Industrial Civilization In Charles Dickens' Novel

In the time of Charles Dickens, the England society had beenexperiencing the great changes in politics and economy. As the result of thedevelopment of industry, the material wealth rose. Meanwhile, the originalsocial structure, the culture, and the ethics morals were destroyedthoroughly. Along with the development of industrial civilization, thedarkness and evil of capitalist society presented themselves day by day, therich and the poor were polarized, and the class contradiction was incisive.This article will excavate the industrial civilization in the Dickens'novel from the society, the material and consciousness, will analyzespecifically the character images as well as the representative images whichwere produced in the industrial civilization, finally pointed out that hecriticized the society from the prospective of humanitarianism, andmanifested his thought of society-improving in the novel.The first chapter analyzes the level of the industrial civilization, thematerial and consciousness in the Dickens' novel. The England socialstructure had the fierce changes, the social relations also correspondinglychanged. The basic contradiction of the capitalist society also performed inthe Dickens novel. In the material level, it had displayed the huge gapbetween the poor and the rich; Moreover, the Industrial Revolution had cutoff the harmonious relations between human and the nature, the humanunder the industrialization disassimilated. In consciousness level, there werea lot of people in his novel under the capitalist economy tide corroded by the money, in a sense, they had manifested the consciousness characteristicin industrial civilization.The second chapter mainly analyses the rising Bourgeoisie,represented by Dombey, the working class, taken Stephen as arepresentative, as well as a series of social parasite——swindler whomultiplied under the industrial civilization background. They alldemonstrated Dickens models in industrial civilization.The third chapter mainly analyzes the three images of hospice, therailroad and the city. They all embodied the social, material andconsciousness stratification in the Dickens novel. He took an affirmativeattitude toward the fruits of industry which conformed to his ideals ofmoral and the humanitarianism, accordingly, he suspected or the denied thefruits of industry which didn' t conform.The last chapter points out that humanitarianism as an important clue inhis industrial civilization description. With the humanitarianism, Dickenscriticized the contrast between the rich and poor, the class contradictions,and the value idea of Bourgeoisie. But Dickens exposed the dark side in thesocial system, the idea was constructive improvement finally, he hoped thatit can get rid of the plight originated from the industrial civilization.