Dickens’s Characterisation of Children in Oliver Twisti: An Empty Rhetoric?
Journal Title: International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation - Year 2018, Vol 1, Issue 4
Abstract
This article discusses Dickens’s characterisation of children with the aim of showing whether the rhetoric he uses for that purpose is empty or not. This is carried out through an analysis of Oliver Twist, his first eponymous novel with a child hero featuring the unhappy parish children. This unhappy childhood, caught up in the Victorian workhouse system brought about by the Industrial Revolution, could not leave Dickens cold. On the contrary, that provoked strong reactions through his career both as a public orator and prose writer. The question that goes with this topic being not asked rhetorically, it is noteworthy that as a public orator and prose writer, Dickens inescapably relied on rhetorical devices to characterise those children. The experience of such a childhood by Dickens himself drove him to its recreation through a hyperbolic language and style as pinpointed in the development of this study. Indeed, to achieve its objective as regards the shallowness or depth of Dickens’s characterisation of children, this analysis is based on the historical and formalistic approaches, thereby resulting in the assessment of Dickens as a writer of solid rhetoric. The analysis is divided into two parts: Dickens’s recreation of childhood experiences, and Dickens’s hyperbolic portrayal of children. The first part is thus devoted to the link between the recreation of the author’s own childhood and of his characters; the second, to the rhetorical devices the author uses to portray his child characters. If in the first part the emphasis is laid on the biographical background of Little Oliver, in the second, it is on the conception of hyperbole, which is the apple of discord between this analysis and the previous ones.
Authors and Affiliations
Armel MBON
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP476817
- DOI -
- Views 202
- Downloads 0
The Chivalric Tradition in Sir Garwain and the Green Knight
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain continuously proves his knightly virtues and code of honor. Chivalry includes bravery, honor, and courtesy. He proves that he is in fact a "real" Knight. He shows his braver...
The Sophoclean Trilogy and Shakespeare’s King Lear in the Light of the Poetics
The present article sought to provide a comparison between The Sophoclean Trilogy and King Lear, respectively produced by Sophocles in the 5th century BC Greece and by William Shakespeare in 1606 at the end of the Elizab...
Investigating the Role of Classroom Interactional Activities in Developing University Students' Writing Skills at Arab Countries
This paper aims to investigate the extent to which teachers can play an effective role to develop students' writing skills through classroom interaction at the Arab Countries Universities. The researcher has adopted the...
A Socio-pragmatic Study of Speeches Delivered on Marital Engagement Occasions in North Jordan
This study attempts to delineate the socio-pragmatic functions of the exchanged speeches in marital engagements in North Jordan in light of politeness and face management notions. It also intends to examine the relations...
The effect of the Translators’ Ideology in the Translation of Qur’an
This study examines the translation of Qur’an by two translators. Each translator has different ethnic backgrounds such as religion. The study investigates the effect of religions’ ideologies in translating the holly Qur...