Analysis of Nancy’s Multiple Personalities in Oliver Twist

By Cao AoChen

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B.A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Acknowledgements

The fulfillment of this thesis ends my four years of study as an undergraduate, student in Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology. I have benefited a great deal during the past four years. Hereby, I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude that many people have provided me help and support.

First of all, I have eternal gratitude to Professor Zhang Jun who has instructed and motivated me all through as my thesis advisor. His encouragement and support has helped me finish this thesis. Without his help, I can hardly complete this thesis. Meanwhile, the professors and teachers in the Department of English also gives me great enlightenment to fulfill my paper.

At Last, my thanks will go to my extraordinary parents who have not only financed my academic study but also made me feel being loved and trusted all during my school life. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to my friends and my classmates who has made valuable suggestions, which I have included in the final text.

CONTENTS

Abstract 1

摘要. 2

Chapter One. Introduction 3

1.1 About the Novel and the Author 3

1.2 About Critical Realism Literature 4

Chapter Two. Critical Realism in the Novel 6

2.1 Rise and development of English critical realism 6

2.2 The ideological and artistic features of critical realism 7

2.2.1 The ideological features of critical realism 7

2.2.2 The artistic features of critical realism 8

Chapter Three. Analysis of Nancy’s multiple personalities 10

3.1 Nancy Holds a Candle to the Devil 10

3.1.1 Nancy Cheats and Hurts Oliver 10

3.1.2 The Protection of Theft Gang 10

3.2 Nancy’s Good Nature 10

3.2.1 Nancy Saves Oliver in Distress 10

3.2.2 Nancy Reveals inside Story of Oliver’s Birth 11

3.2.3 Faithful to the Love 11

3.3 The influence of era characteristics on shaping characters 11

3.4 The influence of author’s personalities on shaping characters 12

Chapter Four. Conclusion 13

References 14

Analysis of Nancy’s Multiple Personalities in Oliver Twist

Cao AoChen

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology, Nanjing

Abstract: Charles Dickens, one of the most famous writers of English critical realism was born in 1812 at Portsmouth. One of Dickens’ most popular stories is the Oliver Twist, an early work published in 1838. Nancy is the secondary character in Oliver Twist, but she is a very typical character in this novel. Different from other characters in this novel who just show either the positive side or the negative side, she shows the good side at some times, and the bad side at other times. She plays an important part in the development of the novel. This paper mainly analyzes Nancy’s multiple personalities.

The paper consists of four chapters: The introduction is noted in Chapter One, which shows the background information about the novel and its author Dickens and briefly introduces the critical realism. Chapter Two discusses the critical realism used in the novel. Chapter Three analyzes Nancy’s multiple personalities. Chapter Four is the conclusion, in which I write a brief summary. The article points out that the author wants to call more attention to the goodness and to criticize the dark social realities in England, because in his eyes goodness will be never eliminated no matter how evil an environmental seems.

Key Words: Oliver Twist; Critical realism; Nancy；Multiple personalities

摘要:英国批判现实主义最著名的作家之一 查尔斯·狄更斯于1812年出生在朴茨茅斯。狄更斯最流行的作品之一是《雾都孤儿》，它是狄更斯的一部早期作品，出版于1837年8月。在《雾都孤儿》中南希虽然是一个次要角色，但她却是一个非常具有典型特点的角色。她不像作品中其他人物那样表现出完全好或完全坏的一面，而是有时表现出好的一面，有时又表现出坏的一面。她在小说的发展中扮演着重要的角色。本篇论文主要分析南希的多重性格。

本文由四章构成：第一章是引言，简述了小说的创作背景，简要的介绍了作者狄更斯，同时也简单阐述了批判现实主义这一概念。第二章则讨论了小说中批判现实主义的运用。第三章分析了南希的多重性格。第四章为总结，我在该部分对全文作了简洁的概括。论文指出小说意在说明作者旨在呼吁人们关注善良的同时也在批判当时英国的黑暗的社会现实。因为在作者看来，无论环境多么恶劣，善良永远不会被泯灭。

