Children in the two novels oliver twist and david copperfield = hình ảnh trẻ em trong hai tác phẩm oliver twist và david copperfield

vinh university Foreign Languages department ===    === tào thị thúy nga Children in the two novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield (Hình ảnh trẻ em hai tác phẩm "Oliver Twist" "David Copperfield") Graduation thesis Field: English Literature Vinh - may, 2008 =  = Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” vinh university Foreign Languages department ===    == Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist and David Copperfield (Hình ảnh trẻ em hai tác phẩm "Oliver Twist" "David Copperfield") Graduation thesis Field: English Literature Supervisor: trần ngọc t-ởng M.A Student: Tào thÞ thóy nga Class: 45B2 - English Vinh - may, 2008 = = SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Acknowledgement First of all, I would like to express the deep thanks from bottom of my heart to the teachers of English in Foreign Language Department, especially my supervisor M.A Tran Ngoc Tuong who gave me so much help during my study Secondly, I would like to give my sincere thanks to the librarian of Foreign Language Department, Mrs Thanh who gave me enthusiastic service and help me find important documents Last but not least, I indeed thank my relatives for encouragement and my best friends for interesting ideas It is difficult for me to finish my graduation thesis without the enthusiastic help from those people Vinh, May 2008 SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Table of Content Acknowledgement i Table of Content ii Part A Introduction 1 Rationale for choosing the topic Aims and objectives of the thesis Scopes and limitation Methods of the thesis Design of the thesis Part B Contents Chapter I: Background 1.1 Historical Events of England in Victorian Age 1.1.1 The Industrial Revolution 1.1.2 The Reformation 1.1.3 The Campaign for Free Trade 1.1.4 The Chartist Movement 1.2 Critical Realism 1.2.1 What is the Critical Realism? 1.2.2 English Critical Realism 1.3 Charles Dickens 10 1.3.1 Life 10 1.3.2 Literary career 11 1.3.3 Main themes in Dickens‟ novels 13 Chapter II: An introduction to “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” 16 2.1 An introduction to “Oliver Twist” 16 SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” 2.1.1 The context of the novel 16 2.1.2 The main characters of the novel 17 2.1.3 The plot Overview 18 2.2 An introduction to “David Copperfield” 19 2.2.1 The context of the novel 19 2.2.2 The main characters of the novel 20 2.2.3 The plot Overview 21 Chapter III: Children in the two novels “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” 24 3.1 Children with bitter childhood 24 3.1.1 Children, pitiful orphans 24 3.1.2 Children, victims of labour abuse 26 3.1.3 Children, naive spirits hurt by wicked men 29 3.2 Children with good nature 32 3.2.1 The nature of innocent and pureness 32 3.2.2 The great desire for a better life and stiff resistance against the evil 35 3.2.3 The good nature from the beginning till the end 37 3.3 Fate smiles upon children 39 3.3.1 Good behaviour of kind-hearted people is precious gift for children 39 3.3.2 Happy ending is a satisfactory compensation for the miserable time 42 Part C Conclusion 44 References SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Part A Introduction Rationale for choosing the topic First and foremost, reading literary works has always been the author‟s special passion even when the author studied at the primary school Being students of Foreign Language Department of Vinh University she has an opportunity to learn English Literature and know more about Britain in general and its literature in particular Furthermore, literature reflects feelings, sentiment, thought of people and every aspects of society Thus, reading Dickens‟ novels we can see vivid picture of Victorian society That society was thought to be the most prosperous from outside but there were a lot of problems from inside More importantly, the author really likes his novels because she deeply sympathizes with the pitiful plights of children and with the novelist‟s infinite love for them Most of children in Dickens‟ novels are orphans who are victims of labour abuse and of mal-treatment of the wicked people in society However, finally they have happy lives All is clearly shown in two famous novels “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” For the reasons above, the author has decided to choose the topic: Children in the two novels “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” for our graduation thesis Aims and objectives of the thesis a Aims of the thesis - To understand more about the image of children in Dickens novels SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” - To provide the whole view of the real life of children under the reign of the Queen Victoria b Objectives of the thesis Study the novels of Charles Dickens to find the answers to the following questions: - What is the plight of orphan children in “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield”? - What is children‟s prominent nature? - What good things from society can children receive? Scopes and limitation Charles Dickens is one of the