ABSTRACT:In the Mid-Victorian period in English history there were distinct class differences in its society. This came about because of a surge of industry in Britain. England in the 1830s was rapidly undergoing a transformation to an industrial nation. This led to huge amounts of poverty and social issues throughout the British society, which was dominated by class distinctions. Class distinctions gain great significance in Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
This paper focuses on the perspective of class distinction in Oliver Twist, analyzing the problems and conflicts among different classes under the Victorian class distinctions. Through the analysis, we may find that the Victorian England’s obsession with class distinctions is arbitrary, superficial and harmful to the lower classes and the unfortunate. And the idea that poor people is born dirty and evil is absurd and groundless. It is the hope of the author that the present study will bring some new light for better appreciation of this great work.
Key words: class distinctions; Dickens; Oliver Twist
摘要:在英国历史上，维多利亚中期社会上的等级区别异常明显。19世纪30年代，处于工业革命时期的英国正经历着一种快速转型，导致了贫穷等种种社会问题，更显示了受阶级差别观念影响下的畸形的社会。狄更斯的《雾都孤儿》是对《济贫法》下的社会的批判。阶级差别观念在其中具有非常重要的意义。
本文通过对作品中的阶级差别观念研究，来探讨《雾都孤儿》中存在的等级区别问题。
通过研究，我们可以发现维多利亚时期萦绕在人们心中的阶级差别观念对社会下层阶级和不幸的穷人非常不利，而且是非常肤浅和片面的。穷人天生恶劣这种偏见也显得荒谬和缺乏依据。希望本文能为《雾都孤儿》的读者对作品的理解提供一种新的视角和启发。
关键词：阶级差别观念；狄更斯；《雾都孤儿》
In this dissertation, the author focuses on analyzing how class distinctions are presented in Oliver Twist. To make specific analysis to the subject, the author approaches a close-reading of the novel which reveals the conflicts and problems among different classes under Victorian England’s obsession with class distinctions.
Through the analysis of class distinctions in Oliver Twist, it shows how superficial and harmful class structures really are. In this story we see that poverty and the low classes are deemed to be one and the same thing. The poor are on the bottom rung of society while the working class or the wealthy appear on various rungs up the ladder. The lower classes have no right to speak for themselves, being treated as silent and invisible. They come across bias in various aspects of life because of class distinctions.
To summarize, Oliver Twist establishes the milieu of a stratified society in which finances govern social behaviour and in which the class system is reflected in the legal system through the denial of access to justice to those who are unable to afford it. The Victorian lower classes lead a miserable life under class distinctions.
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