关键词：《雾都孤儿》；批判现实主义；南希；多重性格

1. Introduction

1.1 About the Novel and the Author

The story is set in London, and the hero, Oliver Twist, is an orphan. He is born in a workhouse in a town, and his mother gives birth to Oliver Twist just before she dies. Therefore, no people can tell Oliver Twist who are his parents, and Oliver Twist has to live in an orphanage. Because of the terrible situation, he must to constantly endure hunger and maltreatment at the orphanage. One day, he needs to request more food because he fails in one game, and hence the worker who work in the orphanage threatens him. It is really a hard time so that one day, he can no longer bear it and decides to escape. Finally, he runs away to London. Here, he is picked up by Artful Dodger who is a thief. Unfortunately, he is kidnapped by the evil gang of Fagin. The gang leader wants Oliver Twist to join them to steal, but young Oliver is unwilling to steal. One day Oliver is caught by an old man, the victim of the thieves, Mr. Brownlow protects Oliver from being arrested and brings him to his house, where Oliver can enjoy a happy life for the first time. They treat Oliver just like their children, and provide Oliver Twist delicious food and beautiful clothes that Oliver even have not seen them. However, Oliver is kidnapped by Nancy, and he has to go back to do the same “work”. Later, Oliver is wounded and thieves want to kill him, Nancy does not want others to hurt Oliver, but she cannot betray her husband either, she is very hesitant but she decides to pursue the goodness in the end. She tries many ways to find Mr. Brownlow and makes appointment with Mr. Brownlow at midnight, and tells Mr. Brownlow where Oliver Twist is. Fortunately, with the help of many kind friends, Oliver Twist finally escapes from the terrible place, and leads a happy life.

Charles Dickens, the greatest English writer was born in February, 1812. He often uses superb artistic methods in his works which depicts the overarching social pictures. His works often include the connotative animadversion, and create a number of memorable characters. Charles Dickens has written fifteen novels, many short stories, essays, travelogues, commentaries, drama and poetry. Therefore, he makes outstanding contributions to the British literature and the world literature. He has a different childhood, and in his childhood he described himself as a “very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy” (Luo, 1981: 14). Dickens’ life was brief at only 58 years in length, but its density was high, his literature masterpieces still influence the world today. Many people have read one of his works. Dickens is referred to as a humanitarian writer, because he is full of love and compassion. He is a calm observer, but also a participant. The characters in his novels are poor but lovely. Their existence is absurd but real, and Dickens shares this with them. “ Charles Dickens is responsible for some of English literature's most iconic characters. ” (Forster, 2009: 3).

1.2 About Critical Realism Literature

“Critical realism as a literature ideological trend had a significant impact on the world literature history. Critical realism literature tends to reflect and expose the social reality, and criticize society’s dark part. It also call people to pay attention to the upper class and unknown. Since the 1830s, British romantic literature began to decline, and critical realism literature began to take its place, and it reaches peak in 1840s. The French writer Stendhal and Balzac, British writer Dickens, and Russian writer Pushkin are the representative writers of critical realism literature.” (Peters, 1998: 27) .

Critical realism literature is a product of the process of European and American history and their cultural development. Therefore, it is meaningful for us to learn more about this sort of literature. Specific socio-political and economic situation and the development of natural science, philosophy, utopian socialism theory also contribute to critical realism literature. First, acute and complex social conflicts are the social foundations of critical realism literature. Second, critical realism literature also connects with the development of many other theories. Besides, critical realism literature is also in the criticism of the past literature.

Critical realism literature has its own characteristics, it always objectively and truly reflects the reality, and most of them insists on materialism theory. And critical realism literature profoundly reveals and criticizes the reality. Romantic literature stresses on describing the ideal and eliciting strong personal feelings, however, critical realism literature stresses showing strong dissatisfaction and rebellion of reality.