most famous novelists in English literature In fact, he has a lot of works about various topics in general and children in particular Nevertheless, with limited time and limited scale we only focus on two famous novels, “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” to study Methods of the thesis To carry out this thesis, we have used to the following methods: - Collective method - Analytic method - Synthetic method - Contrastive method Design of the thesis The graduation thesis includes three main parts In part A, the author refers the reasons, aim, objective, scope, limitation and the method of studying the thesis SV: Tµo ThÞ Thóy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Part B is divided into three chapters Chapter I depicts basis knowledge about historical events of England in Victorian Age, Critical Realism and the novelist Charles Dickens Chapter II contains two sub-parts Each of them represents a brief introduction to “Oliver Twist” or “David Copperfield” Most significantly, Chapter III presents the main content of this thesis The author focuses on analyzing and making the concerned problem clear through the two novels “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” Part C is the conclusion, which summarizes what have presented in the previous parts SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Part B Content Chapter I: Background 1.1 Historical events of England in Victorian Age 1.1.1 The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution began in Britain during 18th century and then spread out to the world Many modern machines had been invented Consequently, there had been a great number of products produced England‟s products began appearing widely in every corner of the world English economy developed rapidly and it changed the face of England absolutely England became one of the richest nations all over the world Englishmen owned such a luxurious life that everyone in other countries wished for One of the most obvious changes to people‟s life was that more people moved from the countryside into the urban areas where a lot of factories were located Therefore, the urban population risen sharply New industrial cities and towns grew dramatically By 1850 millions of British people lived in crowded and grim industrial cities It can be seen that the Industrial Revolution has brought economic improvement for most people in industrialized societies, especially those in the middle and the upper classes of the society, but not the lower one Many workers felt into unemployment because hand labors were substituted by machine power in most factories Others had to work for 12-14 hours per day without insurance against the unsafe in labour Factory owners often recruited women and children to tend the machines because they could be hired for very low wages SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from any one, that I can call to mind, as if hope to go to Heaven!” [5, p.129] Indeed, the child‟s body and spirit is seriously hurt It is unequal that the child has to suffer ill-treatment and full abuse of surrounding people, including his relatives David„s state helps us to associate with the author‟s one After his family could pay for debts thanks to a sum of money inherited from their relative, David„s mother still forced him to continue working in the factory Hence, he could not forgive her The sad memory follows his life and is neglected in his work Generally speaking, Charles Dickens described the main characters as pitiful, innocent children, who were abused by the society The orphans represented for the weak in Victorian society who never escape the domination of the powerful Dickens also wanted to denounce injustice and hypocrisy of the middle-class that developed in industrial society Last but not least, he wanted people to direct their sympathetical eyes to the poor, particularly the orphans who suffered a lot of misery and difficulties in life 3.2 Children with good nature 3.2.1 The nature of innocence and pureness Dickens is known for the great lover of children He appeals to the very hearts of people to give an eye to the children so as to see that they have to suffer life rather than to enjoy it He learns with fear that in the unwholesome environment of the capitalist society white could be turned into black, good into bad, and right into wrong Yet, his child characters remained kind and pure till the end It might be the intention of the author that he wants to criticizes the corrupt environment, in which children exist Specifically, Oliver Twist is in SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 37 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” the work-house, the boarding school and then the gang of criminals while David Copperfield is in the hand of his cruel step-father and then the blacking factory In all of those places the wicked men always want to oppress and destroy the innocent spirits However, the readers might be surprised at the children‟ stable nature In the work-house, Oliver and other orphans are ill-treated by the master and other officers, who are considered “parents” of children They are constantly left so hungry and brutally beaten Oliver„s asking for more thin soup, in one day, surprised