Dickens bereaved : a psychological examination of Oliver Twist.

On May 7, 1837, Mary Hogarth, the sister-in-law of Charles Dickens died in an upstairs bedroom of the Dickens home, having collapsed early that morning after returning from the theater. She was sixteen years old. This tragedy and the grief associated with it had a profound effect on Dickens and his work from that time forward. In particular, the trauma of Dickens's immediate grief plays itself out in the pages of Oliver Twist, the novel he was writing at the time of her death. One may see evidence of Dickens's grief process in the often haphazard narrative structure of the novel, particularly in the inordinate use of impossible coincidence to facilitate its outcome. This reflects what psychologists call the disorganization phase of grief. In addition, anger is usually associated with the process and this appears in Oliver Twist as violence played out against several of the characters, particularly Nancy. Dickens also reflects some rather personal aspects of his grief by the persistent recurrence of a dream motif and the literary display of what psychologists call a "linking object." Dickens plays out the denial of his bereavement in the person of Rose Maylie, Oliver's coincidental aunt, and the literary resurrection of Mary Hogarth. Rose is the same age as the deceased Mary, has the same general appearance and the exact character of her paradigm, comes down with a sudden malady much like Mary, yet unlike Miss Hogarth, Rose Maylie survives to become Oliver's guardian angel and the redemptorix of the novel. This reflection of Dickens's grief process occurs largely because he wrote and published serially. Serial publication meant that Dickens, who wrote his installments within the individual periods, could not go back and revise what he had written under the stress of his grief. Consequently we have in Oliver Twist an almost day-to-day record of an author's bereavement played not so much in what he does as in how he does it.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

1991

Author dc:creator

• Boren, Carl Leslie.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brooks, Roger L. (Roger Leon)

• Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Criticism and interpretation.
• Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. Oliver Twist.
• Grief in literature.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14976

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14976