“A group of outstanding critical realism writers emerged in Britain, and they wrote from a humanitarian standpoint which revealed the oppression of society and paid more attention to the worm’s fate. They hoped to improve society and solve some of its problems.” (Kichetti, 2005: 7). Features of critical realism literature include its description of the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie. Critical realistic literature also reveals the cruel exploitation and political deception of capitalists. These writers are good at describing the fate of worms, and they write the petty bourgeoisie’s struggle and hard work in reform. The literatures concerning the pretty bourgeoisies has the tendencies of mild humanitarians and strong reformist. And the female literature is also on the rise.

2. Critical Realism in the Novel

There are different kinds of critical realism in this book. The author uses this method to criticize the darkness of the social reality and call for the goodness. In this thesis we will discuss the rise and development of English critical realism.

2.1 Rise and development of English critical realism

In Western Europe, as far as we know, critical realism is the product of capitalist’s establishment and development. It is the artist record of the complex society. The critical realism began in the 1830s and it flourished until 1890s. In a strict sense, critical realism is a term used in the realistic novel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that some writers and intellectuals in the period between 1875 and 1920 used to condemn and pay attention to the terrible social problems. At the same time, because of serious class struggle and other social problems, critical realism as a new sort of literary trend was born. Critical realism literature always uses a lot of vividness and fantastic artistic skills. What should we pay more attention to is that this new sort of literature showed the major features of the capitalist society and blamed the capitalist society’s darkness from the viewpoint of a democrat. 
Critical realism had achieved fantastic success in Europe at one time. From the beginning of the 1830s, British and French capitalist won a important victory. Therefore, bourgeois regime was increasingly consolidated and developed. Furthermore, the Reform Act of Parliament in 1832 made more industrial bourgeoisie assimilate into government institutions, and further strengthen the dominance of the bourgeoisie. However, whether in Britain or France, the struggle between the bourgeoisie and feudal aristocracy did not end. Meanwhile, the conflicts between big bourgeoisie and pretty bourgeoisie also increasingly intensified. Besides, cruel economic exploitation and political oppression from capitalism made proletarian struggle against bourgeoisie. And class contradictions between them gradually rise as main social contradictions. At some points, critical realism began to have its initial development in France in the 1920s. From the 1930s to the 1940s, critical realism gained more support and became very popular in European literature. Hence, we can regard this period as the real peak of critical realism literature. Moreover, critical realists also wrote many sharply satirical novels, and their works influenced critical realism literature very much.

While at the same time in Britain, for the sake of resisting the terrible conditions that the country faced with, there appeared many writers who came from the middle class or upper class and criticized the unfair things with their novels. Therefore, they tried their best to condemn the darkness of the society, which sympathized poor people and advocated social reforms. The writers wanted to change the terrible condition of England. Therefore, in the year of 1837, Charles Dickens wrote the novel Oliver Twist which shows the tortuous life of Oliver Twist and writes the poor people living in the bottom of the English society. Moreover, in the meantime many other writers wrote lots of classic works, those writers were regarded as the earliest writers of critical realism in the English literature history, because their works expressed the writers’ deep concern for the poor people and they wanted to help them by their own ways.

As far as we know, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray were the representative writers of critical realistic literature. As they exposed and criticized the negative aspects of capitalism.

Critical realism has great cognitive value, as it helps people to make clear decadent and reactionary decline for the feudal class, and helps understand the greed and selfishness of the bourgeoisie. It can be said that critical realism literature provides people with a content-rich book for making clear of capitalism. Hence, we should pay more attention to the great sort of art, and we can learn more about that period from critical realism.

2.2 The ideological and artistic features of critical realism

In western literature history, critical realism is regarded as a new literary trend or a great method which comes into being on the basis of the previous realistic literature. People always believe that critical realism continues and develops the traditional realistic literature, which is fully manifested in its ideological and artistic features.

2.2.1 The ideological features of critical realism

Generally speaking, the critical realism reveals the darkness of capitalist society, as it shows more profound sense than before. Critical realism tries its best to reveal the negative condition that people always only caught in personal interests in capitalist society. Moreover, the lower class can hardly live a comfortable life by their hard work, while the middle class earn money by exploiting the poor people, and live in a rich life. Although it is unfair people can do nothing with it.