the board of the work-house and immediately he receives a serious punishment Oliver„s action is also an evidence of his innocence because he is too small to learn how harsh and ruthless the workhouse is The workhouse is theoretically charitable institution assisting the poor and the orphan Nevertheless, the fact is that hunger is intentionally created Besides, the child can not know a serious punishment would be the vital result of his innocent begging Another evidence of innocence is that Oliver is tricked by Dawkins, who was born for crime, as Oliver puts a first step in to London It is clear that Oliver is too young to understand the real nature of Dawkins' kindness Therefore, he falls into the gang of thieves led by Fagin Later he innocently goes out to “make handkerchief” with two pickpockets He realizes too late that their mission is to pickpocket because he though that “making handkerchief” in Fagin‟s house is simply a game As a result, he is hunted down and beaten His naivety leads him to be trapped in the gang of thieves and to be forced to join a burglary Concerning David Copperfield, we can see that he is also innocent, David is the main character, at the same time a narrator, and his perception of the world deepens as he comes of age As can be found that Davids initial SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 38 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” innocence is the contrast between his interpretation of events and our own understanding of them David is ignorant of Steerforth‟s treachery, we are aware from the moment we meet Steerforth that he does not deserve adulation David feels toward him David takes Steerforth‟s kindness for granted without concerning his motives or detecting his duplicity When Steerforth befriends David at Salemn House, David does not suspect that Steerforth is simply trying to use David to make friends and gain status Though Steerforth belittles David from the moment they meet, David is incapable of conceiving that his new friend might be taking advantage of him Because Steerforth‟s duplicity is so clear to us, David‟s lack of insight into Steerforth‟s true intentions emphasizes his youthful innocence Moreover, David does not understand why he hates Uriah Heep or why he trusts a boy with a donkey cart, who steals his money and leaves him in the road, but we can sense Uriah‟s devious nature and the boy‟s treacherous intentions A part from innocence, the readers can easily find the nature of kindness of this protagonist shown through out the novel As far as friendship, David is loyal friend He does not hesitate to help Tommy Traddles, his school-mate, to overcome difficulties and make a name and a career for him Furthermore, the boy is ready to help his aunt, Miss Betsey, and Mr Dick when they lost all their money He decides to offer a work for Dr Strong in the mornings and evenings to have more money, even very little For Mr Micawber, David appears to show his very heart to him regardless of Micawber‟s bad job David easily forgives Mr Micawber and helps him go to a new land, Australia More importantly, David is also a faithful lover He wishes to marry Agnes for true love It is different from Uriah‟s motivation that he wishes to marry Agnes only for hurting David SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 39 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Compared with Oliver, David Copperfield is described as a more complicated character in terms of various aspects of his life However, both Oliver Twist and David Copperfield have good nature in common and are examples of innocence and kindness 3.2.2 Great desire for a better life and stiff resistance against the evil It is normally said that the harsher the living environment is the greater ambition and determination people have Resulting from Dickens‟s experiences, “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” recount the image of Dickens himself during his childhood Since he was a child he had to live on his own capability because his father was put into a prison for debts With great desire Dickens made a successful career and he became one of the famous and loved novelists of English literature We can easily realize the similarities of characteristics between Dickens and his protagonists, Oliver and David Both Oliver and David are described as those who have strong will of struggling against oppression Take Oliver as the first example When the boy is brought up in the work-house by the cruel men he has to manage to survive We wonder that whether this small child could overcome starvation and bad treatment if he lacked a firm will The answer “yes” surprises us It proves that despite of his smallness, he has strong determination which enables him to maintain his existence the corrupt surroundings We dare not deny the role of environment, of course Another evidence expresses his unyielding character is when unable to suffer Noah Claypole‟s insults Oliver seizes upon this much bigger boy by his neck, shakes him and throws him to the ground Yet, he is beaten and his face is scratched because he is too small and weak SV: Tµo ThÞ Thóy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 40 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” We