The Insurmountable Ideological Barrier Of The Middle Class

The nineteenth century for Britain is the most splendid age for novels. A number oftalented novelists such as Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Emily Bront?,George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, etc, presented us with many classical works. Novelists in thatage shared a common feature that they paid much attention to the social moral function ofnovels. They arranged many elopement plots in their writing. Based on a close reading of thenovels, this thesis adopts the Marxist social ideological criticism method to make a profoundanalysis of the new features possessed by the"elopement"in the nineteenth-century novels. Inthis way, this thesis will argue in the nineteenth century with dramatic changes, the middleclass ideology forms a dominant cultural context in which the intervention of authorialideology and aesthetic ideology to general ideology is relatively weak. Therefore the tragicending of the"elopement"in the British novels of the nineteenth century is inevitable.This thesis consists of three chapters with one introduction and a conclusion.The introduction first presents a brief introduction to the British novels of the nineteenthcentury with"elopement plot"and scans the previous studies home and abroad. Based on this,it proposes the central argument of the thesis.Chapter One provides the theoretical frame for the thesis. Eagleton's literary andideological thoughts lay a necessary theoretical foundation for the thesis.Chapter Two makes an analysis of the new features of the elopement in British novels ofthe nineteenth century by a close reading. The elopement plot turns up several new trends inform, cause, and result. It totally loses its romantic trait and its revolutionary halo, as waspraised before.Chapter Three interprets this phenomenon in a social ideological context and digs out thereason for the new trends of the elopement of British novels in the nineteenth century.The conclusion displays the argument of the thesis. The"elopement"of British novels inthe nineteenth century possesses the new features tinted by the age, i.e. diversified forms, antiromanticismcause, and tragic ending. It argues that this new trend is closely related to thenineteenth century ideology. With the dominant middle class ideology, it is hardly possible forthe authors to surmount the middle class ideological barrier. Therefore the tragic ending isinevitable.