The writing background of "Fargo"

About the author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Portsmouth, England, but spent most of his childhood in London and Kent, where many of his novels are based. Two places as background.

Dickens went to school at the age of nine, but was forced to drop out in 1824 because his father was imprisoned for debt. Dickens had to work as an apprentice in a shoe polish workshop to make ends meet. A sense of humiliation and abandonment plagued Dickens throughout his life, an experience he later described in his novel David Copperfield (1849-1850).

From 1824 to 1826, Dickens returned to school. In 1827, at the age of 15, Dickens left school and began working in a law firm, and then as a reporter covering Parliament for a newspaper. This experience made Dickens familiar with the inner workings of the British legal and political system, brought him into contact with all kinds of characters, and prepared him both materially and artistically for his future literary creation.

In December 1833, Dickens published the first of his series of articles describing life in London under the pseudonym Boz. In 1836, these short essays were collected and published under the title "Post Close-Ups", which gave Dickens an initial success and led to his marriage to Catherine Hogarth. Later, a publisher approached Dickens and asked him to add text to some of the comics he was preparing to publish. Dickens agreed, but he did not want to limit his text based on the content of the comics, but asked to add his own text to the comics.

Thus, Dickens's first novel - the famous "Pickwick Papers" was born. The novel was published in serial form and achieved unprecedented success. Dickens became famous and continued to write new novels to maintain his reputation.

Dickens was an energetic and talented writer. In addition to novels, he was also engaged in various other activities; in 1842, he went to the United States to give a speech in support of international copyright agreements and against slavery; in 1843 In 1999, Dickens published "A Christmas Carol," which became an enduring children's book. In addition, Dickens ran a theater company and performed for Queen Victoria in 1851.

Although Dickens had a successful career, his family life was not happy. Catherine is quiet and steady, but has mediocre intelligence and lacks the passion Dickens needed; she neither understands nor supports her husband's literary creation, and there are frequent disputes between the couple. This lack of understanding, coupled with Dickens's passionate relationship with a young actress, led to Dickens' separation from his wife in 1858. He and Catherine **** had 10 children.

During Dickens's literary career, as his art matured, his novel style gradually changed. In early works such as "The Pickwick Papers" and "Nicholas Nickleby" (1838-1839), he mainly told comedic stories about the adventures of the protagonists. In his later works, Dickens tended to explore major social issues, combining narrative, psychological description and rich symbolism. His masterpieces include Bleak House (1852-1853), Little Dorrit (1855-1857), A Long Day's Journey (1860-1861) and Our ****ing Friend (1864-1865). ).

Readers in the 19th and early 20th centuries greatly appreciated the humor and sentimentality of Dickens's early works. Today's critics appreciate the more rigorous formal structure and keener grasp of human nature in his later works.

In addition to the above works, Dickens's major works also include "Oliver Test" (1837-1839), "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1840-1841), and "Barnaby Larch" (1841), Martin Cupid (1843-1844), Dombey and Son (1846-1848), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Edwin Drood "The Secret" (1870, unfinished).

From the 1860s, Dickens's health began to deteriorate. On June 9, 1870, Dickens died of a stroke and was buried in the famous tomb in Westminster Abbey five days later.

Although "The Secret of Edwin Drood" has never been finalized, Dickens left us a rich literary legacy. He created 16 complete novels in his lifetime, and also There are tons of short stories.

He pointed out that the key to social problems lies in people's blind pursuit of money and extreme greed, thus neglecting other aspects of society, which in turn leads to all kinds of evil and inequality between people; at the same time, He also proposed solutions to these social problems.

Through Dickens's works, we can understand that despite the cruelty of society, he still had a kind heart. Although Dickens's works sometimes show profound insights and sometimes fall into bizarre descriptions, their tone is always optimistic, educating generations of readers on the true meaning of life.

Important themes

Courage and self-pursuit

[1] The moral theme of "The Waste Land" is simple: love, loyalty and conscience are more important than wealth and social status More important.

