A Study Of The Relation Of The Middle Class Characters' Class Status And Their Moral Values In Dickens' Novels Of The First And Second Literary Periods

Charles Dickens is one of the greatest novelists in Victorian England. Since the researching achievements of Dickens and his works are abundant at home and abroad, this thesis tries to analyze from a new angle, that is, the middle class characters' moral values and their class status in Dickens' novels of the first and second literary periods, striving to be a kind of valuable contribution.In order to make the argument sufficient, this thesis chooses six novels to start, including Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, of the first literary period, and Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son and David Copperfield of the second literary period.The Introduction introduces the recent research on Dickens and his first and second literary works at home and abroad from two aspects, research subjects and research angles.In Chapter One, this thesis proposes the concept of the Victorian middle class on the basis of Marxist's theory as well as the moral values of the middle class in the Victorian Age.Chapter Two and Chapter Three select a series of middle class members from the first and second literary periods' novels according to the definition in Chapter One, and meanwhile discuss the unity and disunity of the middle class characters' moral values and their class status, such as moral characters, immoral characters, middle members and hypocrites.Conclusion puts forward that, as a member of the Victorian middle class, Dickens highly advocates and maintains the middle class' moral values in his novels. By contrasting characters moral values and their class status in the two periods' novels, this thesis finds that Dickens' understanding of the middle class moral values is gradually deepened.