharp chose to became the lover of Osborne. She only wanted to be a member of the upper ten. From the beginning, it meant to be a tragedy. In the process of vanity pursuit, she sacrificed too much things. Even there are some improvements in her physical life, but no one envied her. The public knew clearly about why Sharp could be a part of them, the disrespect from others can be easily found in the story. Everyone knew clearly that she is just a “pet” of Osborne. she is not qual ified to be a member of the upper ten. What’s worse, she abandoned her husband and her family. This is unaccepted in he patriarchal society. Sharp was totally relying on Osborne, she means nothing to others without the “dirty relationship” with Osborne.
Being a member of the upper ten, she knew nothing about the rules in the upper ten. Firstly, she was so urge to show the “glorious life” in upper ten, she did not take other’s feelings into consideration. What she appreciated is very common to others, people did not envy at her at all. In the meantime, she was so lonely that no one wanted to be friends with her. What’s worse, her ignorance made her believe that she had truly become a member of the upper ten. In the opinion, there was no big difference between her and others. But from the perspective of others, she could never be a member of them. Therefore, people tried to stay away with her, it is shameful to make friends with Sharp. People has been put him at the corner of society and was no tending to take care of Sharp.
3.2 The Victim of Patriarchal Society
Patriarchal society is the external cause for their tragedies. We can not deny that males are still the dominating of that society. They considered female as their subordination and did not show too much respect towards female. Males pushed female into a disadvantageous position. The demands of female would never be met, the feelings of them have been ignored by the society. No one gives a hand to relieve female’s sufferings and change female’s to ugh situations.
3.2.1 Pirrip’s “Materialization” of Estella Havisham
The materialization of Estella Havisham is the biggest misunderstanding about Estella Havisham. In Pirrip’s opinion, the cause why Estella Havisham would marry Compeyson is that Compeyson had larger wealth and better social status. Therefore, he tried his best to earn more money and he made it. In Pirrip’s traditional concept, the materialization of Estella Havisham is very obvious. “The more money he can earn, the much easier for him to get her”. Pirrip never pay attention to the inner world of Estella Havisham. The lonely, selfish and hatred in Estella Havisham were ignored by Pirrip. There are a lot of changes have been taken place in her, the fulfillments on her physical world can not guarantee the coming back of Estella Havisham. As a consequence, Estella Havisham was tied with money and cosy life, but her feelings were never be paid great attention. The happy memories from Pirrip deepen
her resentment attitude to Compeyson and his lover. She took a full advantage of Pirrip to take a revenge on Compeyson and his lover. Because of the death of Pirrip, Compeyson and his lover, the materialization concept has driven Estella Havisham to a isolation position.
3.2.2 Compeyson’s Imprisonment of Estella Havisham
The fact is that Estella Havisham and Compeyson are couple, they should be responsible for each other. As Estella Havisham’s husband, it is Compeyson’s duty to give a happiness and comfortable life for Estella Havisham. But he did not make it, he still lived in his own life style. What’s worse, he had Sharp as his lover. In a family, Estella Havisham can not get love and protection. In the patriarchal society, male is the dominator in family, they had rights to do what they like and their wives had no right to involve in it. The imprisonment of Estella Havisham became the limitation for her later life. Because of the relationship with Compeyson, it is unacceptable for her to build another relationship with a female. What’s more, Estella Havisham could not divorce with Compeyson. It is the betraying to their husband in patriarchal society. As a consequence, even Estella Havisham as very lonely, she had no choice but to bear it. There was no more happiness family life for her, let alone the equality position with the male. The accumulation of negative feelings in Estella Havisham laid a foundation for the death of Compeyson and the tragic life of herself.
3.2.3 Osborne’s Toying with Sharp
Osborne did not show too much attention to her wife, let alone his lover. In the patriarchal society, female is the subordination of male. From the first beginning, Osborne knew clearly about the primary purpose of Sharp. He knew Sharp wanted to get something from her, but he did not care about it. Sharp was considered as an excellent subject to meet his special needs. Osborne’s philander with Sharp hinted that she would lose everything in the end. Because of being the lover of Osborne, her family was disappeared, so did the love of his husband. At one time, she might get something in the upper ten, but they are not eternal. This is just the fulfillment of her unreal dream. There is nothing left when Osborne died, because Osborne was the only man she could “rely on” in upper ten. What’s worse, there was no
possibilities for Sharp to come back. “She was abandoned by the whole society, there was no place for her to survive”.
3.2.4 Crawley’s Indifference to Sharp
At the first beginning, Crawley was very fond of Sharp and was falling in love with her. Even there are some defects in Sharp’s personality, but she was still the member of the upper ten. But there was a big difference when Crawley found the essence of Sharp, he left away immediately. Crawley’s indifference to Sharp directly resulted the tragic life of Sharp. In the patriarchal society, it was not necessary for a male to stay with the only male. There were a lot of choices they can make. It would make their life much harder than ever before. It was impossible for them to win attention from others and get the respective attitude from the public. Compeyson and Pirrip always in the dominating position in the relationship with Estella Havisham and Sharp. Estella Havisham and Sharp were not truly accepted by society.
4. Conclusion
Great Expectations and Vanity Fair are the highlight in the literature history. It is no doubt that there are a large scale of similarities and difficulties between the two works. It is very necessary to have a comprehensive understanding about the figures. After a thorough analysis about it, we can easily know that the famale figures in the two novels have a tragic life. Their trafic fate come from the internal and external causes. They are not only the victim of patriarchal society, but also the victims of their own weaknesses in personality. The clear understanding about the figure can lay a solid foundation to know better about Great Expectations and Vanity Fair, and Western culture.。