对《雾都孤儿》中南希的性格分析.doc

对雾都孤儿中南希的性格分析 对雾都孤儿中南希的性格分析摘要 雾都孤儿是狄更斯的早期作品,虽然作品以奥利弗为主角,但刻画最成功的人物却是南希,她仅仅是小说中的一个次要角色,但却是小说中一个极为典型的人物,她不像小说中其他人物一样表现出或者好或者坏的某一面。她徘徊于善恶之间,是整个故事圆满结局的关键人物。南希这一人物有着无比丰富,复杂的内心世界,具有典型的双重性格。本文将详细地分析她的复杂性格,得出了南希性格形成是当时时代的产物的结论:资本主义制度剥削人的产物。她的复杂性格和内心争斗是由残酷的资本主义制度造成的,在当时的社会背景下,她的悲剧结局无法避免。她在内心良知和爱塞克斯之间斗争。正因为这样,这个人物才更贴近于生活,这个人物的人性之复杂才值得我们来探究。本文将重点探讨其性格特点及成因。 关键词: 南希 善良 复杂性格Analysis on Nancys Character in Oliver TwistRuan YingABSTRACTOliver Twist was Dickens early work. Though Oliver is regarded as the protagonist, the character Nancy is the most successful character. Though Nancy is a minor character in the novel, she is the most typical character. Unlike other characters throughout Oliver Twist, she is not entirely good or entirely bad. She is between good and evil, but it is hard to put a simple label on her. Nancy has an incomparably plentiful and contradictory inner world. She has typical double character. This paper will analyze her complex character in detail, and comes to the conclusion that the forming of her character is the product of that age: the product of capitalist systems exploiting people. Her complex personality and inner conflicts are caused by the cruel capitalism. Under the dark social background, her tragic ending is inevitable. She has conflicts between her inner conscience and her devotion to Sikes. As a result of this, this character is more accessible to common daily life than any other characters in this novel. Thus her complex nature is worth us to explain. This paper will mainly discuss her feature of character and the causes. Keywords: Nancy kindness complex characterCONTENTS摘要IABSTRACTII1 INTRODUCTION11.1 Introduction on the Writer11.2A Brief Introduction to the Novel11.3 Writing Arrangement22LITERATURE REVIEW33 ANALYSIS ON NANCYS CHARACTER43.1 Introduction on Nancys Miserable Fate43.2 Nancys Contradictory Personality53.2.1 NancysGood and Evil Nancys Good Nature.1Nancys Assistance to Oliver in Times of Crisis.2 Exposure of the Mystery of Olivers Status.3 Nancys Tact and Braveness Nancys Bad Character83.2.2 Desire for Brightness butLack of Courage93.2.3 Contradictory View on Love104 CAUSES FOR NANCYS CHARACTER114.1 Characteristics of the Times114.2 The writer Dickens Individual Dual Character115 CONCLUSION13BIBLIOGRAPHY141 INTRODUCTION1.1 Introduction on the Writer Charles Dickens was born on February7, 1812, in Port Sea, England. His parents were middle-class, but they suffered financially as a result of living beyond their means. When Dickens was twelve years old, his familys dire straits forced him to quit school and work in a blacking factory, a place where shoe polish is made. Within weeks, his father was put in debtors prison, where Dickens mother and siblings eventually joined him. At this point, Dickens lived on his own and continued to work at the factory for several months. After inheriting some money, Dickens father got out of prison and Charles returned to school. As a young adult, he worked as a law clerk and later as a journalist. His experience as a journalist kept him in a close contact with the darker social conditions of the Industrial Revolution, and he grew disillusioned with the attempts of lawmakers to alleviate those conditions. His first books, sketches by Boz, appeared in 1836.A collection of semi-fictional sketches entitled sketches by Boz earned him recognition as a writer. Dickens became famous and began to make money from his writing when he published his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, which was serialized in 1836 and published in book from the following yearIn 1837, the first installment of Oliver Twist appeared in the magazine Bentleys miscellany, which Dickens was then editing. Even at this early date, some critics accused Dickens of writing too quickly and too prolifically, since he was paid by the word for his serialized novels. Yet the passion behind Oliver Twist, animated in part by Dickens own childhood experiences and in part by his outrage at the living conditions of the poor that he had witnessed as a journalist touched his contemporary readers. Greatly successful, the novel was a thinly veiled protest against the poor law of 1834, which dictated that all public charity must be channeled through workhousesIn 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, but after twenty years of marriage and ten children, he fell in love with Ellen Ternan, an actress many years his junior, soon after, Dickens and his wife separated, ending a long series of marital difficulties. Dickens remained a prolific writer to the end of his life, and his novels-among them Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and Bleak House?continued to earn critical and popular acclaim. He died of a stroke in 1870,at the age of 58,leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished.A Brief Introduction to the Novel Oliver Twist, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in 19th century. The author who himself was born in a poor family wrote his twenties with a view to reveal the ugly masks of those cruel criminals and to expose the horror and violence hidden underneath the narrow and dirty streets in London. Oliver is a boy in a workhouse, who has no idea of his parents identity. His mother Agnes died in childbirth. By pure