Dickens expresses this theme through Pip's pursuit of the so-called "Great Expectations." Therefore, ambition and the pursuit of personal development become the core themes of the novel and the psychological mechanism that drives Pip's development. Deep down, Pip is an idealist, and once he realizes there is something better than what he already has, he immediately wants it. When he sees Miss Hovisham's Satis Manor, he expects to be a wealthy gentleman; when he discovers his moral flaws, he expects to be a good man; when he discovers that he cannot read, he longs to know How to read. Pip's self-seeking is the main reason for the novel's title. Because Pip believes that life can be improved, he feels that he has "a bright future."

[2] In "The Long Road Ahead", ambition and self-pursuit appear in three forms: moral, social and educational. It is these motives that drive Pip to succeed or die in the novel. First, Pip desires moral self-improvement. When he does something immoral, he will severely blame himself; this strong sense of guilt motivates him to do the right thing in the future. For example, when he left home for London, he experienced a fierce inner struggle and felt that he had done something wrong to Joe and Biddy. Secondly, Pip desires to improve his social status. Out of his love for Estella, Pip longs to be a member of Estella's class. With the encouragement of his sister and Pamplock, Pip immersed himself in the dream of becoming a gentleman all day long. Realizing Pip's dream of being a gentleman becomes the basic plot of the novel. Dickens took this opportunity to satirize the class system of his time and reveal its fickle nature. Apparently, Pip's life as a gentleman was "less satisfying than his apprenticeship as a blacksmith, and was morally bankrupt." Thirdly, Pip's desire for a good education must be connected with Pip's desire to improve his social status and marry Estella. To become a gentleman, a good education is essential. If he is just an ignorant country boy, he has no hope of entering the upper class. However, through the examples of Joe, Beatty and Marquis, Pip understands that a person's true value is not necessarily related to social status and education. Love and conscience are far more important than erudition and lofty social status.

Social Class

[1] In the novel "Fargo", Dickens conducted an in-depth discussion of the class system in Victorian England: from the most despicable criminal Magwitch to the poor farmers Joe and Biddy, from the middle class Pembroke to the wealthy Miss Hovisham.

Social class is the central theme throughout the novel, and eventually rises to the moral theme of the novel - Pip finally realizes that wealth and social status are far less important than love, loyalty and the intrinsic value of a person. Although Pip loves Estella deeply, Estella's social status has nothing to do with her personality. Although Dumar is a nobleman, he has low moral character; although Marquis is a criminal about to be hanged, he also has intrinsic value.

[2] Most importantly, the novel describes the class situation in Victorian England after the Industrial Revolution. Dickens despised the hereditary aristocracy but respected those who made their fortunes through labor. Although Miss Hovisham's fortune came from the distillery, she still relied on her own estate. Dickens links social class with the theme of self-pursuit, further emphasizing the novel's central themes of ambition and self-pursuit.

Crime, Guilty and Innocence

The novel mainly explores the theme of crime, guilt and innocence through the two characters of prisoner and criminal lawyer. Beginning with Joe forging handcuffs in the blacksmith's shop next to the gallows in a London prison, the book is filled with images of crime and criminal trials, becoming an important symbol for reconciling the conflict between Pip's inner conscience and the external justice system. Overall, just as social class is only a superficial standard of value, external institutions of justice (police, courts, prisons, etc.) are only superficial moral standards, and Pip must learn to find his best life above these standards. way and inner moral conscience.

Pip is afraid of Magwitch because he is a criminal; Pip helps Magwitch because he is afraid of the police, so he has a strong sense of guilt. At the end of the novel, Pip discovers Magwitch's noble inner qualities, so that he can ignore Magwitch's criminal identity at the judicial level. Out of conscience, he tries his best to help Magwitch escape from the police and the law. It is precisely because Pip learns to use his conscience to evaluate Magwitch's inner qualities that he eventually replaces the outer standard (criminal status) with the inner standard (a good person with high moral standards).

Duality of theme

[1] One of the most important characteristics of Dickens's works is the complexity and balance of structure. The plots in his works contain complex coincidences, intricate character relationships and rich drama. In the development process of the plot, the environment, atmosphere, events and characters are organically combined.

