Close read the following paragraphs, but also ask yourself: why does Dickens feel the need to make this point now (Nancy has just both kidnapped Oliver and protected him from further abuse)? Why is this important stuff for the Reader to think about now? What is weird (for you as a Reader) about being addressed this way in a novel?
"It is the custom on the stage: in all good, murderous melodramas: to present the tragic and the comic scenes, in as regular alternation, as the layers of red and white in a side of streaky, well-cured bacon. The hero sinks upon his straw bed, weighed down by fetters and misfortunes; and, in the next scene, his faithful but unconscious squire regales the audience with a comic song. We behold, with throbbing bosoms, the heroine in the grasp of a proud and ruthless baron: her virtue and her life alike in danger; drawing forth her dagger to preserve the one at the cost of the other; and, just as our expectations are wrought up to the highest pitch, a whistle is heard: and we are straightway transported to the great hall of the castle: where a grey-headed seneschal [steward] sings a funny chorus with a funnier body of vassals, who are free of all sorts of places from church vaults to palaces, and roam about in company, carolling perpetually.
Such changes appear absurd; but they are not so unnatural as they would seem at first sight. The transitions in real life from well-spread boards to death-beds, and from mourning weeds to holiday garments, are not a whit less startling; only, there, we are busy actors, instead of passive lookers-on; which makes a vast difference. The actors in the mimic life of the theatre, are blind to violent transitions and abrupt impulses of passion or feeling, which, presented before the eyes of mere spectators, are at once condemned as outrageous and preposterous" (129).
Dickens feels the need to make this point now, because things are not always black and white. He seems to be presenting a message. People are not often bad because they want to. According to Dickens we are all born good, but our goodness can be snacthed from us abruptly and the harshness of life or the negative guidance can cause us to make bad decisions. Dickens seem to want us the reader not to be so harsh when judging the characters and instead to look at the reasons that may had driven the character there. This may appear strange for us the readers, because it may confuse our perspectives about the characters. In other words, when can we be certain that the character was just born to be evil and that its experiences in life simply added to it, for every person has the choice to stay stuck in time or improve its situation by improving its conduct.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Dickens is trying to show that things are not black and white. He may be trying to show us because he wants to humnanize the poor people at least certain poor people and harmless people. This could also connect to the fact that Dickens believes that "fallen women" can change for the better. He (Dickens) first shows Nancy as a "bad" person than shows her as a "good" person which illustrates that the change is possible.
DeleteNarration seems different in this part though. The narrator sounds as if he is narrating a drama play whereas before the narrator described himself as Oliver's biographer. The narrator uses words like "hero, heroine, melodrama, and comic," in this portion of the book. There seems to be shift in the way the narrator is addressing the reader. It seems that the narrator wants to favor certain characters over others.
Really interesting observation, Sean. Dickens is definitely invoking a different genre here -- drama (melodrama to be exact)-- which complicates his persona as Oliver's biographer. Say more (or others can join in): what does this shift in the framework of the narrator mean? What does it mean to move from biography to the stage? Why might Dickens, in his first full-length novel, be experimenting with different authorial personas?
DeleteLondon, in all its vices - poverty, pollution, quality of life, etc. has potential to change. London's issues just like Nancy's life are not infinitely bound to a single direction or cause in life.
ReplyDeleteDickens makes this point to tell the audience that good can be and is found in almost every aspect of life - living and non-living things.
Dickens's reference of the weed transforming into a holiday garment is proof that what can be seen as a nuisance, a negative thing in life, can be transformed into something good and something celebrated.
Part of Dickens's message in "Oliver Twist" is that change is a definite part of life and that it does not take much to ignite movement towards a better direction.
Nancy's upbringing and ways about getting money can be described by many as 'a weed'. Her transition to help Oliver is Dickens's reference to the holiday garment.
I agree with your comparison with Nancy's upbringing as the "weed" mentioned earlier as Dickens is clearly trying to emphasize the significance of change. To go one step further, I don't think he's just trying to illustrate the concept of negative to positive changes, but the inverse as well. For example, Nancy presumably started off life innocent, but then made a transformation to a darker side because of Fagin, who himself encountered a negative change at some point in his life. In the end, change is a two way street in Oliver Twist, much like life, where weeds become something more but sometimes the holiday garments can be reduced to "weeds".
DeleteThis sounds a little like a prologue or a like the production code messages that use to be shown before a film. I think the reason it sound like these things are because just like a prologue and production code message Dickens wants to inform the reader and influence their judgments. The difference here is that a prologue and production code are presented to the reader/audience before they encounter any characters or story lines. So it is a little odd that Dickens would not share his insight at the beginning of the novel but near the center instead.
ReplyDeleteI think Dickens's purpose for doing this is that he realizes that Nancy is a complex character. Readers may be perplexed as to whether they should judge Nancy as a good or bad person. In chapter 15 Nancy kidnaps Oliver and brings him back to Fagin and Sikes but then in chapter 16 she is defending and protecting him from them. The reader is put in a possession where they do not know if they should favor Nancy or be against her.
