Publication 202
By Emma on
Friday, November 23, 2001
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Hello....anyone there to answer my call of distress????
I am writing an essay with the title:
George Eliot criticised Dickens for "encouraging the miserable fallacy that high morality and refined sentiment can grow out of harsh social relations, ignorance, and want". Is this a fair criticism?
I wish to use David Copperfield as the novel for discussion, however, each time I become enthusiastic about it and begin to write down my arguments, I seem to come back to the same old thing - Class! Copperfield is said to be the most "middle-class" novel Dickens wrote, so if this is the case, how can I use it to my advantage in this essay when it is supposed to be about high morality and refined sentiment eminating from an environment unconducive to such standards????
Looking for examples is becoming like looking for a needle in a haystack!!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!! ( If you can suggest a better Dickens novel out of Dombey & Son; Great Expectations; or Tale of Two Cities, that would also be useful!)
Publication 203
By absent-minded on
Friday, November 23, 2001
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To be fair: can we help you if we don't know the arguments, but only the conclusion of G. Eliot's essay?
Despite of this, can you prove G. Eliot is wrong by using Dickens' novels? Because this is exactly what Eliot seems to deny, that there is truth in these novels concerning the current topic.
I repeat, we should know Eliot's arguments. What you say make me believe that you should answer to Eliot referring to real life instead of using Dickens, and then show how the novels agree with reality.
For the "refinement" that you search in David Copperfield, you can compare low class people like Emily's family or Pegotty with high class self-indulgent people like Steerforth's family.
Publication 205
By Emma on
Saturday, November 24, 2001
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To "absent-minded" (whoever you are!)
Hi! Just wanted to say thanx for replying to my query on my David Copperfield essay! It's difficult to get hold of my tutor, so I thought I'd try this "Community" in a fit of desperation.
I should have made myself more clear. We have been studying a module on the works of Charles Dickens, whose
novels have included: "Dombey & Son"; "David Copperfield"; "Tale of Two Cities"; and "Great Expectations". We
have to answer the essay questions set by refering to ONE FULL-LENGTH novel by Dickens. I chose to answer the question to which you replied, by using the novel "David Copperfield" for reasons such as Steerforth's family and
the way in which he looks down on the lower class and dismisses them as "those sort of people", and the fact that Emily runs away with him in the nieve belief that he will marry her and make her a lady. In doing so, she becomes a
"fallen woman", and thus, should she return to England, would be subject to ridicule and taunting - never able to hold her head up high in public again.
My problem is, that everytime I sit down to write this essay, I keep coming back to the same argument - class! Yet, the quotation from Eliot refers to "high morality and refined sentiment" emerging out of an environment such as
Emily's and the Peggotty's, not to mention Tommy Taddles childhood! I don't seem to be arguing along the correct
lines,and was seeking a little guidance from someone, in the absence of my tutor! Does the "miserable fallacy" mean that Dickens himself knows that "high morality and refined sentiment" can NEVER grow out of "harsh social
relations, ignorance, and want" and that he is merely sympathising with the working class, drawing people's attention to their plight, but not encouraging them to attemp to elevate themselves, or what? It's very confusing!!! I don't see how I can fit Copperfield to this essay, can you? I would be grateful to hear what you have to say.
Once again, thanx for replying!
Publication 206
By absent-minded on
Saturday, November 24, 2001
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Hi Emma
You don't have to fit Copperfield anywhere, use another novel if you prefer, but in any case there are some things you will need - whatever the subject, whatever the novel might be... You will need first to examine your concepts. If you don't know, if you don't decide, what high morality or refined sentiment is, you will not able to recognise it, whether in Copperfield or in any other novel.
I took it for granted, that G. Eliot believes Dickens is wrong in seeing high morality in low class people, because Dickens himself, so far as I know, does not associate a certain moral status with a class. For Dickens, people from high or low classes can be moral or not, independently of their class. If there is a tendency for some association, this is that it seems to Dickens more likely for high class people to degenerate.
Does that help?
Publication 208
By Emma on
Sunday, November 25, 2001
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Hi "absent-minded"!
Thanx for replying so quickly! (It's nice to know there's someone out there that I can talk to!). Just wanted to say thanx for taking the time and trouble to help - you certainly have! I confess, I haven't had the guts to tackle the damn essay over this weekend, but now you've given me a new perspective, I think I just might! Cheers!!
Maybe we can talk again some other time?
Kind regards
Emma
Publication 209
By absent-minded on
Sunday, November 25, 2001
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3rd year undergrad' essay on Dickens using Copperfield
Hello....anyone there to answer my call of distress????