chance he is chosen as a scapegoat by the other starving boys, and is made to go and ask for an extra helping at a mealtime. As a result of this breach of etiquette, he is “sold” by the workhouse as an undertakers apprentice. The cruelty he suffers at the hands of an older apprentice named Noah Clay pole causes him to run away, and he finds his way to London, where he is taken under the wing of the Artful Dodger, a boy criminal. The Dodger introduces Oliver into his circle friends, who include Fagin the Jew, a criminal mastermind, and his brutal ally, Bill Sikes. Oliver is taught crimes such as picking pockets, but never actually participates in them. He is shown kindness by Bills 17-year-old mistress, Nancy. After a robbery that goes wrong, in which Oliver played the part of an unwitting lookout, he is taken into the home of a wealthy man, Mr. Brownlow. Unknown to them, effects are being made by Olivers half-brother, Monks, to locate him and prevent him from obtaining his inheritance, but Mr. Brownlow soon begins to suspect that Oliver is the son of his niece. Sikes and Nancy snatch Oliver back, and Sikes takes him on a burglary, planning to get him a criminal record as a favor to Monks. But Oliver is left behind when the burglary goes wrong, and is adopted into the home of Rose Maylie. Ultimately he is restored to Mr. Brownlow. Meanwhile, Monks and Fagin are plotting to try to go after Oliver again and either kidnap him or kill him. Nancy is fearful of such a scenario and goes to Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow to divulge the plot of the evil pair. She manages to keep her secret meetings hidden until Noah Clay pole agrees to spy on Nancy and then gives information to Fagin and Sikes. In a fit of rage, Sikes murders Nancy and by getting hanged while being pursued by an angry mob. Monks is forced to explain his secrets and give half of his inheritance to Oliver, and soon moves to America afterwards, where he quickly spends his money, reverts to criminal activities and ultimately dies in prison. Fagin is arrested and hanged for his crimes. Oliver lives happily with his saviors, Mr. Brownlow. 1.3 Writing Arrangement The first part is the introduction about the writer and the novel. The second part is literature review. The third part is the most important, analyzing Nancys character in detail. It includes: 1.introduction on Nancys miserable fate 2.Nancys contradictory personality. This includes three parts: Nancys kindness and bad character, desiring brightness but lacking courage, contradictory view on love. The fourth part discusses the causes for her character. Then the fifth part comes to the conclusion. 2LITERATURE REVIEW In the process of writing the paper, many famous scholars masterpieces have been read. The following outcome is found: many people describe Nancys kindness and show favor to it. They think she is lily-white and kind. For example, Wang Yan mentioned in Analysis of Nancys side of kindness in Oliver Twist2011:17-18:“She is only an ordinary people of social underclass, a female thief, but this status shows her kindness. The character Nancy makes people see the great strength of trueness and conscience in the dreggy society. Darkness and evil cant influence and control peoples soul forever. Nancys forgetting her life to save Oliver and her unswerving loyalty to love reflect her trueness and kindness”.Hu Xiaohua in Oliver Twists kindheartedness and tyrannicalness 2003:38-39 said:“Nancy in the novel is the victim of tragedy. She did many bad things, but she has the essence of kindness and virtue. She loves the young and shows sympathy to Oliver and protect him.”“Its not difficult for us to find humans radiance, female thief Nancy, is a prominent example. The maiden who loses family and parents care from childhood grows completely in the thiefs den, but her conscience doesnt vanish. She hates and loves and she has sympathy and sense of righteousness.” in excavating humans shining point in Oliver Twist by He Shunli 2011:30.So we can find that Nancy is really kind, though she does many bad things, but some are for earning her life. Some scholars research into Nancys dual character. For example Zhang Wei in Analysis of Nancys dual character in Oliver Twist2010:10-11said:“Nancy has contradictory view on life and values, so from the beginning to end it is difficult for her to escape inner conflict and struggle.”“If we say we lament Nancys unfortunateness and are angry at her not resisting for herself and hate her acting as the paws of an evil person, so her having a strong sense of righteousness for Oliver to go away from misery and forgetting herself are looked at with different eyes and command respect. Guo Weizhen wrote in Analysis of writing feature of Nancys character2011:29-32:“Nancy is a contradictory person, that is to say her kindness integrates with evil, virtue with ugliness, baseness with nobility.”“She is dissatisfied with Sikes action but lacks the courage to leave him.” Zhao Shifen mentioned in The analysis of Nancy in Oliver Twist2011:106-108:“The writer profoundly exposes Nancys inner world. On one hand, she is naturally kind; on the other she mires down in mud and cant extricate herself. Her inner strong contradiction marks out for her final tragedy.” Gu Yuanhua said in Analysis of Nancys fate in Oliver Twist2011:26-27:“Nancys character is the result of capitalisms exploitation.” 