A Study Of Charles Dickens's Fairy-tale Complex From The Features Of His Two Typical Works Of The Third Literary Period

Charles Dickens, the representative of the 19th century British novelists, is equally famous as Shakespeare. Honored as the"summit of British fiction", he has created fourteen novels and a large number of short stories in his lifetime. As the perfect union of his ideology and artistic ideas, and because of the vivid portrayal of the typical characters, his works has won great popularities among the common readers as well as the critics from 19th century till now. The spirit of realism and the moral values of Dickens's works have always been the center of the academic research, and much of the research work both at home and abroad is focused on these aspects. With the development of the theoretic study of art and literature, people's understanding of Dickens's works is no longer confined solely from the perspective of social politics. Many critics have begun to explore Dickens from the perspectives of psychology, feminism and so on. It is discovered that though the narrators of Dickens's novels are different, nearly all his works have adopted the children's angle of view to develop the plot. Such a unique way of adopting children's psychology in creation has made his works display a unique style, the fairy-tale mode of his novels. This thesis has explored Dickens's special literary features from the research on the fairy-tale mode displayed in his works, then come to a conclusion that the fairy-tale mode is not only one of the essential features of Dickens's novels, but also the manifestation of the fairy-tale complex in Dickens's inner heart. Dickens has the indissoluble bond with fairy tales.The thesis starts with the analysis of Hard Times and The Magic Fish Bone, both of them appeared in Dickens's later literary period. The main body of the thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter 1 The Connotation of the Name of Fairy Tales and Its Features. This chapter mainly discusses the different definitions of"fairy tales", pointing out that fairy tales are frequently mistaken as the"infant literature". To Tolkien, fairy tales should not be simply considered as children's literature, and he believe that those fairy tales that are out of touch with adult literature and art are valueless. The distinctive features of fairy tales are the fantasy with magic power and the sense of love. Fairy tales have the functions of fantasy, escape and consolation, thus fairy tales are the fittest literary genre that could efficiently convey people's emotions.Chapter 2 A New Approach to Hard Times: the Underlying Application of the Fairy-tale Mode. In this part, the previous studies on Hard Times have been analyzed. Many critics have considered Hard Times as the representative of Dickens's critical realism works. This thesis has explored Hard Times from an innovative angle, i.e. the interpretation of the fairy-tale mode in Hard Times. Three aspects of the fairy-tale mode of Hard Times have been analyzed in the thesis: the fairy-tale characterization, the Fairy-tale contrasts and the happy ending of Hard Times, and then analyzed the reasons for the underlying fairy-tale mode of Hard Times. The research shows that the rising of children's literature in 19th century, the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution, the life experiences of Dickens's childhood and Dickens's fairy-tale complex, i.e. his unique creative psychology with child characteristic have virtually made him adopt the fairy-tale mode to Hard Times. It is proper to say that the underlying fairy-tale mode of Hard Times is the manifestation of Dickens's fairy-tale complex.Chapter 3 The Magic Fish Bone: Dickens's Artistic Creation of the Traditional Fairy Tale. The Magic Fish Bone was also created in Dickens's later literary period, which is a real fairy tale. The king and the princess, which are the symbols of the typical fairy-tale characterization, have appeared in order to give the figures vague social status. In this story also appeared the typical scene of fairy tales—it is the fairy who has brought changes to the figures, which is reasonable in fairy tales. That is to say, the contradictions which are unable to solve in the story will be finally solved by the external force, i.e. the magic power of the fairy. Therefore, The Magic Fish Bone is the direct manifestation of Dickens's fairy-tale complex and his creative psychology.Chapter 4 Charles Dickens's Indissoluble Bond with Fairy Tales: an Extended Discussion of the Fairy-tale Mode in Dickens's Other Works. This part has combined the factors of the ideal state of the fairy-tale characters, the adoption of fairy-tale plot and creation techniques and the frequent appearances of fairy-tale-type magic and coincidence to prove that nearly all Dickens's works have appeared a kind of fairy-tale mode to some extent, and this has strengthened the fact that Dickens has formed the indissoluble bond with fairy tales. Dickens's fairy-tale complex has made him adopted the fairy-tale mode to his novels consciously or unconsciously, the fairy-tale mode is not only one of the essential features of Dickens's novels, but also the manifestation of the fairy-tale complex in Dickens's inner heart. Dickens has the indissoluble bond with fairy tales.