毕业论文关键词：雾都孤儿，南希，性格特点，人物形象，人性之美

CONTENTS 

Acknowledgments….i 

Abstract…..ii 

摘要….iii 

1 Introduction…2

1.1 Charles Dickens….2

1.2 The Main Story of Oliver Twist..3

2 An Analysis of Nancy’s Double Character…..…..5

2.1 Nancy’s Evil Parts of Nature…..….5

2.2 Nancy’s Good Nature..6 

3 The Reasons for Nancy’s Double Character…..9

3.1 Nancy’s Humble Birth..…9

3.2 Influence of Capitalist Society on Nancy’s Character11

4 Nancy’s Beauty of Human Nature…14

4.1 Nancy’s Kindness14

4.2 Nancy’s Bravery..15

4.3 Nancy’s Faithfulness to Love15

5 Conclusion…17

Bibliography…18

1 Introduction

Charles Dickens was an eminent critical realist in the mid 19th century. He has a great deal of sympathy for the miseries and an intense feeling for the poor laboring masses. He fought against social injustice but he had never thought of overwhelming the existing social order. By exposing the social injustice and the flaws of the upper class, he puts his mind into describing the miserable life of the common people. Dickens gives an authentic picture of capitalist England of that time and he creates many lifelike characters with vivid descriptions which impress the readers deeply in their memory after reading Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist is one of his masterpieces which marked the beginning of his literary life. This novel was famous for exposing the dark sides of people lived out of that time. 

In Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Nancy is a character of multiple contradictions, which have led to her fate. This paper aims to explore the causes of shaping Nancy’s double characters from different perspectives and Nancy as a drawn character is the product of the capitalist system of exploitation in that era. In this novel, Nancy is a typical character who lived in the bottom of the society. The novel mainly reflects the life of the lowest class in England, and justice and evil. It praises people’s integrity, goodness and conscience. It also criticizes the hypocrisy of British charity and the tyranny of the Security Police. By digging the mind in Dickens’ heart of hearts and associating with modern society, it will be helpful for readers to appreciate Dickens’ work.

1.1 Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is a prominent and great novelist of the United Kingdom in 19th century. He was born in an impecunious clerk’s family in Portsmouth. Although having little schooling, Charles Dickens is the second to Shakespeare in terms of the influence on the world literature. When he was only 11, his family fell into debt prison because of his father’s debt, and he had no choice but to become a child labor in a shoe polish workshop for a living. The painstaking experience left great psychological trauma in his young childhood, so that he extremely concerned about and sympathized for the unfortunate children. Furthermore, he was devoted to fighting for getting rid of the poverty throughout his life. Dickens’ life experience represents in his writing: by his creation of many true-to-life figures like orphans, urchins, shopkeepers, rogues, child labor, and widows, etc, which are all pulled from the raven streets of London. Since the publication of Oliver Twist, critical realism literature had gradually occupied a dominant position in the English literature. Dickens not only made a profound characterization of typical figures at that time, but also more importantly made a profound analysis of the social status, character and special social environment. Through his critical realism, we can clearly feel the era’s atmosphere and vivid character’s picture of life. His critical realism also plays a significant role in promoting contemporary literature, the influence of which can still be sensed nowadays. Today’s society is more perse, because people’s value orientation is more different and people’s behavior is more personalized, which gives rise to many undesirable phenomena. Some people are deeply lost in material pleasure so that humanity between them is too cold and detached to sense. These phenomena are all worthy of reflecting and thinking. Through the use of critical realism in Oliver Twist, Dickens exposes the social evils at his time, as well as inspires people at his time. Meanwhile, it also provokes us to rethink all kinds of negative social phenomena, and guides us to be aware of the establishment of a correct life outlook and values in order to achieve the ideal of life.