The Novels of 19th Century - Essay Example

?Compare and contrast the literary styles, themes and characterization in one novel from the 19th century Charles Dickens Hard Times and D.H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers (20th century). Introduction: The 19th and 20th century mark special importance in the English literary traditions due to the unprecedented changes occurred both at social and intellectual domains. The industrial revolution in 18th century that reached its culmination during late 18th and early 19th era not only led socio-cultural and intellectual understanding of contemporary literary scholars to an altogether different direction than that of the romantic period but also it became clear that consequent impact of the industrial revolution was actually considered to be dehumanizing. The radical change in the cultural and intellectual scenario quite naturally received its manifestation in different forms of art and consequently the art forms emerged as effective mediums to cater the benefits of humanism against the institutional dehumanization. Since the late 19th century, a different form of literary response was observed towards changing socio-cultural scenario. The writers not only expressed their explicit desire to come out of the literary sophistication but also used their craft to deconstruct the oppressions that social institutions attempted to suppress them with. The novels of 19th century dealt with the ideal of humanism from different perspectives. The utilitarian mentality that was originated from the socio-cultural transformation and inclination toward dehumanizing capitalism was vehemently criticized through novels of the era. Consequently the tone of socialist approach that novelists of the time considered to be necessary to defend utilitarian aggression took a conspicuous note through the 19th century novels (Brackett, 2006, p. 99). The tradition of novel writing in the 20th century expanded its scope beyond the limits of dealing with the humanist tradition as a socio-cultural reformative tool and focused to a great extent on understanding the diverse aspects of human existence in the modern socio-cultural and intellectual backdrop. While on one hand, in 20th century novels, evolve of the anti-hero protagonists was found, at the same time considerable attention was also provided to explore different dimension of the human nature according to psychological standards. The novels of the 20th century, on one hand showed that ego or the modernist prejudice is responsible for individual plight and on the other in order to justify their position in accord to this ego gradual transformation of the characters with growing course of the novel was explored to such magnificence that it also emerged as an effective as well as a realistic medium to portray the impact of modernist socio-cultural, political and economic situations over lives of common people from an individualist perspective (Karl, 2001, p. 86). Consequently, compared to the 19th century the novel writing tradition in 20th century reflects a radical shift in terms of narrative structures, literary styles, capacity to deal with themes of the novel and characterization. In order to understand the difference it is important to compare and contrast two major novels from two different time periods. Charles Dickens’ Hard Times and D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers can be identified as two major works in this context and by comparing and contrasting these two novels an attempt will be made to understand the differences between 19th and 20th century novels in terms of literary styles, themes and characterization. Hard Times by Charles Dickens: Hard Times is widely considered as one of Dickens’ major works that quite in a devastating manner criticized social construction of the 19th century and consequently mocked the superficial traits of utilitarian mentality fused with Victorian social prejudices that quite in a planned manner jeopardized as well as attempted to mechanize the lives of common people by restraining their spontaneous humanistic self. Geoffrey Thurley has brilliantly observed in this context of evaluating the novel that “Hard Times is certainly the most externally conceived of all Dickens’s works, with none of the identification-from-within which usually provides the consciousness of the enterprise …. Without the involvement in the world of his narrative guaranteed by the myth, Dickens tends to fall back upon caricature: [characters in the novel] are social emblems or caricatures rather than “real” people. Yet Hard Times is ultimately a great piece of prophecy, and Dickens’s grasp on the social, political, and moral realities involved is sure and deep. Only Dickens could have written Hard Times, which is to say more than that aliveness of texture, the wealth of invention, and the brilliance of metaphor are beyond the abilities of any of his contemporaries” (Thurley, 1976, p. 203). The importance features of 19th and 20th century novels, as discussed in the introductory section of the paper receive special importance through this observation. While on one hand Thurley’s evaluation regarding the genius of Dickens helps a reader to understand the great prophetic power of the literary artist, on the other hand it clearly suggests that the world of Hard Times is metaphorical and does not share any essential connection with that of the real