[2] In addition to the intricate character relationships, "The Long Walk" is perhaps the most dramatic symmetry among Dickens's works. A binary structure runs through the beginning and end of the novel. From the beginning to the end of the novel, almost every element is refracted and echoed in other aspects of the novel. Two criminals in the swamp (Marquis and Compeyson), two patients trapped in the house (Mrs. Joe and Miss Hovisham), two women who are interested in Pip (Biddy and Esther (pull), etc. In addition, there are two mysterious patrons: Marquage gave the property to Pip, and Pip secretly supported Herbert. There are also a pair of adults in the novel who try to shape their children according to their own preferences: Marquage hopes to have a gentleman and tries to cultivate Pip into such a person; Havisham tries to cultivate Estella into a woman who specializes in revenge against men. People, to soothe their wounded souls. What's interesting is that the actions of these two people were helped by Compeyson - Majiqi scorned Compeyson's status and knowledge, but he couldn't match it, so he decided to train Pip into a gentleman; Hao Weixiang because Compeyson didn't appear in Heartbroken at the church wedding, she longs for revenge through Estella. The relationship between Hao Weixiang and Compeyson - a woman of noble birth and a man of ordinary birth - further reflects the relationship between Pip and Estella.

[3] This pattern of dual elements does not give substance to the novel's theme, but like the relationship between weather and behavior, it allows us to understand that in Pip's world, everything It's all interconnected. Dramatic symmetry runs through all of Dickens's works and is an integral part of his fictional world.

Humans and Nonhumans

In "Fargo," the narrator uses the imagery of inanimate objects to describe the appearance of characters, especially minor characters or those unfamiliar to the narrator figure. Mrs. Joe, for example, looks like she's rubbing her face with nutmeg, and Mr. Wilmick's elusive appearance is always compared to a letterbox. Using such a technique might give the impression that the narrator lacks empathy for the characters, or suggest that under the pressures of life, these items that come in and out of the scene feel more like an object than a person. The latter interpretation suggests that the representation falls within the realm of social criticism in a general sense, suggesting that the class system or the criminal justice system dehumanizes certain people.

Symbolism

"Satis Park"

Dickens created a grand Gothic atmosphere in "Satis Park". Many things in it symbolize Pip's romantic delusions about upper class society as well as many other themes in the novel. The wedding dress worn by the elderly Miss Hovisham symbolizes death and decay, and is full of irony. Her wedding dress and wedding reception symbolize her past, the stationary clock in the house symbolizes her attempt to stop time, her refusal to change anything, she wants everything to be the same as it was when she was abandoned on her wedding day. The brewery next to the house symbolizes the connection between commerce and wealth: Miss Hao Weixiang's wealth was not the product of aristocratic birth, but the result of her successful operation in the development of industrial capitalism. Finally, the gray, dusty remains of the manor after it burned down symbolize the decay and depravity of the manor's residents and even the upper class as a whole.

Fog on the Swamp

The setting in Fargo almost always symbolizes a theme and sets a certain tone for the novel's dramatic action. Pip's childhood home, the foggy moors near Kent, is one of the most meaningful scenes in the novel, and the author uses it many times to symbolize danger and turmoil. When he was a child, Pip brought iron files and food to Magwitch in the fog; later, he was kidnapped by Orik and almost died in the foggy swamp. Whenever Pip walks into the fog, he is in danger. It is worth noting that when Pip travels to London shortly after receiving the mysterious sponsorship, but must cross these fog-shrouded marshes, it reminds the reader that this seemingly positive change in Pip's life may mean some kind of danger consequences.

Bentley-Shame

Although Bentley-Shame is only a minor character in the book, he forms an important contrast with Pip and shows class The authoritarian nature of difference. In Pip's mind, social morality and education into the upper class are closely linked, so the two are interdependent. As a member of the upper class, Chaum was both vulgar and cruel. His example proves to Pip that improvement in social status is not necessarily related to personal talents and morality. Xiao Mu is a fool, but he inherited a large fortune, while Pip's brother-in-law Joe is a good man, but he works hard all day long and gets little reward. Xiaomu contrasts sharply with the intrinsic value of characters such as Magwitch and Joe created by Pip, helping Pip finally give up his immature illusions about wealth and class and achieve a new, more compassionate , a more realistic understanding.