3 ANALYSIS ON NANCYS CHARACTER3.1 Introduction on Nancys Miserable Fate Nancy appeared in the latter part of the novel. Hero Oliver evaluated Nancy like this: “They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of color in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty. Being remarkably free and agreeable in their manners, Oliver thought them very nice girls indeed. As there is no doubt they were.”77 This description established a positive image of Nancy. Nancys positive description mainly lied on her protection of Oliver. The article described Nancys refined tastes. She was intelligent, capable, justicial and emotional. Living in the thieves den for so many years, Nancy stole so many times for it. Of course some were in spite of her, but Nancy had a kind side. She hoped to develop in promising industry, observe disciplines and obey laws. She went to the church to confess when she did bad things. Sometimes she was unwilling to follow the bad example of others with thieves den. At the beginning, she also wanted to go to the way of kindness but things didnt turn out as she wished. Since Nancy followed the thieves head from childhood, living a changeful life, the studying skill for life wasnt trained in time. Without a proper skill for living she had to follow the bad example of gangsters to make a living. She had uncertainty decision of value, but the value judgment didnt have a positive function on directing actual actions. Instead, it made her on a more contradictory condition. Nancy had a sense of shame and inferiority complex in the cockles of her heart, making her in lifes low ebb. For example, she was unconfident in the front of Miss Rose. Nancy thought of her status of eldest daughter and she was a poor and ignoble orphan. It made her tremble at the doorway and wander for a long time. If Nancys acting as the paws of an evil person makes the reader hate her, so heroical action of saving Oliver, changing his fate, giving her life and forgetting herself makes the reader see with different eyes. The writer of this novel doesnt give a detailed description and specific explanation about how Nancys life is. When she made her debut in the story, she had been a female theft of seventeen and was occupied by Sikes and became a mistress of his own. Then we can still find clues or traces of her infantile life from a few isolated words and phrases of the story. After Nancy helped retrieve Oliver who was the first time to do pilferage under Fagins instigation but got lost, thiefs head Fagin unexpectedly hit Oliver with the crabstick. At this time she came forward and seized the crabstick from Fagins hand and threw it into the fire. The heated dispute between Fagin and Nancy appeared. Nancy stirred her deep feelings when beholding the view and talked about her miserable childhood with sorrow: “Civil words!” Cried the girl,“Civil words, you villain! Yes, you deserveem from me. I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as this!”pointing to Oliver.“I have been in the same trade, and in the same service, for twelve years since.”144 Oliver is only about ten years old. So it isnt difficult for us to know that Nancys fate is more miserable than Oliver. When she was less than five years old, she was forced to steal for the thiefs head. If she dare not obey their order, she would have the suffering of flesh. She did it for twelve years. Nancys life of childhood can be seen from the life of Oliver in the thieves den. Every day she had to steal. If Fagin was a little bit not pleasant, Nancy would be fiercely beat. This miserable life remained for twelve years. The bitterness and humiliation of suffering like all the long dark night of nightmare difficult to wake up is endless. So where is the home of Nancy who was a thief at the age of five and where are her parents? We can guess maybe both her parents died or maybe she was a foundling whose parents were unable to support her and let her tramp the streets or maybe she was from workhouse like Oliver. Even if she had her husband, thief Sikes was more ruthless, cruel and selfish than Fagin. Maybe he didnt love Nancy at all. Nancy was still dead set on following him and lavished every care on him when he was ill. In the thieves den, Nancy was only a tool of Fagin and Sikes for making money like Oliver. Nancy came to the criminal career. Its not her inherent deep-rooted bad habits but inevitable outcome of capitalist society. When she was about five years old, she was faced with starvation to death or living as a thief. Having nobody to turn to, she finally fell into the devil Fagins clutches. Fagin was a devil who wholly trained children for stealing things. When Nancy was very small, she was driven by him to the street for stealing. She had to regard the cold, wet and dirty street as her home. Her miserable life determined her personality, but her character determined her tragic outcome. A sense of safety of childhood for a persons growth and warmness of home and comfort especially good cares from parents are environmental factors that form mental health and wholesome personality. However, Nancy is not that lucky. She was forced to fall into thieves den and acted against he