|
|
Christian Ethics and the Victorian Novel: The Child as a Christ Figure in Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, and The Master-Christian
Vítek, Jaroslav ; Beran, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
This diploma thesis contributes to the evolving field of religious/postsecular and ethical studies. In the first chapter, I position my thesis in the context of the religious and ethical turn of the humanities and narrow the scope of my focus to the Victorian novel, whose critical accounts were frequently misconstrued due to the application of the secularisation thesis. I then focus on the transposition of Christianity and its ethical functions from institutional affiliations to Victorian literature and literary criticism. I interpret an orphaned child as a Christ figure in three Victorian novels, whose selection illustrates the progress of the transposition from the early Victorian period to the end of the 19th century. I establish an interpretative frame, which I apply to the following analyses of the orphan character in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1837- 1838), George Eliot's Silas Marner (1861), and Marie Corelli's The Master-Christian (1900). In the second chapter, I interpret the eponymous character of Oliver Twist as the Christ figure, who brings the possibility of redemption and salvation from the ineffectual government institutions and London underground. Furthermore, Oliver establishes a heavenly kingdom on earth represented as a pastoral idyll at the end of the novel. I also focus on...
|
guest ::
