An Interpretation Of Dickens's Understanding Of City As Reflected In His Depiction Of The 19^th Century London

After the Shanghai Expo 2010, urbanization has got the global attention again. City is the place where culture is bred, and culture is the life of city. American thinker in city planning Lewis Mumford claims that the basic function of city is the accumulation and creation of culture and to educate people with the inherited culture. The composition of city culture determines the social system and human individuals.Britain in the Victorian Age is the most powerful industrial nation in the world, and its capacity in industrial production is more than the total production in the world. Urbanization is an important symbol for the industrial society, and the industrial development changes the way people live and think. Along with the wealth brought by urbanization, many social problems also turn up, such as population explosion, housing shortage, environment pollution, degradation of morality, and cold human relationship. Living in London of 19th century, Dickens gives much attention to city. London is always the background in his novels, and his novel is full of urban features. As a writer with responsibility and conscience, Dickens deeply concerns about the living status of the masses of the people and the problems in the city brought by industrialization. This paper is going to investigate from the perspective of city culture, associated with Dickens's novels. His basic writing style is dark. From the dirty scenery description to the disadvantages of the management system like education, law and prison, and to the mercenary and cold human relations, Dickens holds negative attitude and dislikes city as a whole. He stresses on the complicity and disorder of the city, and attacks on the disadvantages of the management system and the environment pollution. But he does not oppose the positive side of the industry. Besides, he advocates humanitarianism and universal love.