world as well as its diversity as novelists of the 20th century era attempted to deal with through their work. Questions can immediately be raised that why then the Hard Times will be provided with so much of importance though it does not share any realistic connection with that of the modern world? The Dickensian narrative and his analytical understanding of the 19th century socio-cultural existence, as reflected in the Hard Times, clearly help a reader to understand the plight of existence that would not only end within a certain period of time; rather it would continue to enhance its magnitude with progress of the human civilization. The metaphorical, alien, bleak and gloomy world of the Hard Times is more psychological than physical and people’s quest to secure their existence as well as their insatiable ambition is solely responsible for creation of the world. Each character, situation and changes in thematic structure of the novel not only emphasizes this observation but consequently deliver a clear message to the audience that in order to enjoy a good, healthy, harmonious and moral existence it is important that the balance between material and fancy is determined immediately, or else it is quite inevitable that with due progress of the civilization there would be more utilitarianists than humans and consequently spontaneity of human existence would be considered as a vice. What makes the course of human existence interesting and worth living? Terry Eagleton is of opines that “It is … a difference in the way men and women perceive the world around them, a matter of tones, textures, and rhythms of experience” (Eagleton, 2005, p. 143). The cosmos of Hard Times is devoid of this variety and does not know how to acknowledge mystery of the variety. The politics in the world of Hard Times not only discourages variations but also craft all sorts of devices that will infallibly ensure destruction of any such efforts that would lead to the development of such diversity: “Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else …. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, Sir!” (Dickens, 1854, p. 3). The narrative style of the Hard Times brings forth the mastery of Dickens as a great literary artist of all times, in any cultural scenario. The novel starts with such a hitting note that a reader not only gives his total concentration to the structure but also, quite immediately, receives the access to realize theme of the novel. The novel is replete with instances of sharp sarcastic attack against the then social structure and celebration of conventional Victorian morality. The education system is considered as one of the primary establishments that cater the humanist sensibilities, norms of morality and self-reliance. Thus, Dickens’ novel commences from a classroom setting where the students are effectively taught to depend solely on facts and consequently are learnt to depend on their imaginative capacity. Through the narrative structure it has been made immediately clear that the entire structure of society in the Hard Times is actually grinding machinery that aims at depriving the very foundation of humanity, the innocent children, from its self-dependence. The classroom, the city, the families, even the human souls that govern the social structure are just “monotonous vault” (s) (Dickens, 1854, p. 3), where diversity of rhyme, texture, and color of life are entirely denied. In the scope of Hard Times there is, thus, no scope for individual identification and people are crafted in such a way by the social machinery that gradually they learn to identify themselves either as factual embodiments or as mere numerical figures (Dickens, 1954, p. 4-5). Individual entities like Sissy and Louisa are considered as rebels against the system and they require to be tamed just like horses. It is the spirit of their individuality that the monotonous social existence fears the most and consequently attempts to annihilate that spirit by any means possible. The continuous process of manufacturing them as just another element of the grinding society, thus, continues both in professional and family scenarios. The mastery of Dickens’ narrative can be realized from this perspective because through this narrative he not only has described the social politics of emotional exploitation but also he has used the same for the purpose of providing explicit hint to the fact that irrespective of all exploitative strategies, the sense of rebellion against conventionality germinates slowly: “But, Louisa looked at her father with more boldness than Thomas did. Indeed, Thomas did not look at him, but gave himself up to be taken home like a machine” (Dickens, 1854, p. 15). Dickens’ characterization in the novel requires special attention. It has already been mentioned that the world of Hard Times is largely metaphorical and consequently deviate from the characters that a reader might encounter in the real world. The characters in the novel are constructed in two ways, flat and round and at the same time respective nomenclature of the characters has also been done quite carefully so that through their names a reader receives considerable impression of their nature. Thomas Gradgrind “sir” is a typical representative of the so-called Victorian virtues and morality. He is “A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations” (Dickens, 1854, p. 4). The gigantic grinding procedure of the