Dickens is one tough warden

Prison,  Dickens & Victorian England

It seems as though everything I've read & heard in this class this semester sounds like a type of prison. There is the obvious form as seen in A TALE OF TWO CITIES but there are also multiple other forms. Dickens has many characters in their own types of prison. 

Rokesmith/Harmon: He is imprisoned by his father's will. Upon his father's death, he has a wife & an inheritance. The inheritance may be a great thing but having no say in your partner doesn't suit him. To escape, he chooses to live a life of secrecy & continue his life as if he were the dead man found in the river by Hexam. In the end, he is able to overcome his imprisonment but going to such extremes in the beginning says a lot about his desires for a different life.

Lizzie: Early in the work, she is one of the most lovable, sympathetic characters. She is introduced in her father's boat & that is the first form of prison I see of her. She is at the mercy of her father who doesn't want her to be educated. She secretly learns via her brother Charlie. With her father's death, I have optimistic thoughts of her moving on with the life she chooses. Dickens has other ideas. She is harassed by her brother, Headstone & Wrayburn. She seeks the help of Riah & exiles herself to another town. She lives imprisoned in the distant life away from her home.

Veneerings/Lammles/Podsnaps: They all have one prison in common....societal standing. These families are so focused on their wealth & "keeping up with the Joneses" that lose sight of what's important in life. They have such potential but can't escape the chains of greed.

Jasper: Edwin Drood's uncle is simply imprisoned by his addiction. He is addicted to his opium, his love of Rose, & his envy of Edwin. While I'll never know if he's the reason Edwin disappears, part of me feels sorry for him. He can't escape his thoughts, desires & need for drugs.

Ned: Bless his heart! (As us Southerners would say) He is confined to his past. He wants to be a better person but his past continues to oppress him. He is convicted not on proof but on his past.

Joe Willet: If could just get away from his father, he might make in life. As of right now, he wants to join the service to escape. What he doesn't understand that military is another form of prison. He will be confined to the orders of his superiors. His father controls him now but he will soon be under the control of commanders. I don't know what's going to happen to him but running from one form of prison to another seems like the best choice for him at this point.

Riah: The Jew is a Jew. He is viewed, judged, & mistrusted for his religious belief. His religious choice imprisons him. While I don't think he should convert to Christianity to escape this, it does have a affect on how others view him. He chooses to prove everyone wrong by showing them that all Jews are not the same.

Dickens' works are full of characters in prison. Some are prisons they have chosen while others are placed upon them from outsiders. It seems as though every work the characters are looking to escape. If someone could only rescue them all...


Of course, I don't think it would be wise to rescue them.  We love them because we can relate to their troubles.  This may be Victorian England that Dickens is writing about but there are those struggling with these same issues in 2012.  While I long for some of my favorite characters to be "saved" I think the literature is all the better for these wayward souls.  Dickens shows us that one doesn't have to be behind steel bars to be imprisoned.

Victorian Author Olympics: Olive Schreiner

Olive Schreiner

Birth: in South Africa on March 24th, 1855 as the 9th child of a German Methodist missionary

Death: December 11th, 1920 in South Africa of a heart attack









Works:

• *The Story of an African Farm (1883); published under the pseudonym Ralph Iron; South Africa's first important novel
• *Undine (1929); published posthumously
• *From Man to Man; or, Perhaps only (1929); published posthumously
• -Dream Life and Real Life (1893)
• -Stories Dreams and Allegories (1923)
• Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897)
• Women and Labour (1911)
• 5500 Letters

*Novels dealing with the woman question and gender relations
-Short feminist fiction

Themes of her works:

• Sexual, racial and class oppression
• Male chivalry as oppressing women
• Against girl's finishing schools
• Gender roles are socially determined
• Gender and androgyny

Dickens connection:

• No formal education but read many of his early works
• Influenced by him

Facts:

• Raised strict Calvinist in the remote mission stations of the Cape Colony
• Family was financially unstable and left home at 15 to work as a governess and nurse for Afrikaner families
• Had a crisis of faith and was estranged from her parents
• Experienced sexual harassment and denigration at an early age which would haunt her the rest of her life
• Politically active
• 1884 she met the pre-Freudian sexologist Havelock Ellis; close friendship
• 1885 joined exclusive "Men and Women's Club" founded by Karl Pearson; discussed the future of gender, equality of the sexes and marriage reform
• 1894 married Samuel Cronwright (ostrich farmer, cattle breeder & freethinker); she wouldn't take his name so he became Cronwright-Scheiner
• Had a daughter who died at birth
• Her book Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland embarrased her brother who was the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony at the time
• 1913 headed to Italy for medical treatment but only made it to England; spend 6 year there visiting Havelock Ellis and his wife Edith
• While in England she wrote passionate antiwar pamphlets
• 1920 returned to South Africa
• Acquainted with leader of socialist movement but not certain she shared their views
• Friends included: Karl Marx's youngest daughter Eleanor; Edith Lees Ellis; Amy Levi; Edward Carpenter; Margaret Harkness; Bertrand Russell; Alys Pearsall Smith; Leslie Stephen; Arthur Symons; Thomas Fisher Unwin (her publisher)

Olive Schreiner's Letters
Olive Schreiner Bio