This content was originally posted by: Sayonii
Anu do u like Dickens? i have read some of his books like Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and i loved them both. we had A Tale of Two Cities in our school text. but recently i read an article on him. the author is a big Dickens fan but she has described him as a Male chauvinist pig😲. quite an interesting read. here's the link to the article:
i would like to know what u think of the article too😳.
i sill haven't watched the tvd epis. will probably watch later this week😳.
Ooh thanks for sending me the link to the article. It's really interesting reading something like this cause Dickens is a huge deal here in the UK. I read my first Dickens' novel when I was 9 (Great Expectations) but I didn't really get it. We had to read it again at uni and we also had to study Bleak House (and believe me, reading that in a week was a feat!). I've read David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol too. I've seen so many adaptations of his work on TV, most recently The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I must confess I enjoy the dramas more than reading the books, but that said, I did like the novels I have read. They can babble a bit, especially the longer ones, but there is no doubt that he is excellent at comedy and his characters are brilliant. They all are like studies in humanity. The article was interesting because I can sort of see where she is coming from. I only recently read about the way he treated his wife, Catherine. He left her and his kids for some younger woman. Back then that was something pretty scandalous. It doesn't make me view his work in a different light, like the article suggested, but it makes me think less of him as a person. I don't really agree that he was a hyprocrite, but then I haven't read his letters or journals like she has. I believe he was commenting on Victorian society and genuinely he just had a low opinion of people and humanity. He came from a poor background and that does tend to jade your view of the world, especially in a time like that when the divide was so huge and there was all those rich people throwing money about while others starved. So I think when you know that you can see why he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. As for his support of the empire...that is something that is inevitably going to divide people. The thing is, back then, we British were all about the Empire. It was supposed to be this symbol of our greatness and they conveniently overlooked the fact we were suppressing so many people. They didn't see it, or rather, they didn't want to see it. And if there is one thing about the British, they like to think they are better than anyone else in the world. That is the sad truth. So, really, it doesn't surprise me in the least that Dickens had that attidue because most of the people of that time did. And I think we modern-day Brits have been conditioned to overlook that. It's certaintly not something that ever comes up when discussing Dickens here. But I think it's something that should be explored in more detail and there is obvious references to the Empire in his novels (the Luckless twins in Edwin Drood for example, and even the convicts in Austrailia in Great Expectations). So yes, I can see where she's coming from with that too, but I think you have to bear in mind with these old writers that they were writing at a time when the mindset was completely different. I remember one of our lecturers once telling us that when you study a novel you can't let your own opinions cloud the way you analyse it. You can't make assumptions based on what you believe. You have to try to keep in mind that the writer thought differently. It's one of the hardest things to do though.
As for TVD...my heart still hurts. I am just mad at the writers really for always making Damon the scapegoat. He can't win. If he behaves bad the others criticise him, now here he was being good, being a hero, and he still got blasted by all around him. I think he should just bite all their damn necks. I would if I was him!
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