Besides, critical realism takes literature as the ways to analyze society and make people to know more about the colorful society. Hence, it is assumed to have great cognitive value. As far as we know, critical realism writers often use some writing techniques such as humor and exaggeration. They want to show the real poor life of people.

Furthermore, critical realism revolves on humanist thought to profoundly criticize the social darkness, and call for more attention to the poor people who live at the bottom of society. Writers are always taking part in political reform, advocating social reform and improvement. Critical realism stimulates people’s doubt about the rationality of this social system by means of depicting what the poor people have suffered.

Last, the 18th and 19th centuries witnessed great development in economy, and the poor people’s life became grim. Critical realism literature pays attention to these people’s miserable life, cares for the poor people’s future. This is the reason why people need critical realism literature at that time.

2.2.2 The artistic features of critical realism

First, critical realism advocates a true reflection of reality. Critical realism tries its best to recreate the true life. And writers often observe the reality in a reasonable way, depicts the reality in a truthful and objective way. Furthermore, most of the writers who write in a critical realism style want to use the art as a mirror of real life. Therefore, they stress the description of details, catch every piece of information as accurate as possible.

Second, critical realism literature is mainly narrative literature which makes writers able to use novels as the way to express their feelings.

Last, writers who write novels in this type always create typical characters in some certain environment. Take Oliver Twist as an example, Oliver is a typical character who represents the poor people at that time. Because of the environment he suffers from really miserable experiences. It is no doubt that we can not ignore the importance of environment regarding the characters.

3. Analysis of Nancy’s multiple personalities

3.1 Nancy Holds a Candle to the Devil

Nancy has done many bad things for the sake of her lover and her master Fagin, she cheats Oliver again and again in order to help her lover. Therefore, Nancy has vicious aspects.

3.1.1 Nancy Cheats and Hurts Oliver

When Oliver goes out to steal with two of Fagin’s fellows, he even does not know what he actually does. When Oliver realizes his really mission is to pick pockets, however he can do nothing with it. Charley and Dodger steal the handkerchief of Mr. Brownlow, and flees quickly, then Oliver is arrested by the police. However, a bookstore holder witnesses that Oliver is innocent, therefore, Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver home and cares for him, Oliver lives in a happy and rich life. However, Fagin and Sikes worries that Oliver might inform on them, therefore, they ask Nancy to intercept Oliver. Nancy dresses like a gentlewoman and tells the police that she is Oliver’s sister for the sake of getting Oliver’s information. The police believe her and tell Nancy where Oliver is. Hence, Nancy finds Mr. Brownlow’s home and takes Oliver back to the hell.

3.1.2 The Protection of Theft Gang

When Nancy decides to tell Mr. Brownlow where Oliver is, she is reluctant to tell Mr. Brownlow the location of their theft gang. Because it’s necessary to protect her lover. As a result of her protection, the police can not find theft gang easily, and cause Oliver’s situation more dangerous.

3.2 Nancy’s Good Nature

Nancy also has good nature, in the later of the novel, she tries her best to find Mr. Brownlow, and hence, she helps Oliver to survive. Although her lover always beats up her, Nancy insists on her love, and does not want to betray her lover.

3.2.1 Nancy Saves Oliver in Distress

First, when Fagin wanted to punish Oliver Twist, Nancy protected Oliver for the first time. And yelled at Fagin: “ I became a thief for you when I was a child, I have been in the same service, and in the same trade, for many years; don’t you know it? Speak out! Don’t you know it?” (Dickens, 1992: 10). We can see that Nancy is angry with Fagin, and she thinks that Fagin has gone too far.

Second, in order to help Oliver, Nancy finds many ways to inform Mr. Brownlow and irritates her lover. Nancy always protects poor Oliver from beatings by others.

