An Analysis Of The Dual Narrative Movement In Great Expectations

Great Expectations is the representative work of the British critical realistic writer Charles Dickens.It has a great significance in studying Dickens’ripe ethics in his later years.In this novel,utilizing his unique narrative technique,Dickens not only satisfies the horizons of expectations of common readers but also implies deeper-level ethical thoughts.However,most of the past researches restrict the scope of narrative and ethics in one dimension but neglect the complexity of this novel.This thesis is based on Shen Dan’s theory of the dual narrative movement and employs the method of overall-extended close reading,mainly analyzing the dual narrative movement in Great Expectations.The main body of this thesis falls into four parts.The first part analyzes the overt progression in the text,finding that overt progression is equal to plot development.It mainly tells the process of Pip’s initiation and his disillusionment.Readers’responses to the overt progression are different.Common readers focus on the love story between Pip and Estella.Some critics put their attention on criticizing Pip’s mammonism.These two responses are mutually contradictory and are inclined to be unidirectional.They can neither solve the contradictions in the text nor deeply investigate into Dickens’real ethical stance.The second part analyzes the covert progression in the text,finding that there are two streams of covert progressions in the text.The first stream is the overall irony in the text against many characters,which shows that the self-satisfying and self-deceiving hypocrisy will eventually lead individuals to the roads of alienation and degeneration.The second stream is dissolving degeneration and maintaining meaning by making choices.These two streams of covert progressions are mutually contradictory and mutually complementary.The third part investigates the relations of the overt progression and the covert progression and expounds textual functions of these two narrative movements.It finds that the overt progression and the covert progression are mutually contradictory in superficial meaning,but the latter remedies the former’s insufficiencies in the deeper-level meaning.The interplay between these two narrative movements generates dual event structure,dual focalization,dual reliability,and dual ethics in the text and enriches the connotations of the text.The fourth part analyzes the influential factors in the contextual facet,and finds the following factors:Dickens has a dual identity;Both Great Expectations and his early works show the significance of making choices;Dickens utilizes the method of esoteric writing,leaving the overt progression to common readers and critics,leaving the deeper-level meaning to the implied readers;Pip can be perceived as an epitome of ordinary young people in British society in the 19^th century;British culture in the Victorian period has its particularity and modernity.The dual narrative movement in Great Expectations solves the problem of inconsistency in the text and increases the depth of the text.It generates multifarious meanings,making readers with different horizons of expectations able to read their expected contents and leaving the deeper-level meaning to the implied readers.It reveals the complexity and the inclusiveness of Dickens’ethical consideration.This analysis has some referential value both in breaking through the old interpretive frame and in investigating textual and intertextual narrative patterns.