society in 19th century was established by several others like Mr. Gradgrind and clearly this character reflects typicality of such sentiment through his very names and actions. Irrespective of the fact that he is a man of realities, facts and calculations, however, the progressive course of the novel shows that he is actually a round character because in the later part of the novel he reflects a shift from his traditional approach towards interpretation of life and consequently the modernist sensibility of individual crisis also has been reflected through him. Mr. Bounderby is another character that shows the same features of Gradgrind type but with complete rigidity. Being the closest friend of Mr. Gradgrind, he also is a “man perfectly devoid of sentiment can approach that spiritual relationship towards another man perfectly devoid of sentiment” (Dickens, 1854, p. 15). However, unlike Mr. Gradgrind, Bounderby does not show any tendency to change with progress of the novel and can be considered as a flat character. Every action that he has taken is aimed at facilitating his respective benefit and consequently he has attempted to justify the hypocritical mask of morality that he quite effectively uses to show the pompousness and so-called generosity of his nature. However, to a reader the cruelty of his soul, his malicious selfishness and lustful nature do not remain hidden the moment he proposes to marry Louisa, the daughter of his friend. Louisa, on the other hand, is clearly the embodiment of human spontaneity in the mundane existence of the Coketown. She has the courage to look into the eyes of social restrains with courage, moral strength enough to specify that she gets tired of everything and consequently propose that in order to overcome her sense of monotony she can visit the fairyland of circus along with her brother. The spirit that Louisa reflects is clearly a threat against the principles of Coketown as well as the grinding social machinery. Thus, it becomes important to break her and consequently possessed by Mr. Bounderby. However, being under suppression she controls herself as hard as she can but her emotional outburst against her father symbolizes the violent outburst of human emotion if put under long confinement and consequently suggests that no matter how much the social institutions try, however, the spontaneity of human nature cannot be killed. The moment it will finally burst would also result in the defeat to all forms of conventional oppression (Dickens, 1854, p. 255-58). Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence: D.H. Lawrence cannot be identified as an integral part of the modernist movement in English intellectual scenario; however, there is no denying that among the early modernists he was clearly a remarkable figure. Lawrence reflected almost all the modernist traits that were practiced and consequently furnished after his death in 1930. Though scholars like Leavis have identified him as a thoroughly modernist, however, Lawrence’s rise to fame commenced in such a time while the English literary traditions were undergoing the shifting process from Victorian to Modernist. The Sons and Lovers was published in 1913, almost seven years prior to the time that literary historians identify as the actual commencement of modernism. However, the Sons and Lovers is clearly one of Lawrence’s major works through which he depicted the plight of modernist existence, with specific focus on psychological situations of characters, gender, class and the entire socio-cultural situation of the time. Michael Squires has evaluated D.H. Lawrence in following words: “Lawrence is widely regarded as breaking with tradition – in probing consciousness, in attempting to represent impersonality, in experimenting with rhetorical forms, in exploring male bonding, and in opening up fictional endings” (Squires, 1990, p, 42). In case of Charles Dickens though the attempt of breaking tradition was observed especially in the later part of this literary career, however, in case of Lawrence this particular trait of his writing was present since the very beginning of his career and during the course of his development as a mature novelist he has expanded the scope to a multidimensional extent. Geoffrey Thurley has even gone to the extent of suggesting, while reflecting over Dickens and Lawrence’s contribution in the English novel writing tradition that “… the great tradition of the English novel moves through Dickens to Lawrence, for both men saw and felt the necessity of breaking down all the crippling barriers of prohibition and inhibition implicit in what Lawrence stigmatized as “the middle class thing” …. Lawrence makes it clear that it is not the middle class itself, a body of human being, that is in question, but the thing, the consciousness of cast and barrier” (Thurley, 1976, p. 207). Like the writers of modernist period, while the middle class remained as the centre of thematic development for his novels and the same tendency has also been reflected in the Sons and Lovers, on the other hand in case of Dickens’ Hard Times, the middle class has not been provided with this much of attention; rather the cosmos of Hard Times reflects the higher economic class and the proletariat section of the society. Sexuality in the Lawrence’s novel is a repetitive theme and he used this device as an effective instrument to expose the layers of modernist existence for the middle class families. Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson has opined that “Sons and Lovers … contains both social and sexual analysis in an unusual and typically Lawrentian amalgam, so that “social grievances” have a way of turning into “sexual frustrations.”” (Lewiecki-Wilson, 1994, p. 68-69). She has further opined that it was the author’s intention to govern the story in such a manner that that the novel becomes “a cultural critique of the social relations that shape mental and sexual life and as an uncovering of the hidden, mythic relations that construct the gendered subject” (Lewiecki-Wilson, 1994, p. 69). Mrs. Morel, despite her genteel qualities and cultured background, has been compelled to accept her plight to be dominated and ignored by her husband. She has been forced to accept the role of a typical woman, as a “working-class wife, who has nothing else to do than to finish of her household work and keep waiting for her male companion for some relational warmth but he does not appear even “When the light was fading, and [she] could see no more to sew …” (Lawrence, 1973, p. 7). Clearly, the conventional form of male dominance has ultimately compelled Mrs. Morel to accept her subordinate position and the issue of gender difference becomes on the main concern in this context that has provided different domains of functionality to male and female in the contemporary socio-cultural domain. However, Mrs. Morel’s cultural background, her physical and emotional bereavement has taken her closer to Paul and to some extent beaching the conventional limits of emotional proximity that mother and son share. Such was her influence on Paul’s personality that his endless search to find Mrs. Morel’s traits within other women is ceaseless. It is not that Paul was entirely unaware of such peculiar emotional development and the going process of conflict in his psyche has developed such a strange notion for him that “life seemed a shadow, day a white shadow, night, and death, and stillness, and inaction, this seemed like being. To be alive, to be urgent, and insistent - that was not-to-be. The highest of all was, to melt out into the darkness and sway there, identified with the great Being” (Lawrence, 1973, p. 299). Paul’s behaviorist features, in the future course of his life, clearly comprise the oedipal complex and evaluating this aspect in contrast to the contemporary socio-cultural trait, it becomes clear that conventional notions of relationship are being deconstructed and the author, consequently, gives more importance over identification of a human being according to his human entity and psychical nature. He also refuses to accept the limits as established by the social institutions that, through the due progress of time, have taken the form of relational hierarchy. Conclusion: Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence are great pieces of literary artistry that not only reflect the genius of the artists in the context of understanding the society, culture and moral issues of their times but through their respective works they also have provided the readers with complete understanding of the socio-cultural and socio-political situations, comprehensively. It is interesting to find that each of the novelists has identified that various forms of socio-institutional oppressions are restraining human being from enjoying their existence as independent identities. Consequently, through their analysis of human psyche, response towards sexuality, morality, and education they have evaluated the scopes of defying such oppression. The narrative structure, thematic treatment and characterization of the novels have differed radically from one another. Both Dickens and Lawrence have used these techniques to emphasize on the fact that human beings respond to their respective socio-cultural existence in different ways. In case of Dickens while the analysis of a character’s psychological aspects, construction and deconstruction of the mental states has not been provided with much attention, on the other hand, Lawrence has provided detailed analysis of human nature and consequently he also has used the technique for conveying to a reader of the actual nature of a modern individual. Dickens, while approached with his narrative technique in such a way as if to provide an assumptive impression to reader regarding consequences of the incidents, Lawrence, on the other hand, like a true modernist went on creating suspense, unpredictability and helps readers to take a mesmerizing journey through the mysterious realms of the modernist existence. References Brackett, V. 2006. Beginnings through the 19th century. London: Infobase Publishing. Dickens, C. 1854. Hard times - for these times. London: Bradbury & Erano. (From: The Library of Catalonia. 2008). Eagleton, T. 2005. The English novel: an introduction. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Karl, F.R. 2001. A reader's guide to the contemporary English novel. New York: Syracuse University Press. Lawrence, D.H. 1973. Sons and Lovers. New York: The Viking Press. Lewiecki-Wilson, C. 1994. Writing against the family: gender in Lawrence and Joyce. Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. Squires, M. 1990. The Challenge of D.H. Lawrence. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. Thurley, G. 1976. The Dickens myth: its genesis and structure. London: Taylor & Francis. Read More