This is why Dickens starts chapter 17 with these paragraphs. He realizes that the drastic change in Nancy's characteristic may seem "absurd" but he explains it is not "unnatural". Good people do bad things sometimes and bad people do good. He simply explains to the readers that in real life things do not happen, and people do not act in a chronological order they just happen/act sporadically, just like Nancy's actions.
Great observation. I think your conclusion in your third paragraph is correct. Also keep in mind that this novel was serialized. So those chapters -- those initial characterizations -- were out there in the reading public before he'd decided where he wanted to go with this story. So the rhythms of the novel follow those of real life even more so.
DeleteCharles Dickens realizes that his detailed description of Nancy and the dislike that he has led his readers to develope for these characters which portray the lifestyles of many of the rapscallions they see around them everyday. May have caused them to have develope a disdain for Nancy just as much as the other rif raf that she is in cohoots with. So the sudden display of her showing some signs of civility as opposed to the display of cut throat savagery may cause his readers to focus on HIM! The Author as being one who's fallen for the very feminine wiles of his own character. So in an effort to explain to the reader his reason for giving her a more sympathetic disposition, he is actually moving from behind he scenes as the writer, and showing himself, Dickens, through the voice of the narrator, injecting his own personal identity and reasoning into the story (of fiction) as opposed to allowing the narrator, (who is supposed to be totally seperate from that of the author)to continue on telling the story, and allow the reader to deal with whatever emotions that they may encounter from the events.
ReplyDeleteI thought only my version had this! (lol, moving on) When i think of plays i think of words coming to life, the actors interacting with the audience and making the audience feel as though they are in the moment. This part of the novel does just that, hes trying to change the readers expectation by tripping up our desire to predict what should happen in the novel.As my fellow classmate said before he is upgrading the novel from black and white television to color, because reality is colorful. Reality is filled with moments we don't expect and outcomes we wouldn't have predicted.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Christina said. Life is not black and white, but filled with color. The words Dickens technique in which dickens adds "color" to the novel adds depth to these characters. Moreover, these characters are not necessarily bad or good -- theres an in between.
DeleteSo interesting. When Mirianda wrote about that it is not black and white, I immediately thought grey, not color. And there is a grey area to the depiction of some of the characters (Fagin, Nancy) even as some of the others are either easily good (Oliver, Mr. Brownlow) or bad (Bill Sikes, Bumble). But you are right -- another way of seeing it is that Dickens wants to move from black and white to color, with the infinite and unpredictable variety that suggests.
DeleteLike an artist, Dickens uses colors in substitution of words and along with the cobination of descriptions he creates a vivid images along with symbols that go beyond the black and white print.For instance the colors white and red; where white represents purity and red for authority and respect. It is no mistake how he talks about bacon and the vituousness of the charcter Nancy virtually in the same paragraph with a complex underlying message about women who are paticularly like Nancy. Like bacon, Nancy may be desired but too much ofhercan be detrimental to ones health. Because Nancy i not "white" and pure like most women, her actions represent those of a man.In the book she has her "red" moments of authority when she is actually respected for her choices and like demised for being a prostitute.
Delete"The transitions in real life from well-spread boards to death-beds, and from mourning weeds to holiday garments" I can't help but wonder if Dickens is warning the readers that scorn the poor, that life is uncertain, and you'll never know when you might have to trade in your riches for rags. (like he did)
ReplyDeleteThere really is no better way to start off a passage full of contradiction examples than with the wonderfully executed oxymoron in "murderous melodramas." As many have pointed out, this is Dickens's method of communication with his readers. As readers, we tend to filter out the negative in favor of the positive, or as Dicken's would put it, we focus more on the melodrama while disregarding the murderous underlining. One example,the hero, whose deeds although commendable, is quickly forgotten once his less significant squire begins to sing. The hero's equally important counterpart, the heroine, who bears the worst of life's burdens, is set aside in favor of the grand castle setting, consisting of a king, a seneschal and other royal members, singing together in harmony. Dickens wants us to view the entire spectrum, in particular, not lose sight of what is important; or, at the very least, as Sean stated, center on the grey area.
ReplyDeleteThere is an obvious shift in narration. This shift makes Dickens's persona more imposing on the readers. Gregory has touched upon this point and I have to agree with him. The fact that Dickens chooses to put his persona in his own story makes it clear that he wants to emphasize something to the readers. Dickens explains that real life proceeds in a similar manner to the plays that happen on stage. However, in real life, people are the actors and they are busy playing their own parts. This gets to Christina's point: what happens in the story can happen to anyone else. In this case, the narration becomes an instruction and a guide for the reader to follow and listen to; the author is dictating to his readers the reality of life.
