Dickens Humanitarianism in A Tale of Two Cities狄更斯在《双城记》中的人道主义思想.docx

1、Dickens Humanitarianism in A Tale of Two Cities 狄更斯在双城记中的人道主义思想Dickens Humanitarianism in A Tale of Two CitiesThesis statement: This paper deals with Charles Dickens humanitarianism by analyzing the characters in his works through comparison and contrast.Outline:I. IntroductionA. Charles Dickens is

2、the outstanding realistic novelist in the 19th century. His main theme is humanitarianism.B. A Tale of Two Cities uses the French Revolution as the background and it reflects the authors attitude to the revolution and his humanitarianism.II. The embodiment体现 of humanitarianism on the characters人物 in

3、 A Tale of Two CitiesA. The novel expresses the authors sentimental humanitarianism on Dr. Manettes family.1. Lucie, the golden thread of love, shows great love to her family members and other people.2. Doctor Manette, the typical humanitarian, loves his daughter and shows his sympathy to the ordina

4、ry people.3. Charles Darnay, a rebel aristocrat, shows his sympathy to ordinary people.B. This novel advocates the Christian love and self-sacrifice自我牺牲.C. This novel also criticizes the violence and oppression暴力与镇压 in the society.1. The Marquis of Evremonde and his brother, two cruel aristocrats, o

5、ppress people severely.2. The Mr. and Mrs. Defarges, two revolutionaries show great hatred to all the aristocrats.III. Conclusion: This novel expresses the authors capitalistic humanitarianism. He thinks that it is inevitable for the revolution to break out, but he disagrees with the cruelty and vio

6、lence in the revolution. He is the capitalistic reformist in the 19th century.Dickens Humanitarianism in A Tale of Two Cities Abstract: Charles Dickens is the outstanding realistic novelist in the 19th century. And he is also a humanitarian. The main theme of Dickens novels is the humanitarianism an

7、d most of his novels reflect this theme. During all these novels, A Tale of Two Cities is the representative work. It uses the French Revolution as the background and it reflects the authors attitude to the revolution. This paper analyzes his humanitarianism from the characters in this novel. And ac

8、cording to the comparison and contrast of the characters, we can see his humanitarianism clearly.Key words: Dickens; humanitarianism; A Tale of Two Cities狄更斯在双城记中的人道主义思想 摘要：狄更斯是19世纪杰出的批判现实主义小说家，他同时也是一个人道主义者。他小说的主导思想是人道主义。他的很多小说都表现了这一主题。而在他的这些小说中，又以为典型代表。 是一部以法国大革命为背景的小说，它反映了作者对待革命和人性的看法。本文从他小说中的各种人物

9、分析了他的人道主义思想，通过小说中人物的对比，我们可以很明确地看出他的人道主义思想。关键词：人道主义; 狄更斯; 双城记 Dickens Humanitarianism in A Tale of Two CitiesI. Introduction Charles Dickens is one of the outstanding realistic novelists in the 19th century. His main theme is humanitarianism. Humanitarianism, as a trend, begins from the Renaissance a

10、nd it bases on the abstract and universal humanity. Humanitarians start from humanity and set up their ideological system. So the start point is not only their beginning, but also their theoretical basis. The humanitarians believe that human beings are all kind and the morality can be improved. They

11、 advocate that human beings should use the emotion and humanitarianism as the weapon to educate people. And they understand the society from rationality and emotion. And Dickens humanitarianism sets up on the humanity, which is also his start point. He emphasizes the “ human love ” which is one of t

12、he most important points. He does not agree with the revolution, which he thinks is cruel and just one-way of human revenge. He dreams to use the morality to educate the society and then improve the villain. We can analyze his humanitarianism according to his representative workA Tale of Two Cities.

13、 A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens serious works. It uses the French Revolution as the background and it reflects the authors attitude to the revolution and his humanitarianism. This work embodies the authors mature thought and deep thinking. The author reviews the reasons of the French Revolut

14、ion from the viewpoint of humanitarianism to warn the rulers of the England in such a period when the social classes conflict seriously with each other. On the one hand, the author expresses his great anger to aristocrats, his sympathy to the sufferings of the public and the inevitability and justic

15、e for the revolution to break out; on the other hand, he uses the bloody scene to describe the cruelty of the revolution, and the failure to achieve the poor mans ideal which the revolution intends to pursue. And then it advocates the authors opinion that human beings should use the kindness to solv

