【正文】 vividness and artistic skill the chief traits of the English society and criticized the capitalist system from a democratic viewpoint. 2. Features: Victorian literature, as a product of its age, naturally took on its quality of magnitude amp。 diversity. It was manysided amp。 reflected both romantically amp。 thought. Great writers amp。 William Thackeray etc. 4. Features of Victorian novels In this period， the novel became the most widely read amp。 challenging expression of progressive thought. While sticking to the principle of faithful representation of the 18thcentury realist novel, novelists in this period carried their duty forward to the criticism of the society amp。 with different techniques, they shared one thing in mon, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the mon people. They were angry at the inhuman social institutions, the decaying social morality as represented by the moneyworship amp。 the widespread misery, poverty amp。 bitter amp。 in the actual improvement of the society. Victorian literature, in general, truthfully represents the reality amp。 unbounded imagination are all unprecedented. In almost every genre it paved the way for the ing century, where its spirits, values amp。 brought forth the People’s charter, in which they demanded basic rights amp。 working conditions. They, for three times, made appeals to the government, with hundreds of thousands of people’s signatures. The movement swept over most of the cities in the country. Although the movement declined to an end in 1848, it did bring some improvement to the welfare of the working class. This was the first mass movement of the English working class amp。 brought greater suffering amp。 physical diseases as they are. To be true to life bees the first requirement for literary writing. As the mirror of truth, literature has e very close to daily life, reflecting its practical problems amp。 is used as a powerful instrument of human progress. Dramatic Monologue By dramatic monologue, it is meant that a poet chooses a dramatic moment or a crisis, in which his characters are made to talk about their lives, amp。 hearts. In “l(fā)istening” to those onesided talks, readers can form their own opinions amp。 about what has really happened. Robert Browning brought this poetic form to its maturity amp。 his “My Last Duchess” is one of the bestknown dramatic monologues. Further Reading: After the Reform Bill of 1832 passed the political power from the decaying aristocrats into the hands of the middle class industrial capitalists, the Industrial Revolution soon geared up. Towards the midcentury, England had reached its highest point of development as a world power. And yet beneath the great prosperity amp。 wretchedness among the working class. The worsening living amp。 the new Poor Law of 1834 with its workhouse system finally gave rise to the Chartist Movement (18361848). During the next twenty years, England settled down to a time of prosperity amp。 material progress. But the last three decades of the century witnessed the decline of the British Empire amp。 technology, new inventions amp。 anthropology drastically shook people’s religious convictions. Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) amp。 practiced. Almost everything was put to the test by the criterion of utility, that is, the extent to which it could promote the material happiness. Charles Dickens (18121870) I. Life: 1. a middle class family 2. once was a child labor in a shoeblacking factory 3. a clerk, a reporter, a writer 4. the poets’ corner II. Major Works 1. Oliver Twist。大衛(wèi) 艱難時世 4. A Tale of Two Cities 雙城記 III. three periods a. optimism b. frustration c. pessimism 1. Period of youthful optimistSketches by Boz 《博茲札記》 (1836)。 Oliver Twist 《霧都孤兒》 or 《苦海孤雛》 (18371838)。 尼克貝》 (18381839)。 Barnaby Rudge《巴納比 irritation American Notes 《 美國紀行》 (1842)。翟述偉》 (18431845)； A Christmas Carol 《圣誕頌歌》 (1843)。 Son 《董貝父子》 (18461848)?？撇ǚ茽枴? (18491850) 3. Period of steadily intensifying pessimism Bleak House 《荒涼山莊》 ( 18521853)。 Little Dorrit 《小杜麗》 (18551857)。 Great Expectations 《遠大前程》 or 《孤星血淚》 (18601861)。 Edwin Drood 《艾德溫 Exaggeration In his novels are found about 19 hundred figures, some of whom are really such “typical characters under typical circumstances”, that they bee proverbial or representative of a whole group of similar persons. As a master of characterization, Dickens was skillful in drawing vivid caricatural sketches by exaggerating some peculiarities, amp。 words that fit them: that is, right words amp。 Perating Satire Dickens is well known as a humorist as well as a satirist. He sometimes employs humor to enliven a scene or lighten a character by making it (him or her) eccentric, whimsical, or laughable. Sometimes he uses satire to ridicule human follies or vices, with the purpose of laughing them out of existence or bring about reform. 3. Complicated amp。 mystery to make the story fascinating. 4. The Power of Exposure As the greatest representative of English critical realism, Dickens made his novel the instrument of morality amp。 Literary Achievements Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realistic writers of the Victorian Age. It is his serious intention to expose amp。 corruptness he saw all around him. In his works, Dickens sets a full map amp。 realism about society is obvious in these works. His representative works in the early period include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield amp。 the stories are better structured. Most novels of this period present a sharper criticism of social evils amp。 so on. The early optimism could no more be found. Charles Dickens is a master storyteller. His language could, in a way, be pared with Shakespeare’s. His humor amp。 some ical people (Mr. Micawber, etc.) are superb. Dicken