ReplyDeleteGregory made an interesting point; “Dickens, through the voice of the narrator, inject[s] his own personal identity and reasoning into the story (of fiction)”. Consider that Dickens’s goal in writing Oliver Twist, was to connect the class gap that existed in England, he uses this switch in narration to address his readers directly and reveal his purpose for writing. For example, this is apparent in his use of the word “we”. This word takes on a more intimate tone, because it does not involve the characters in the story, but it involves reality. Dickens uses the theater, which was of much familiarity to the upper class to send a meaningfully message to them. Similar to current age, the media plays a role in the behaviors of some individuals. One of Dickens’s message is that musicals and melodrama are mere illusions and should not be imitated, because of quick switch from happy to sad; “It is the custom on the stage: in all good, murderous melodramas: to present the tragic and the comic scenes, in as regular alternation”. Another message is that, people of the upper class, when presented with the sufferings of the lower class, easily overlook these issues and continue routinely to their happy lives. This he parallels to actors in the theater, “The transitions in real life from well-spread boards to death-beds, and from mourning weeds to holiday garments, are not a whit less startling; only, there, we are busy actors, instead of passive lookers-on; which makes a vast difference”. To me this narration takes on a moralist preaching tone of stating the wrongs and indicating the rights.
ReplyDeleteAs Joseph, Joe, and several others have pointed out, it is quite evident that Dickens is portraying the concept of change. Change is undoubtedly a "two-way street" in this novel, both negative and positive as Joe has mentioned, and this notion is clearly portrayed in these two paragraphs. Dickens seems to delineate the concept of change or "transition" by using "theatre" as an example. When compared to real life, we would be the actors who are "blind to violent transitions and abrupt impulses of passion or feeling" because we are the ones experiencing these alterations in life. We may be so focused on and occupied with dealing with our everyday dilemmas and situations, trying to produce a certain outcome, that we are prone to the abrupt changes in our lives and not as startled with the oncoming changes. However, our friends and families may be the "spectators" who cannot help, but be bewildered by the transitions in our lives. When referring to the novel, Nancy may be the "actor" who is portraying a change in her character as we, the readers or "spectators," are left to be startled by the transition.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great discussion because you are thinking about the novel on a bunch of different levels: in terms of character (Nancy), in terms of structure (why this kind of comment now?) and in terms of narration (is Dickens talking to us? the narrator in a changed voice?). Keep all of these good issues in mind as you keep reading!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danilka with the thought of these paragraphs sounding very similar to a prologue and that’s what makes it weird - appearing in the middle of the story.
ReplyDeleteI think these paragraphs are essential to allow the reader to see that the correlation between literature and social issues are closer than people think. Dickens is showing the reader that he’s not dramatizing Oliver’s story, but playing on themes that happen every day in life without people realizing it. In order to shed light on a social issue in a society through literature, it doesn’t have to lack comedy; that would be “unnatural”. Not only on a stage, but in life, comedy and tragedy go hand in hand like the colors red and white on bacon. Dickens’s writing is very similar to Bacon in that case, but that doesn’t make his writing unreal or “absurd.”
To answer Professor's question "What does it mean to move from biography to the stage?" Biography is a vivid summary of someone's life. The person who is giving the description digs deep into their history of their career, family, struggles,education and relationship. when a biography shift into the stage, actors play out another person life. In melodrama an actor will exaggerate on a biography. he/she will play out someone else life and add emotions they feel are associated with their life. For example, lets look at the scene with Noah Claypole. He is a charity instead of a child who is a workhouse orphan. Since he can't relate to the struggles of a poor person, the actor of this melodrama will exude emotions of arrogance and attitude. The actor would also carry himself as someone who is upperclass.
ReplyDeleteThough I agree with a lot of what has been said, especially concerning the readers views of Nancy, I believe Dickens turns his attention to a slightly different topic. The second paragraph informs us that our attention to details varies when we are placed in different situations, one as characters in a play and the other as a mere observer. What we might find unbelievable in the latter position, is a common day to day occurrence that does not faze us in the previous. We are effectively blind to things that happen in our day to day lives, a notion that Dickens perhaps wishes to emphasize in seeking to effect reform. The narrative shift also seems to support this view as it sets the section apart from the rest of the work. Instead of simply relating a history, Dickens' narrator approaches the reader and informs him of this "truth," which in many respects seems to be very accurate.
ReplyDeleteJust as an aside: isn't this excerpt from chapter 17?
DeleteBoth excellent points! I especially like John's point here that Dickens uses the stage in order to make clear that in our daily lives we are all shaped by our different points of view. As "actors" we are, to quote John, "effectively blind" to things that as audience members (or readers?) we would see.
DeleteI agree with Mirianda in regards to the reader not judging harshly, and that'a because the tone of the passage is experienced as conversational rather than a monologue (descriptions especially). The first sentences of each paragraph start with a very casual tone: "It is the custum of the stage: in all good, murderous melodramas" and "Such changes appear absurd."
ReplyDeleteDickens shows his creativity with his writing; we are used to the dehumanization of "wretched" people but however, this segment of the text does not do so. He compares the fugitive to a dog in order for the readers to sympathize him. Pip carefully describes the fugitive's way of eating food is like how a dog eats their food. He describes this not to say the fugitive is animalistic, but to show that he was hungry and in need of care.
ReplyDelete