Abstract

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential novelists in the Victorian era and enjoys great fame and popularity among fellow writers and readers. Honored as the “summit of British fiction,” he has created a lot of great novels and extremely rich lifelike characters. Works of Dickens, who is a representative of critical realism, are considered to be serious, whereas some scholars have perceived the romantic fairy tale colour in his works. This paper deals with the fairy tale colour of characterization in Dickens’s later work Hard Times, aiming to explore the reason for his inner fairy-tale world in this realistic work of pessimistic literary period. To achieve this purpose, the author analyzes it from five parts. The first part is the Introduction, which mainly introduces Dickens and the literature review. The second part explores briefly the connotation and distinctive elements of the fairy tale, and its connection with the critical realism writer Dickens. The third part includes two chapters. Chapter one makes an analysis from the perspective of characters’ image, and some characters symbolize typical fairy-tale characterizations. Chapter two mainly explores the fairy-tale fate of characters, for the frequent appearance of marvelous coincidence that leads the characters to have a fairy-tale ending. The fourth part explores what results in Dicken’s fairy tale complex. The last part is conclusion. The fairy tale colour of characters in Hard Times does not mean a failure in this serious work, but to a degree enhances its satire. Through analysis, this paper will open up a new way for readers to interpret Charles Dickens, finding the romantic fairy tale complex in his inner heart.

Keywords: fairy tale; Hard Times; Charles Dickens; characters; fantasy

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 General Introduction of Dickens-1

1.2 Literature Review-2

1.3 Significance of the Thesis-3

2. Charles Dickens and the Fairy Tale-4

2.1 The Connotation of the Fairy Tale-4

2.2 The Features of the Fairy Tale-4

2.3 Dickens’s Connection with the Fairy Tale-5

3. Fairy Tale Colour of Characters in Hard Times-7

3.1 The Fairy-tale Way of Sculpturing Characters-7

3.1.1 Representatives of Typical Fairy-tale Characters-7

3.1.2 Fairy-tale Portrayal of Physical Appearance – Sharp Contrasts-8

3.2 The Fate of Characters-9

3.2.1 The Frequent Appearance of Fairy-tale-type Coincidence-9

3.2.2 The Fairy-tale Endings in Hard Times-10

4. Factors that Influence Dickens to Bestow Fairy Tale Colour on Characters-12

4.1 The Impact of Dickens’s Own Life Experience-12

4.2 The Requirement of the Victorian Era-12

5. Conclusion-14

References-15