The Interpretation Of Great Expectations From The Structuralist Point Of View

The Victorian novelist Charles John Huffam Dickens(1812-1870) is renowned to his countrymen and the study of his novels has been in full swing in past decades. As the representative figure of fiction writing in his age, even in the modern times, he created characters of varying personalities and conceived complicated plots by which characters are linked together. His strong sense of justice and penetrating satire on social evils attract readers and critics to put weight on his ideological contents. Dickens has made great achievements in language use and narrative techniques. Conventionally, Great Expectations, a representative work of his, is studied from two approaches: the thematic approach aimed to reveal the thematic concerns of the book, and psychological approach, namely the study of spiritual growth of the chief character. This paper intends to analyze the oppositional features reflected in the text in the light of Structural Semantics represented by literary structuralist Algirdas J. Greimas; and also to interpret the behavioral features in the light of Narrative Grammar represented by Tzevetan Todorov, with an aim to benefit the study and the appreciation of literary classics.The thesis consists of five parts.Chapter One is an introduction to Dickens, the brief summary of Great Expectations and description of relevant studies. Great Expectations is classified as a book of the times. Schools of criticism seek its meaning against historical background. The structuralist literary criticism serves not only as the description of a particular work but the establishment of a theory of the structure, which is the foundation of human thoughts as well as literary works.Chapter Two provides theoretical survey of Structuralism. Structuralists dedicate their efforts to the understanding of fundamental structures that underlie human experience and behavior. Literature offers the manifestation of Structuralism in action. There exists, in the deep structure, narrative grammar from which individual stories derive according to Algirdas J.Greimas and Tzevetan Todorov. Both of them concentrate on the unity of content and form. Separately they emphasize the semantic and syntactic aspects of narrative analysis. The combination of the two contributes to form the narrative and complete the exploration of the grammar.Binary opposition functions as the fundamental concept of Structuralism. Greimas believes that the oppositional structure, the structure of binary oppositions, shapes our language and the narratives through which our experience is articulated. Greimas' research was carried out with the ultimate goal of establishing basic plot model while Todorov asserts that the text can be seen as a sort of sentence structure, and he introduced the notions, propositions and sequences to describe units of structure. Thus characters, their attributes and actions can be seen as nouns, adjectives and verbs. All the actions in the novel can be examined to explore the common underlying pattern structuring them.Chapter Three is the narrative analysis of Great Expectations with binary opposition that serves as structure pattern of the fiction, because the work cannot be analyzed in isolation since binary oppositions also shape the experience of the novelist. Dickens's life experience is a blend of romance and realism, the duality in his personality is an underlying structure in the text. Great Expectations is the embodiment of binary oppositions which underlie its theme, setting, characters and the meaning of symbols. Ideality and reality in theme; ideal land and realistic world in setting; double identities in characters; connotation and denotation in symbols—the features in the deep structure of the novel can be illustrated by these opposed pairs.Chapter Four attempts to seek the narrative pattern presented in Great Expectations. The action of main characters is examined: Pip, the hero, expects high social status; Estella seeks for wealth and ego gratification; Miss Havisham, the revenge; Magwitch, the fulfillment of mission to repay the good and to revenge the evil. The minor characters also have individual pursuits. Though each one has his or her particular object, the common quality can be summarized as a model: Equilibrium—Disequilibrium—New Equilibrium. Characters may have their initial balance of mind, but misled to imbalance, eventually they retain the peace of mind through repentance or self-scrutiny. Love, wealth and other objects they are expecting can be summed up as an ideality.Chapter Five is the conclusion of the thesis. Great Expectations was underlied with binary oppositions in deep structure. The pattern of actions structures the narrative of each character; the pattern addresses questions about literary meaning and its relation to human life. Pip's life experience unites him symbolically with the overall lot of humankind, hence universal significance can be achieved, and the unfulfilled expectation for the better is the intrinsic part of human situation, common to all and universal. Though there are shortcomings in Structuralism itself and it encounters many unfavorable criticisms, Structuralism functions as an illuminating theory and offers us a fresh perspective in reading. Structuralism opens a window through which we can appreciate the scenery from a unorthodox perspective.