can realize this feature also emerges in David Copperfield After many times of being beaten by his cruel step-father, the boy dares bit his hand in order to protect himself It may be a spontaneous action of the 9-year-old boy Nevertheless, it shows his resistance against the oppression, anyway Besides, some people suppose that Oliver Twist is an “idealized” character because he is a good from the beginning till the end of the novel Only a very small child, how can he decide to disobey Bill Sikes, who threats to kill him if he does not help him in a burglary Oliver cries: “Oh, please let me go Let me run away and die in the fields Oh, have mercy on me and not make me steal.” [6, p.34] It is clear that the little boy really wants to keep his purity regardless of the death Thus, he does not obey Bill Sikes‟ command His brave action demonstrates he is ready to fight against the evil even though he would die Besides the strong will of struggle, those orphans in Dickens' novels also express great expectation for better life Oliver has to run away from his undertakers to London due to their bad behaviour to him Running away means that the boy tries to escape from hunger, poverty and injustice Finally, he gains what he desire Like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield is forced to work in a horrific condition He also faces up to loneliness, starvation and misery He can not bear that situation no longer so he decides to run away in order to find the help of his aunt More importantly, since he was a child he wanted to grow up as a learned and distinguished man When he works in the factory he is very miserable and disappointed so that he cries: “No word can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this companionship…the deep remembrance of the sense I had, of being utterly without hope now; of the shame I felt in my SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 41 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” position; of the misery it was to my young heart to believe that day by day what I had learned and thought, and delighted in, and in raised my fancy and my emulation up by would pass away from me, little by little, never to be brought back anymore; can not be written.” [5, p.126] Eventually, with great ambition along with his aunt‟s assistance, his dream comes true To sum up, Dickens indeed wants to praise the good nature of children, especially orphans who suffer a lot of miseries and difficulties in their lives They have not only great ambition for a better life, but also strong will of struggling against the evil and oppression 3.2.3 The good nature from the beginning till the end It might be that Dickens always confronts the question of whether the terrible environment he depicts has the power of “blacken the soul and change its hue forever” By observing the fates of most of the characters, we can assume that his answer is “no” As a matter of fact, Dickens creates children as heroes and heroines with unspoiled character Take Oliver Twist as a prominent example Oliver was born and grew up in the unwholesome environment The little boy is a victim of abuse for labour and forced to join a gang of thieves Yet, till the end of the novel he maintains purity in his soul It is clear that Dickens intentionally puts his lovely child character in bad situations Firstly, he was given his birth in the work-house where he suffered a lot of miseries And then he was trapped in a den of thieves and robbers in London city Most notably, in the second hard time Oliver faced up with the death but his still shone his good nature Specifically, the boy really fears and shocks when he sees Dawkins putting his hand into the old man‟s pocket and taking out a handkerchief More significantly, the boy wears to die rather than participate in a burglary He SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 42 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” begs Bill Sikes: “Let me run away and die in the fields Oh, have mercy on me and not make me steal!” [6, p.34] Then he decides to warn the family although Sikes puts the pistol to Oliver‟s head and threats to shoot him at once if he disobeys How brave the little boy is! His decision expresses a strong will of fighting against the evil and a determination of keeping his purity Simultaneously, as a child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protect, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiment than to our literary sensibilities On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character because though he is raised in corrupt surroundings, his purity and virtue are absolute Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Oliver‟s character to challenge the Victorian idea that the paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment is the source of vice Dickens satirizes characters who voice such an opinion, such as Mr Bumble, Mr Grimwig and Mrs Sowerberry The later, for instance, declares that children like Oliver Twist are born to be murderers and robbers from their very cradle Oliver‟s scruples about the sanctity of property seem inborn in him, just as Dicken‟s opponents though that corruption is inborn in poor people Furthermore, other pauper children use