Passionate paralysis: a study of four women in the novels of Dickens

Abstract

Charles Dickens has frequently been criticised for producing characters who seem to belong to a particular category of fictional creations rather than being endowed with individual life. This thesis attempts to refute such criticism. It considers four female characters, all of whom can be categorised as belonging to an identifiable group of female wrongdoers, women whose attitudes and behaviour are markedly different from what Dickens' fiction espouses as the desired female norm. Yet although superficially these women can be seen as members of a recurrent class of characters, Dickens succeeds in presenting four completely individual studies. By considering the texts in chronological order, the similarities and more importantly the differences which distinguish the women become most evident, as do the varying techniques used to animate each woman. Only one of the four conforms to the conventions of 'villainy', but even she provides a detailed and viable account of how human beings can indulge in wilful self-deception. Her changelessness is the touchstone against which the other three characters can be seen as more probable, becoming more complex as they attempt to cope with their individual dilemmas. Behaviour which at first seems unnatural becomes explicable in the light of each character's past experiences and present difficulties. Dickens' radicalism is seen in his forcing the reader to re-evaluate each woman's behaviour, rather than accepting the stereotypical judgements of society. Through comparison of the four, one sees the growing psychological realism of Dickens as he contemplates the range of alternative behaviours available to such troubled personalities. Textual examples are used to demonstrate his increasing technical ability as he strives to give his characters validity, and how such alterations as the re-positioning of the narrator, the use of different genres, or the presentation of various perspectives held 'round-out' the later members of the group. Matters of style and language are also discussed in an endeavour to make plain the advances achieved over time. That the final two women, the most obviously artificial of the group, remain the most imaginatively memorable is a clear indication of Dickens' ability to combine art and craftsmanship. The reader is persuaded not only to suspend disbelief, but to enter fully into the darkened worlds of those passionate, paralysed women.