【正文】 ers and magazines. II. features a. Just like Dickens, Thackeray is one of the greatest critical realists of the 19th century Europe. He paints life as he has seen it. With his precise and thorough observation, rich knowledge of social life and of the human heart, the pictures in his novels are accurate and true to life. b. Thackeray is a satirist. His satire is caustic and his humour subtle. c. Besides being a realist and satirist, Thackeray is a moralist. His aim is to produce a moral impression in all his novels III. Vanity Fair masterpiece 1. title: from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. 2. Subtitle: “A novel without a hero” the bourgeois and aristocratic society as a whole no positive characters (c) female 3. plot( p193 196) Read the story from P137 to P138 by yourself. Make clear about the development of the plot and relations between main characters. (Rebecca Sharp, Amelia Sedley, Joseph Sedley, Sir Pitt Crawley, Rawdon Crawley, Lord Steyne, Gee Osborne, William Dobbin) Amelia: goodnatured, sentimental, and simpleminded Gee Osborne: snobbish, caustic, selfish and simpleminded Joseph Sedley: vain, selfish, effeminate William Dobbin: goodnatured, honest III. Comparison between Thackeray and Dickens similarities: ① both representatives of critical realism。 pathos. William Makepeace Thackeray I. Life a. born in India。 wit seem inexhaustible. Characterportrayal is the most outstanding feature of his works. His characterizations of child (Oliver Twist, etc.), some grotesque people (Fagin, etc.) amp。 morals of the Victorian England, for example, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations amp。 so on. His later works show a highly conscious modern artist. The settings are more plicated。 a largescale criticism of the 19thcentury England, particularly London. A bination of optimism about people amp。 criticize in his works all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy amp。 justice. Each of his novels reveals a specific social problem. 5. unnatural happy ending His Literary Creation amp。 Fascinating Plot Dickens seems to love plicated novel constructions with minor plots beside the major one， or two parallel major plots within one novel. He is also skillful at creating suspense amp。 right actions for the right person. 2. Broad Humor amp。 in giving them exactly the actions amp。德魯?shù)轮i》 (unfinished) (1870) Distinct Features of His Novels 1. Character Sketches amp。 Our Mutual Friend 《我們共同的朋友》 (18641865)。 A Tale of Two Cities 《雙城記》 (1859)。 Hard Times 《艱難時(shí)世》 (1854)。 David Copperfield 《大衛(wèi) Dombey amp。 Martin Chuzzlewit 《馬丁 拉奇》 (1841) 2. Period of excitement amp。 The Old Curiosity Shop《老古玩店》 ( 18401841)。 Nicholas Nickleby《尼古拉斯 The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club 《匹克威克外傳》 (18361837)?？撇ǚ茽? (autobiographical) 3. Hard Times。霧都孤兒 2. David Copperfield。 The Descent of Man (1871) shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith. On the other hand, Utilitarianism was widely accepted amp。 discoveries in geology, astronomy, biology amp。 the decay of the Victorian values. Ideologically, the Victorians experienced fundamental changes. The rapid development of science amp。 relative stability. The middleclass life of the time was characterized by prosperity, respectability amp。 working conditions, the mass unemployment amp。 richness, there existed widespread poverty amp。 perfection amp。 judgments about the speaker’s personality amp。 about their minds amp。 interests amp。 poverty to the working mass. Critical Realism The Victorian Age is an age of realism rather than of romanticisma realism which strives to tell the whole truth showing moral amp。 the early sign of the awakening of the poor, oppressed people. Utilitarianism Almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, that is, the extent to which it could promote the material happiness. This theory held a special appeal to the middleclass industrialists, whose greed drove them to exploiting workers to the utmost amp。 better living amp。 experiments are to witness their bumper harvest. The Chartist Movement （ 18361848） The English workers got themselves anized in big cities amp。 spirit of the age. The highspirited vitality, the downtoearth earnestness, the goodnatured humor amp。 strong criticism of the society had done much in awakening the public consciousness to the social problems amp。 injustice. Their truthful depiction of people’s life amp。 Utilitarianism amp。 the defense of the mass. Although writing from different points of view amp。 the most vital amp。 great works abounded. a. introduction of characters from the working class b. strong hatred for vices in the society c. an illusion of bringing about social justice and harmony by reforms d. an interest in woman emancipation (Charlotte Bronte) 3. Representatives: Charles Dickens。 realistically the great changes that were going on in people’s life amp。 plex, amp。English Literature of the Victorian Age 1. The Victorian Period: Chronologically the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria who ruled over England from1836 to 1901. The period has been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history. II. Historical Background 1. economy: Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1840) 2. politics: Chartist movement (1838 – 1848) 憲章運(yùn)動(dòng) 3. science: Darwin’s theory of evolution(1859) 4. society: the women question Queen Victoria ( 1837 – 1901) The early years of the Victorian England was a time of rapid economic development as well as serious social problems. III. Critical Realism 1. definitionEnglish critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the 40s and in the early 50s. It found its expression in the form of novel. The critical realists, most of whom were novelists, described with much