rough Cockey slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper King‟s English However, Oliver does not present a complex person torn between good and evil, instead, he is goodness incarnate In contrast, Nancy who best illustrates the contradictory issues brought up by the question that is of whether a bad environment can irrevocably poison someone‟s character and soul As a child of the streets, Nancy is a thief and drinks to excess She is a prostitute but she also commits perhaps the most notable act in the novels when she sacrifices her own life in order to protect Oliver Her ultimate choice to good at a great personal cost is a strong argument in favour of the SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 43 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” incorruptibility of basic goodness, no matter how many environmental obstacles it may face Another good example is characters in David Copperfield Compare with Oliver Twist, David Copperfield has a more complex character Though David is trusting and kind, he also has moments of cruelty, like the scene in which he intentionally distresses Mr Dick by explaining Mr Betsey‟s dire situation to him Different from “Oliver Twist”, in David Copperfield the main character does not express maintenance of kindness; instead others it For example, Agnes Wickfield and Ham are those who are good from the beginning to the end Agnes is a caring and faithful girl and Ham is a kind and loyal boy This boy goes to death in a stout-hearted attempt to rescue a survivor clinging to a broken mast The survivor turns out to his enemy, Steerforth Dickens is said to use “idealized” characters In other words, he makes an exaggeration in creating his protagonists Therefore, it seems to be a harmonious combination between the real and the unreal His positive characters are sometimes too good to be found in real life They ever remained true to the principles of honour, dignity and faith The characters in his novels are static but vivid, lively and varied Especially, he wishes his child characters are perfect in their nature because he is well-known for the great love to children 3.3 Fate smiles upon children 3.3.1 Good behaviour of kind-hearted people is precious present for children Throughout Dickens‟ novels we can see his love of humanity that is apparent everywhere He hates every species of oppression and injustice, every vestige of fraudulent misrepresentation and hypocrisy, every sight of SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 44 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” man‟s cruelty to man, and loves those who suffer and still not lose their hearts and keep on doing their best by all around them In particular, Dickens is Dickens is a great lover of children He appeals to the very hearts of the people to give eyes to the children so that they can see children suffering life rather than enjoying it He learns with fear that in the unhealthy environment of the capitalist society, white could be turned into black, good into bad and right into wrong, yet all of his child heroes and heroines remained pure and unspoiled till the end Besides, he laid all his hopes in the good qualities of human nature and held a firm ground that man was born good In his opinion, it was possible to make the rich share wealth with the poor “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield” can prove this point In each novel, it can be seen that there appears a lot of the bad men such as, Murdstone, Mr Creakle, Uriah Heep in David Copperfield and Mr Bumble, Mrs Sowerberry, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Monks in Oliver Twist All of them are representatives of the evil: corruption, injustice and cruelty in society In other words, they stand in the one side of the world In another side, Dickens draws a picture in which a lot of good people with nice behaviours are sharing their kindness with unhappy ones For example, in Oliver Twist there appear Mr Brownlow, the Maylies, etc, and in David Copperfield, Miss Betsey Trotwood, Mrs Peggotty, Ham, Agnes Wickfield Those people seem to come from fairy land to help orphans like Oliver and David To start with Oliver Twist, he experienced many ups and downs during his childhood even if he was close to the death However, his life is saved by some kind-hearted people like Mr Brownlow, the Maylies, etc At the first time, Oliver naively goes out to “work” with Charley Bates and Dawkins He run after and hit because people thought him as a pickpocket At that time, Mr Brownlow, a well-off erudite gentleman and the owner of the bookshop SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 45 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” prevented others from beating Oliver Twist by indicating his innocence Mr Brownlow expresses his clemency through his saying: “Poor boy! He is hurt.” “Poor boy, poor boy!” “Call a carriage, somebody, please At once!” [5, p.20] Though he is victim of the pickpocket, when seeing Oliver being beaten by the crowd, he immediately shows his sympathy with the poor boy After that he also gives him the best care We can not forget the kind housekeeper of Mr Brownlow, Mrs Bedwin, who is very kind to Oliver and feeds him with good food All