Obwohl sich Charles Dickens zu Lebzeiten vehement gegen die Verfremdung von Märchen aussprach, enthalten seine eigenen Werke eine Vielzahl an Elementen aus jenem Genre. In "A Christmas Carol" dominieren diese Motive Elemente des Rationalen und machen die Erzählung somit zu einer Ghost Story, während Märchenelemente in "Great Expectations" in ihrer Funktion oder ihrer Erscheinung so verkehrt sind, dass sie den ironischen Fall des Protagonisten Pip vorrausdeuten. Nach einer kurzen Nennung der für dieses Essay wichtigen Merkmale von Märchen wird hier Dickens Verwendung von Märchenmotiven in "A Christmas Carol" und "Great Expectations" untersucht und verglichen.
Table of Contents
1. Fairy Tale Elements in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol
Objectives and Topics
The primary objective of this essay is to examine how Charles Dickens integrates and manipulates traditional fairy tale motifs within the realistic frameworks of his novels "A Christmas Carol" and "Great Expectations." The research explores how these magical elements serve to challenge the protagonists' worldviews and, in the case of Scrooge, facilitate a moral transformation, while in "Great Expectations," they ironically underscore the failure of the protagonist's ambitions.
- The function of fairy tale machinery in a realistic Victorian setting.
- The characterization of Scrooge through the juxtaposition of utilitarianism and irrational, magical intervention.
- The inversion of fairy tale tropes within the setting of Satis House.
- Miss Havisham’s duality as both a witch-like figure and a trapped princess.
- The communicative role of fairy tale elements between the narrator and the reader.
Excerpt from the Book
Fairy Tale Elements in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol
Fairy tale motifs are a repetitive feature of Charles Dickens´s style. Besides gothic, grotesque, comedic, romantic, realist or journalistic elements, fairy tales are mirrored and hinted at by plots like David Copperfield´s Cinderella story, by figures such as Good Mrs Brown, by the constant allusion to the Arabian Nights, or by associated phrases like “[o]nce upon a time” in the beginning of A Christmas Carol. Dickens´s admiration for nursery tales is expressed in stories like The Magic Fishbone or the Christmas Books, and their significance is passionately defended in Frauds on the Fairies. In this article, he pleads for taking and preserving them “as if they were actual fact” (victorianweb.org). Hence, authors who change fairy tales both in form and meaning like his friend George Cruikshank are criticized harshly: “Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him” (victorianweb.org).
Even though this statement refers to the changing of a whole nursery tale, Dickens´s own use of fairy plots and parallels, marvellous places and protagonists is not far away from the editing he finds fault with. He cuts off images and plots from the world of the marvellous and transplants them into a realistic context. In A Christmas Carol, these motifs dominate the rational elements and make it A Ghost Story, whereas in Great Expectations, fairy tale elements are inverted to foreground the ironic failure of the protagonist´s dreams. In this essay, Dickens´s usage of fairy tale elements in these two novels will be analysed after naming some features of the fairy tale that are relevant for the following analysis.
Summary of Chapters
1. Fairy Tale Elements in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol: This chapter introduces Dickens's affinity for fairy tales, the theoretical definition of the genre according to Steven Swann Jones and Jutta Eming, and outlines the analytical scope regarding the juxtaposition of the marvellous and the realistic in two of his major novels.
Keywords
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Fairy Tale Motifs, Utilitarianism, Satis House, Miss Havisham, The Marvellous, Realism, Victorian Literature, Narrative Theory, Threshold Crossing, Literary Criticism.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this academic paper?
The paper focuses on the deliberate use of fairy tale elements by Charles Dickens in his novels "A Christmas Carol" and "Great Expectations," specifically how these elements interact with realistic narrative contexts.
What are the central thematic fields discussed?
The core themes include the interplay between rationalism and the marvellous, the transformation of character through irrational influence, and the subversion of classic fairy tale archetypes.
What is the primary research goal of the work?
The goal is to analyze how Dickens employs fairy tale machinery to critique societal attitudes and shape the trajectories of his protagonists, either toward redemption or ironic failure.
Which scientific method does the author employ?
The author uses a comparative literary analysis, referencing established fairy tale theory (such as that of Steven Swann Jones and Harry Stone) to examine text-internal motifs and narrative structures.
What does the main body of the text cover?
The main body examines the specific manifestation of fairy tale elements in "A Christmas Carol" as a tool for Scrooge's moral growth, and in "Great Expectations," where similar elements are inverted to highlight Pip's misfortune.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include fairy tale motifs, utilitarianism, Satis House, narrative irony, Dickensian realism, and the concept of the marvellous.
How does Scrooge represent the conflict between rationalism and the marvellous?
Scrooge embodies a hard-core utilitarian, reductionist worldview that rejects irrational emotion; the supernatural ghosts function as the necessary irrational force to break this worldview and induce empathy.
What makes Satis House a uniquely "inverted" fairy tale space?
Unlike classic fairy tale thresholds that lead to adventure and growth, Satis House functions as a stagnant, decaying realm that traps the protagonist and leads to his social and psychological collapse.
How is Miss Havisham’s characterization linked to fairy tale archetypes?
She is dually characterized as a witch-like figure controlling Pip’s fate and a withered, tragic "princess" figure, emphasizing her role as both a captor and a prisoner within her own house.
What role does the narrator play in "A Christmas Carol" regarding the reader?
The narrator uses direct appeals to the reader to bridge the gap between the sceptical, rationalist worldview and the accepting, "believing" mindset required to engage with the moral lessons of the story.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Franz Kröber (Autor:in), 2011, Fairy Tale Elements in Charles Dickens´s "A Christmas Carol" and "Great Expectations" , München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/189371
