Vinh university foreign languages Department ===    === Picture of the victorian society in the two novels “oliver twist” and “vanity fair” (b ø c t r a n h x · h é i a n h t h ê i k × v ic t o r ia q u a h a i t ¸ c p h ẩ m ô l iv t u y x t ” v µ “h é i c h ỵ p h ï h o a ”) S u m m a r y o f t h e G r a d u a t io n t h e s is F ie l d : l it e r a t u r e Supervisor : TrÇn Ngäc T ëng, M.A Student Class : : Vâ ThÞ Doan 46A1 - English Vinh, May 2009 TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgement Table of content PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Justification of the Thesis .1 Aims and Objectives of the Thesis .1 Scope of the Thesis .2 Method of the Thesis Design of the Thesis PART II: CONTENT .3 Chapter 1: Back ground 1.1 Historical Events of England in Victorian Ages 1.1.1 The Industrial Revolution 1.1.2 The Political Reforms 1.1.3 The Free Trade Campaign .6 1.1.4 The New Poor Law and the Appearance of the Workhouses 1.1.5 The Chartism 1.2 Critical Realism - a new trend in literature .9 1.2.1 What is the Critical Realism? 1.2.2.English CriticalRealism……………………………………………………… 10 Chapter 2: An introduction to “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens and “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray 13 2.1 An Introduction to “Oliver Twist” 13 2.1.1 The author- Charles Dickens 13 2.1.2 The work- “Oliver Twist” .17 2.1.2.1 The main characters 17 2.1.2.2 The plot overview .18 2.2 An Introduction to “Vanity Fair” .19 2.2.1 The author -William Makepeace Thackeray 19 2.2.2 The work- Vanity Fair 22 CHAPTER 3: PICTURE OF the Victorian SOCIETY in the two novels “OLIVER TWIST” AND “VANITY FAIR” 28 3.1 The tragic plight of the poor and their good nature in cruel world 28 3.1.1 The tragic plight of the poor 28 3.1 Good nature in cruel world 35 3.2 The luxurious life of the upper and middle class and their moral degeneration 39 3.2.1 The luxurious life of the upper and the middles class 39 3.2.2 Moral degeneration in the luxurious life 42 3.3 Social class distinction and money worship - the most burning problems in the Victorian society .47 3.3.1 Social class distinction 47 3.3.1.1 British social class structure 47 3.3.1.2 Social status as a measure of people’s value .48 3.3.1.3 Pursuit of higher social position 51 3.3.2 Money worship 54 3.3.2.2 Money was a base to measure people’s value 54 3.3.2.2 Relationship among people were destroyed by the supreme power of money 56 Part iii: conclusion 61 References .63 PART I: INTRODUCTION Justification of the Thesis In English literary history, the Victorian period (1832-1900) was the golden age of English novels Many writers appeared and became unforgettable in readers’ minds of every generation Being a passionate reader of English novels, the author was deeply attracted by the great observing power and describing talent of the realistic writers in this period, especially Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray Although each of the two authors had their distinguish style and their own favorite themes, their simultaneous appearance in literature gave the readers the over-all picture of English 19th century society which was prosperous from outside but there were a lot of problems from inside For the author of this thesis, the greatest function of critical realism literature is reflecting reality Since realistic literature is the truthful mirror of life, realistic value is the author’s biggest concern when she studies literary novels “Oliver Twist” of Dickens and “Vanity Fair” of Thackeray are two realistic novels the author loves most because through these novels the author can come back to one of the most outstanding periods in history of Britain to witness the burning social problems happening at that time In addition, reading “Oliver Twist” and “Vanity Fair”, the author is really moved by the two writers’ humanity By depicting the panorama of every day life, they skillfully used their steely pens to forcefully attack the social evils and uphold the good nature of human beings For the reasons above, the author decided to choose the topic: “The Picture of the Victorian Society in the two novels “Oliver Twist” and “Vanity Fair”” for the graduation thesis Aims and Objectives of the Thesis a Aims of the thesis - To study the reality happening in the 19th century English society through “Oliver Twist” and “Vanity Fair” b Objectives of the thesis Analyze two novels to understand clearly: - Plight of the poor under inhumane society - The luxurious but wicked life of the upper and middle class who were whirling in the money and social ambition storm - Social distinction and money worship as the most burning social problems Scope of the Thesis Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray were two greatest realistic novelists who were famous for a great deal of interesting novels However, two masterpieces “Oliver Twist” and “Vanity Fair” were the most beloved There are a lot of interesting things to study in these two novels but because of limited time and limited scale, the author only focuses on the most outstanding issue: the reality of Victorian society Method of the Thesis To complete this thesis, we have used the following methods: - collective method - analysis method - general method - contrastive method Design of the Thesis These