makes Oliver feel very happy in Mr Brownlow‟s house Another person we can not forget is Rose Maylie, a beautiful compassionate and forgiving young woman She is the novel‟s model of female virtue She establishes a loving relationship with Oliver, even before it is revealed that they are relatives Like Mr Brownlow, the Maylies are kindhearted and clement people They save the poor boy‟s life and give him the best care At the Maylie‟s house, Oliver discovers a “new existence” He listens to Rose‟s sweet and gentle voice; goes for walks with Mrs Maylie and Rose; feed Mrs Maylie‟s birds; pick flowers to put on the table and works at his lessons It is the happiest time the little boy enjoys Mr Brownlow and the Maylies seem to come from the fairy land but Nancy, a girl from the bottom of society is also considered a person who gives the little boy a precious gift She sacrifices her own life in order to protect Oliver This action itself is regarded as the noblest act in the novel because Nancy, a prostitute dares buy pure conscience by her life and her devotion itself saves Oliver‟s life Besides, her ultimate choice regains people‟s sympathy and forgiveness More significantly, her sacrifice makes her become one of the noble characters in this novel Similarly, when reading “David Copperfield” the reader can see both the good and bad men surrounding the main character For example, the SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 46 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” Murdstones, Uriah Heep and Mr Creakle are representatives of the evil and Mrs Betsey Trotwood, Agnes, the Peggotties the good Mrs Trotwood, who acts as his second mother, is eccentric and kind-hearted aunt of David She protects him from Mr Murdstone and takes care of him after his mother‟s death She also helps him pursue his dream of becoming a gentleman It can be said that Miss Trotwood herself brings the best life to David Agnes Wickfield is also an important person to David‟s life She always is a loyal friend of David and gives him a true love David‟s lonely heart, after his wife‟s death, is indeed warmed up when he realizes his love for Agnes for the first time We can not deny the role of Mrs Peggotty who is the faithful servant of the Copperfield family and a lifelong companion to David She always gives David a careful service and listens to David‟s confidence Generally, both Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are lucky boys because they always receive help and sympathy of other people when facing to difficulties and misery Thus, it can be said that good behaviour is a precious present for children 3.3.2 Happy ending is a satisfactory compensation for the miserable time Have you ever read fairy tales? Perhaps the answer is “yes” because the childhood of people is often close to fairy tales which are told by their lovely moms or grandmothers Therefore, when reading Dickens‟ works, it is easy for us to make a comparison between fairy tales and his novels Why so? The reason is that Dickens‟ novels have happy endings This is a familiar motif in Dickens‟ works In all, “Oliver Twist” is the most typical example which ending is very nice We can see that in the first chapters of the novels the main character has to live with miseries and horror SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 47 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” but the rest ones are joyfulness and happiness The little boy, Oliver had to experience extremely miserable days even be close to the death sometimes Yet, good people appear at once and give him their warm hands and kindness to help him At the end of the novel, Oliver is adopted by Mr Brownlow From that, he has a new family in which people love and take care of him It is obvious that the little boy lost his family so he would have a new one From an orphan, Oliver becomes a happy child Similar to Oliver, David Copperfield also receives the help from surrounding people while he has to suffer misery David has a bitter childhood Fatherless, he lives with his mother and cruel step-father A short time later his mother also dies After that he is controlled by his new father who is ruthless Hence, the small child has to suffer no end of difficulties Futhermore, David gets married twice The first marriage with Dora Spenlow is unhappy But the second one with Agnes Wickfield is happy David‟s second wife was formerly his best friend who always follows closely him Their marriage is based on friendship and true love They together make up a happy and successful life Finally, David settles down to begin his own career as a novelist and he is very famous later A happy marriage as well as successful career is regarded as a happy ending which the main character gets Although the reader can not find any magician or fairy in Dickens‟ novels, the readers may be satisfied with their endings Through the ending of the two novels, the reader can understand more about the writer‟s heart He is really a humanist; the best lover of children According to him, the orphans receive just the help from surrounding people is not deserving enough and they must have warm homes and happy lives SV: Tµo ThÞ Thóy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 48 