3.2.2 Nancy Reveals inside Story of Oliver’s Birth

Oliver is a orphan and he does not know who his parents are. His brother in order to get their father’s heritage makes a deal with Fagin. They train Oliver to be a theft so that Oliver could be put into prison, and his brother can get the whole heritage.

Nancy hears this secret in a dark corner, and she experiences severe struggle in her heart before she decides to tell Miss Rose. Finally, she tells Miss Rose this secret and helps Oliver find who he really is.

3.2.3 Faithful to the Love

Although Sikes just regards Nancy as a maid, Nancy still regards Sikes as her beloved. She finds Mr. Brownlow intends to save Oliver, and does not want to tell him where Sikes is in order to protect her lover. When Rose learns about Nancy’s fate, she wants to help Nancy. However, Nancy refuses her and says that: “ I told you about a man who treats me just like a maid, and beats me from time to time. But I love him and I can not leave him, even if you can help me get out of the terrible situations, I also can not leave him.” (Yang, 2008: 17). Unfortunately, when Sikes believes that she has informed on him, he killed her. Nancy devotes her life to her love.

3.3 The influence of era characteristics on shaping characters

The creation of Dickens is always keeping pace with the times. In the middle of the 19th century, the British society was faced with many changes, on one hand, with economic development, the Britain became increasingly stronger, but on the other hand, it’s society also had many serious problems, and the industrial revolution brought earthshaking changes to the society. Britain became the most powerful in the world, and at the time, such materialism and utilitarianism were widely accepted. People were indifferent to each other. However, Victorian is a democratic and companionate period, therefore there are many people with advanced ideas. As a representative novelist of this period, Dickens also has his own writing technique, and his writing technique contains two aspects. On one hand, he reveals the greed of the upper class and bourgeoisie. On the other hand, he also pays more attention to human nature, and praises the truth and goodness. He sympathies for the poor and the unknown, and wants to help them. In this book, Dickens describes her with following sentences. “ She is not very pretty, but she has a great deal of color in her face, and looks quite hearty and stout.” (Liu, 1999: 2). We can know that Nancy is a good, clever and kind girl. However, Nancy does not have families, and she has to live with Fagin all the time, therefore, she has no ways to avoid or run away from the cruel life. Nancy says this when she meets Rose: “ that you had families and friends during your childhood, and they protected you all the time, and you never experienced cold and hunger in the past time, and chaos and drunkenness, and-and something worse than all –as I have been experienced ”. (Dickens, 1992: 10).

3.4 The influence of author’s personalities on shaping characters

As far as we know, Dickens always shows solicitude for the social reform. In his books, he maintains “An undamaged belief in people with an entire defeatism as to capitalist society.” (Luo, 1981: 14). During his childhood, he always lacks of sense of security, and because he has no friend, he also feels lonely and unhappiness. Therefore, Dickens has these multiple personalities. As for Nancy, she is not only the product of author’s thought, but he empathizes with her. Therefore, when we analyze Nancy’s personalities, we should connect them with the author’s life and multiple personalities, because they have a closed relationship.

4. Conclusion

The author widely and successfully uses critical realism in this masterpiece and it really plays an important role in revealing and deepening the theme of the novel. Oliver Twist is one of the masterpieces of the Charles Dickens, and Oliver Twist plays an important role in Victorian Era which reflects all aspects of social life. Because the influence of era characteristics and author’s multiple personalities, Nancy has multiple personalities in this novel. She has both vicious aspects and virtuous aspects. Although Nancy is just a secondary character in this novel, she advances plot and tones up the novel’s expressive force. Critical realism has its own features, and the biggest feature of it is that critical realists always gains inspiration from real life. Nancy, a character with multiple personalities did exist in the novel, which makes the book more interesting and profound. “ The novel is aimed to evoke people to think profoundly about the survival and the mental situation of poor people as well as the social durability in the progress of human civilization, which are considered to be some of the sticking points of building friendly society of 21st century.” (Qian, 2001: 5).

References:

[1] Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching amp; Research Press, 1992:10.

[2] Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens[M]. Foreign Language Teaching amp; Research Press, 2009: 3.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：25157字