papers include three main parts: In part I, the author would like to refer to the reasons, aims, objectives, scope and the method of studying the thesis Part II is divided into three chapters Chapter is the background knowledge of the historical events of England in Victorian Age as well as the knowledge of the Critical Realism Chapter is an introduction to the two novels “Oliver Twist” and “Vanity Fair” Chapter is the main content of this thesis, which deals with the reality happening in English 19th century society Part III is the conclusion and suggestion for further study PART II: CONTENT Chapter 1: Back ground 1.1 Historical Events of England in Victorian Ages 1.1.1 The Industrial Revolution The industrial revolution was initiated in Britain in the second half of the 18th century and then spread out to the world At this time, many modern machines were invented and applied to production As a result, more and more industrial products were produced in Britain and appeared widely in every corner of the world However, “the industrial revolution was no mere sequence of changes in industrial techniques and production but a social revolution with social causes as well as profound social effects” (Harold, “The Origin of Modern English Society”) In fact, the industrial revolution changed the face of English society absolutely One of the most obvious changes was that many new manufacturing towns and cities grew dramatically and million people from the countryside rushed to the industrial zones with the hope of employment By 1850, in the crowded and grim cities, there lived millions of British people The changes brought to by the industrial revolution had both good and bad effects on English society With the economic development, England became one of the most powerful and prosperous nations in the world English men owned such a luxurious life that everyone in the other countries wished for However, the economic development only benefited the upper and middle classes, not the lower one Many workers felt into unemployment because hand labors were substituted by machines in most factories Therefore, they could not support themselves and had to live in the workhouses which became an obsession for most of the paupers Child labor became the most serious social problem resulting from the industrial revolution This problem first began when children, many below the age of 10, were employed by factories and mines The children were forced to work long hours under dangerous and unhealthy conditions, and their wages were very little Thousands of children under ten, some as young as five, were employed by textile factories and mines, and forced to work in hazardous conditions, with little pay and sometimes for up to 16 hours a day Especially in the workhouses, and in apprenticeship, children were abused cruelly by the masters who always thought that they had the right to decide children’s fates As a result of bad effect of child labor abuse on the health and welfare of children, social reforming writers began to condemn child labor practices The most effective attack on the evils of child labor may have come from Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist (1837-1839) Because of the magic power of the industrial revolution, everything was altered, from the family and social relationship to the social class structure In English society, there was a big gap between the rich and the poor The conflict between the classes and even in each class itself began to grow Money and social position came to throne People could everything, regardless of love, honor and personality, to achieve wealth and social position In fact, almost human values were seriously destroyed during the period of industrial revolution For this reason, the moral degeneration became one of the most serious problems at that time “Literature is the mirror of the reality” so all of these problems were reflected truthfully in the contemporary works, especially in two famous novels: “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens and “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray In fact, there are many differences between these two realistic novels Dickens, in “Oliver Twist”, showed much attention to the misery and the plight of the lower class, particularly the orphan children Reading “Oliver Twist”, readers are moved to tears because of the images of poverty, starvation, and mistreatment of the powerful to poor children In the mean time, Thackeray in “Vanity Fair”- originally named “Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society”- gave a vivid picture of the luxurious but wicked life of the upper class and their followers in the middle one In “Vanity Fair”, readers can witness a splendid London where the rich and the powerful are singing, dancing, eating, drinking and even cheating, betraying and swearing in the through-night and overabundant parties For everyone living in “Vanity Fair”, vanity became the desire and the individual seeks; hypocrisy and snobbishness became the manner of fashionable life In spite of those above differences, if we put the two novels of two great realistic authors together, we will have a day-to-day portrayal of English society under the period of Industrial Revolution 1.1.2 The Political Reforms By the end of 18th century England