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” part C Conclusion According to critics, Charles Dickens was the greatest English realist He was also one of the most beloved and the most-read writers in English literature No novelist before Dickens had treated the lower classes in so frank a way The unforgettable experience and sufferings of his early youth were considered precious materials for many of his writings Reading his works we can see the shadow of himself behind characters “David Copperfield” and “Oliver Twist” are regarded as two of the most famous novels of Charles Dickens, especially David Copperfield Dickens especially emphasizes the pitiful plight of children Most of them are orphans who face to a lot of miseries and difficulties in life They not only lost his parents but also suffered neglect and ill-treatment of surrounding people For example, David Copperfield cruelly treated by his step-father, Mr Murdstone He was forced to work in a terrible factory when he was a child of ten While Oliver Twist was born and grew up in the work-house where was compared to a strict prison There he was often beaten and left so hungry Furthermore, they became victims of labour abuse Both Oliver and David were forced to work in terrible conditions David worked in a blacking factory where he lived with the dirtiest things such as, smoke, rats, decaying floors, etc Not better, Oliver forced to work hard and was served bowls of thin gruel everyday After being sold for an undertaker, the boy had to collect deaths from streets and service in funerals Unbearable any longer, this boy found the way to escape from the undertakers but unfortunately he fell into a gang of thieves and robbers Under the hand of the chieftain Fagin, Oliver was forced to become an unavoidable thief SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 49 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” However, the lucky often comes true suddenly in the most difficult circumstance; both Oliver and David received the help from good people who are thought as fairies in real life David was protected by his only relative, Miss Betsey Trotwood, who has ever refused him when he was born Oliver got much more help from kind-hearted people, such as Mr Brownlow and The Maylies, who protected him from the brutal robbers A special thing is that the good nature of children is remained from the beginning till the end of the novels Though suffering a lot of difficulties and falling into the unwholesome environment, most heroes and heroines in Dickens‟ novels remained good nature Therefore, some people said that Dickens‟ characters were “idealized” Reading his novels, we really sympathize with the author‟s very heart Through his literary works, Charles Dickens wanted to describe a picture of society under the reign of Queen Victoria From outside, that society was very prosperous and its citizens had happy lives but in fact a lot of people cried for destitution He also wanted to denounce the hypocrisy and ruthlessness of those in the upper class, at the same time give his sympathy with those of the lower class, who suffered miserable lives With the limited scale of my graduation thesis, the author have presented some small problems above The author would like to give the deep thanks to those who spend time on reading the thesis and give her sincere comments on it SV: Tào Thị Thóy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 50 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist” and “ David Copperfield” References Dang Anh Dao (1998) Van hoc Phuong Tay Ha Noi: NXB Van Hoa Nguyen Tri Chung (2003) English literature, Ha Noi: NXB Giao Duc Ha Noi University for Teachers of Foregin Languages (1995) English Literature I Ha Noi Thornley, G C., & Roberts, G (Eds.) An outline of English literature Harlow: Longman Burgis, N (Ed.) (1982) David Copperfield, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press Maison, M., Swan, D K., & West, M (Eds.) (1992) Oliver Twist Harlow: Longman Rogers, R (Ed.) (1996) Oliver Twist Oxford : Oxford University Press Swan, D K., West, M., & Anderson, D (Eds.) (1989) David Copperfield Harlow: Longman Churchill, R C (Ed.) (2000) The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10 http://en.wikipedia.org 11 http://www.bookrags.com/ 12 http://www.dickens-theme.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk 13 http://www.Novelguide.com 14 http://www.reese.org/duneroller/content/book-summary/ 15 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/copperfield/themes.html SV: Tào Thị Thúy Nga - 45B2 English FLD 51 ...Vinh - may, 2008 =  = Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist? ?? and “ David Copperfield? ?? vinh university Foreign Languages department == =    == Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist? ??... English FLD 20 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist? ?? and “ David Copperfield? ?? Chapter II An Introduction to ? ?Oliver Twist? ?? and ? ?David Copperfield? ?? 2.1 An Introduction to ? ?Oliver Twist? ?? 2.1.1... - 45B2 English FLD 28 Children in the two novels “ Oliver Twist? ?? and “ David Copperfield? ?? Chapter III Children in ? ?Oliver Twist? ?? and ? ?David Copperfield? ?? Children appears in a series of works by