16、e the real problems, use the humanity instead of cruelty and horror to harmonize the conflict, popularize the education and improve our society. In this novel, the author portrays some typical characters that embody the authors view. First, he portrays some kind, upright and humane persons, such as

17、Dr. Manette, Lucie Manette, Mr. Lorry, etc. But at the same time, he also portrays some cruel and ferocious persons, such as the Marquis of Evremonde Brothers, Mr. and Mrs. Defarge. He uses these characters to make a contrast, which clearly expresses his view. IIThe embodiment of humanitarianism on

18、the characters in A Tale of Two Cities A. This novel expresses the authors sentimental humanitarianism on Dr Manette, his daughter Lucie and his son-in-law Charles Darnay.Dickens humanitarianism is sentimental. Most of his works are sentimental which are expressed by the sympathy and mercy to the or

19、dinary mans destiny. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens capitalistic humanitarianism is embodied on Dr. Manette and his family members, the special capitalistic family, in the period of French Revolution. Before the revolution, they are persecuted by the aristocrats. But when the revolution breaks out

20、, they also suffer the hopeless situation. So when they treat this period and the revolution, on the one hand, they hate the aristocrats and on the other hand, they are shamed to associate with the proletarians. They intend to seek a peaceful and harmonious life, which regards love as their tie in t

21、he revolution. This family embodies the authors humanitarianism very well.In A Tale of Two Cities, Lucie is the representative of the capitalistic sentimental figures. First, she links the whole family with love. Like Mrs. Defarge, their families are persecuted by the Marquis of Evremond and his bro

22、ther, so they have the similar sufferings. But the most different thing is that Lucie is not like Mrs. Defarge .She is the golden thread of love, she links the two hateful families together, which symbolizes the effects of dispelling hatred with love. At the beginning of the novel, after a long sepa

23、ration with her father, Lucie, the filial girl nearly fainted when she knows that her father is still alive. And when she sees her father, she feels very surprised and sad. She loves her father and wants to share his sorrow and sufferings. And her golden curly hair recalled her fathers memory. Her f

24、ather remembers her according to the golden hair, and when the white hair and golden hair mingled, this warms our readers and even lights her father, which symbolizes the freedom of her father. At last, Lucie uses her love to recall her fathers dead heart, and she takes care of her father in daily l

25、ife, makes her father forget his past life in the prison and resume his life, job, rest and happiness. She is also a virtuous wife. She arranges the housework well when they are in Paris. She loves her husband. When she knows her husband is in danger, she leaves England and goes to Paris to try her

26、best to rescue her husband, even kneels down to Mrs. Defarge to plead for her mercy. When Charles Darnay is arrested again, she goes to the prison and stands there everyday for two hours for her husband to see her. She is an angel .She is full of kindness in her heart. She is the golden thread of lo

27、ve that unites the whole family with love.Second, Lucie not only loves her family members, but also shows great love to other people. When she gives evidence on the court where Darnay is on trial for the first time, they are only strangers, but Lucie gives great love and sympathy to this stranger. H

28、er appearance fully proves her sympathy:His daughter had one of her hands drawn through his arm, as she sat by him, and the other pressed upon it. She had drawn closer to him, in her dread of the scene, and in her pity for the prison. Her forehead had been strikingly expressive of an engrossing terr

29、or and companion that saw nothing but the peril of the accused. This has been so very noticeable, so very powerful and naturally shown, that starers who had had no pity for were touched by her. (Charles Dickens, 1994:74)And when she has to say something detrimental to Charles Darnay, she even cries

30、out, although he is a stranger to her. And from these we can see how kind she is. She is magic. She has great influence on others. And the author also emphasizes this characteristic of Lucie on her attitude to Sydney Carton. Sydney Carton is a clerk but he is very gloomy in his heart. Lucie knows th

31、is and she is very surprised and saddened at this. Then she shows great love to him. When she married, she tells her husband to help him:“I think Charles, Poor Carton deserves more consideration and respect than you expressed for him, tonight.” “I would ask you, dearest. To be very generous with him

32、 always and very lenient on his faults when he is not by. I would ask you to believe that he has a heart he very very seldom reveals, and that there are wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding.” “My husband, it is so. I fear he is not to be reclaimed, there is scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now. But Im sure that he is capable of good things, gentle things. Even magnanimous things.”“And, O My dearest love! Remember how strong we are in our happiness and how weak he is in his mis