was suffered from hardship, unrest and injustice The English population at this time was eight millions but only one hundred and sixty thousand had the right to vote Those one hundred and sixty thousand people were the “crème of the society” They did not have to work but enjoyed a rich, happy life and held all the political authority In contrast, the industrial bourgeoisies were rich; they had no chances to take part in the parliament Along with these statements, the success of the American and French revolution had a deep influence on England The words “all men are created equal” awakened all people there Consequently, the need for democratic reform became irresistible and the industrial bourgeoisies started the activities demanding for voting reform These activities attracted a lot of workers as well because they themselves also wanted to change their political position and determined themselves in society As a result of these outbursts, the government had to pass the reform act in the middle of 1832 It not only allowed the industrial centers to nominate their representatives to parliament but also reduced the power of upper class land owners The first reform act happened peacefully, marked the emergence of the middle class in English political life After the first reform act, the industrial bourgeoisies persuaded the parliament to pass a series of factory acts which restricted child labor and limited hours of working In 1867, the second reform act was passed, marking another progress in democratic improvement This reform act gave the voting right to all members of the working class, except for the agricultural labors However, the activities demanding further voting did not stopped During Grad stone’s second ministry, 1880-1885, the third reform act was signed As a result, most of the males in rural and urban areas could vote Those three reform acts gave voting rights to middle class, then urban and rural votes in the country Thank to these acts people could raise their voice to protect their privileges as well as their social positions A new historical page was opened in Great Britain 1.1.3 The Free Trade Campaign Between 1815 and 1846, the Corn Laws which kept the prices of corn at high level were enacted in England The purpose of these laws was to protect English farmers from cheap foreign grain imports following the end of the Napoleonic wars The term “corn” referred not only “vegetable corn” but all kinds of grains The first of the Corn Laws were introduced when the wars between England and France ended in 1815 It stated that no foreign corn would be imported in to England until the domestic corn reached a price of eighty shillings per quarter This resulted in the decreasing import and rising price The Corn Laws only gave benefit to the landholders who owned the majority of profitable farm land, not to the workers On the contrary, the working class suffered a lot from these laws Since the corn prices were high, the workers had to spend the bulk of their income just to survive In addition, when the workers had no income left over for the other purchases, they could not afford manufactured goods so many factory owners also suffered and had to lay off the workers The sufferings that the Corn Laws caused resulted in the first major reform of the Corn Laws which happened in 1828 However, the effect of this reform was negligible Along with the restriction on trade put by the Corn Laws, the constant bad harvests, the Hungry Forties, the soaring price of bread made the tension rise day by day in England As a result of the extreme tension, a movement to repeal the Corn Laws was put up and in 1846 the Corn Laws were abrogated After the withdrawal of the Corn Laws, the policies of free trade were introduced in England and this nation began to move towards the greater prosperity that characterized the later phases of the Victorian Ages 1.1.4 The New Poor Law and the Appearance of the Workhouses In 1834, the Poor Law Amendment was acted It introduced a new system of poor relief, covering the whole of England This new system was based on a new administrative area called the Poor Law Union, which required operating the workhouses as the principal channel for providing relief On theory, the workhouse was a moral place where the poor who could not support themselves worked and in turn were housed and fed However, in fact, it was operated on the principle that poverty was the result of laziness and idleness and that the dreadful living and working conditions would inspire the poor to better their own lives If an able-bodied man entered the workhouse, his whole family had to enter with him The conditions inside the workhouses were more terrific than those of 10 ... evils and uphold the good nature of human beings For the reasons above, the author decided to choose the topic: ? ?The Picture of the Victorian Society in the two novels ? ?Oliver Twist? ?? and ? ?Vanity Fair? ??”... Vanity Fair 22 CHAPTER 3: PICTURE OF the Victorian SOCIETY in the two novels ? ?OLIVER TWIST? ?? AND ? ?VANITY FAIR? ?? 28 3.1 The tragic plight of the poor and their good nature in cruel... singing, dancing, eating, drinking and even cheating, betraying and swearing in the through-night and overabundant parties For everyone living in ? ?Vanity Fair? ??, vanity became the desire and the