The battle of good and evil in literature of the XIX century

Familiarity with the peculiarities of the influence of Chartism, social change and political instability in the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. General characteristics of the universal themes of good versus evil in English literature.
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Introduction

chartism political english literature

Despite the pedants and the precious among the aesthetes, literature is either profoundly moral in its implications, or it is mere trivial entertainment and the secret of its power to express and even dominate whole ages must remain a mystery.

The values of books cannot be understood unless set in a framework of good and evil in life; if our experiences themselves cannot be felt as important, neither can the words which reflect them.

For our purposes, «good» will be understood as a generic term covering all elements which make for the free growth of personality; «evil» those which prevent such growth.

The boundaries of good and evil were once neatly and thoroughly drawn by religious doctrines, and the questioning of such doctrines has been accompanied by deterioration and relativism of standards which, for many, has seemed to make all criticism impossible; the skeptic today echoes Hamlet: «Neither is either good or bad but thinking makes it so».

In this term-paper, we will compare and contrast the themes of good and evil in different works of Charles Dickens and other authors. Through fighting for what they believe in, these individuals achieved their goals for society to change, for the better.

Charles Dickens once wrote, «It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only».

Charles Dickens' works highly regarded him as a social reformer with the power to influence society. During the Victorian Period, Charles Dickens' work played a major role in how the poor class, the criminal underworld, and the industrial revolution were viewed. With the help of Charles Dickens, the poor class was viewed in a different way during the XIX century.

Analyzing more deeply Charles Dickens' Great expectations we will be able to see how there can be both good and evil in most people and that even a good person will do evil things when exposed to evil. The setting can tell many characteristics about the character that lives within. Charles Dickens creates settings that are like subtle characters. Though not named, these «characters» have a big impact on the story.

The object-matter of the research is Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations.

The subject-matter of the work is the examination of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations through the prism of good and evil.

The aim of the term paper is to show the impact of Chartism, social transformations and political instability on Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations.

In order to achieve the aim we have to solve the following objectives:

Ш to emphasize the impact of constant limbo between good and evil on English literature;

Ш to explore the issues of good and evil and their display through Chartist movement in the works of English authors of the XIX century;

Ш to retrace Dickens's unique place in social novels and to observe his representations of good and evil in different characters;

Ш to investigate Dickens's Great Expectations as a sample of evil power of money;

Ш to make analysis of the novel Great Expectations and find out how the themes of good and evil are represented in it.

The methods used are the analysis of critical sources about good and evil manifestations in social life and literature, the analysis of the authors' works, viewpoints, social positions and contributions into literature.

Theoretical value of this term paper is that it investigates the influence of the themes of good and evil on English literature in the beginning of the XIX century and their impact on Charles Dickens's ideology and works.

1. The battle of good and evil in literature of the xix century

1.1 Universal themes of good versus evil in English literature

Since the dawn of time, the forces of evil have always tried to gain an upper hand over the forces of good. The battles between these two forces have transcended time in both different forms and in different places. Every culture since the birth of man has background stories of creation and the battles that are waged between the two forces of light and dark.

Leaving in the aftermath, stories and legends are passed down from generation to generation through the vast cultures and civilizations. Beginning with the use of oral traditions that took these stories and the use of spoken word to both inform and entertain the people of a given society. These tales also had another purpose, which was to remind people of the evils that were around them. Such stories fed on the fears of the people and the uncertainty of the world around them.

Although the stories themselves may differ considerably from region to region, the basic underlying theme has always been identical. With the coming into being of written word, these stories could now be put down for people to read and serve as a reminder of their folklore. We have been lucky in the fact that over the last few hundred years, we have recovered many works from all over the world, dating back through years that had been long forgotten to many of us. In a great many of these works we have come into contact with many tales of heroism and the themes of fight between good and evil.

Readers may determine a theme as an idea, point of view, or perception, embodied and expanded upon in a work. When the writers convey messages of good and evil, they may choose to use symbols of light and dark, innocence and malice, or general opposites. Webster's dictionary defines «good» as virtue, validity, and the possession of desirable or positive qualities; while on those who represent «evil» remain morally wrong or bad, harmful, malicious, and absent of good.

By the time literature appears in the development of a culture, the society comes to share a whole system of stereotypes and archetypes. Often these works reflect the societies in which the authors live or experience. Myths, legends, and folk tales lie at the beginning of literature, while their plots, situations, and allegorical judgments of life repraesent a consistent source of literary inspiration.

First of all, we would like to describe the classical example of the struggle between good and evil - the epic poem Beowulf. The Old English epic Beowulf may have been written during the first half of the eighth century, or it may have been composed at about the year 1000, which is the date of the manuscript.

Lots of words in Beowulf define not only their equivalence to things, but also to one another. A symbol stands for something else or remains a sign to represent something else.There are many symbols that represent good in Beowulf. Beowulf himself is a symbol of good in this epic. Beowulf is tamed and civilized which are the characteristics of goodness and purity. Beowulf is pure and shows this before his battle when he removes his armor, and vows not to use a weapon to defeat Grendel. Defeating Grendel, he shows that man, without armor and weapons, can defeat evil in any form including that of his enemy Grendel. This serves as a symbol of Beowulf's Goodness.

Another symbol of goodness is light. Light symbolizes day and rejoicing. When light, such as the sun and moon, are showing it gives people a sense of comfort and they don't seem to be scared of daylight. In connection with light, words like shining and gleaming also prove to show goodness in this epic. Human civilization, in the form of heroic warriors, is often associated with light: the halls are illuminated with rejoicing and treasure.

Just like light symbolizes good, darkness symbolizes evil in Beowulf. Grendel's lair is dark and gray, and he only hunts at night, in darkness. Darkness and night is associated with evil and Grendel's bloody attacks. Hrothgar's warriors face the darkness and the evil, but when the light of day comes, only their blood is there. This shows that Grendel, the monster whose name strikes terror to the people of Herot, is also a symbol of evil.

Another monster associated with evil was the dragon. In the end Beowulf had to fight one last battle and it was with this dragon. The dragon blew breaths of fire upon Beowulf as Beowulf was trying to shelter himself with his shield. But as his shield was melting, the dragon injected poison into Beowulf s neck, which injected him with poison, thus killing Beowulf. So the last battle came down to Good, which was Beowulf, versus Evil, which was the dragon.

The theme of good versus evil is portrayed throughout the entire epic. In the beginning there was Herot, which was good, and Grendel, which was evil. When Grendel killed most of the warriors in Herot, there was little good left. But when Beowulf came to Herot there was more...