dc.description.abstract | This investigation concentrates on a representative selection of Charles Dickens's novels to demonstrate his use of fictional building imagery as narrative support and as an artistic stylistic element. Special attention has been paid to the development, modification and sophistication of the treatment of physical setting which occurred during the maturation process of Dickens's craft. While Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Great Expectations were chosen for detailed analysis, brief reference has been made to other of his important novels to intimate their potential for a similar study. Major findings include the following: a) Dickens uses building imagery as a deliberate stylistic medium in order to characterize his fictional people. Physical and spiritual 'poverty' is delineated through his characters' homes. Crime is always associated with filth, grease, dust, dirt and darkness. b) Residences and workplaces are sign posts which mark various milestones on characters' journeys through life; change or perceived change in the physical environment precedes and follows major plot developments and characters' growing self-awareness. c) Characters are often tainted by the places in which they exist; eventual destinies are generally predictable according to either a decrease or increase of physical comfort. d) Man and his physical environment are merged, physically and symbolically. e) 'Attacks' on buildings by natural elements or climate reflect psychological disturbance, testing, or emotional upheavals in the lives of principals, or herald them. f) Building are tailored to 'wear' the same emotions, or personality traits, as the characters who exhibit such emotions or traits. g) Stylistically, social status is classified by the dwelling provided. h) Several methods of aligning person and place include: juxtaposition, reader association, direct authorial interjection. In the later novels, characters assess effects buildings have on themselves, their identities, their social places, or their own effect on the buildings they inhabit. i) Thematically, in every Dickens novel, buildings or conditions of buildings constitute social commentaries. | |