COMPARISON BETWEEN ABBOTT,DICKENS,BRONTE AND HARDY

ISON BETWEEN ABBOTT,DICKENS,BRONTE AND HARDY

VISION OF WOMEN :

² Abbott In his book "Flatland" women are the lower class and they're represented as lines. They're very dangerous and are thought to be also stupid creatures. They have to show always their position, in order to prevent incidents, moving their back and sounding a "peace-cry".

² Dickens Women are represented in two ways : as round or flat characters. They can be indifferent and cold as Mrs Mann, a flat character, or kind and gentle as Nancy and Rose Maylie , round characters.

² Bronte Her women are full of passions and feelings, but are also fragile and insecure. They commit errors and sometimes prefer to follow their mind instead of their heart.

² Hardy The main woman in Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is Tess, a humble girl, persecuted by a cruel destiny. She's a strong character, who accepts the conditions of her life. She's a victim and she always "chooses not to choose".

VISION OF NATURE:

² Abbott Nature in Abbott is made of geometrical ures.

² Dickens He does not describe nature in his works.

² Bronte Nature is not very important for her, but in a certain way it describes the feelings of the characters. The wild landscape reflects their violent passions and the desolate scenery of the Yorkshire moors are reflected in the psychological conflicts of the characters.

² Hardy The natural landscape reflects the various moments of joy and sorrow in Tess's life and her emotions. Sometimes it stands out as a cruel, indifferent contrast. For example, Tess falls in love with Angel in Summer, she's abandoned by him in November and she's executed on a July morning, when the sun "smiled on pitilessly".

NARRATOR :

² Abbott The narrator is first person and he's one of the characters of the story, Mr Square. So he tells the story by his point of view, narrating his own experiences.

² Dickens The narrator is third person and he's omniscient. He tells the story with great sarcasm, showing the opinion of the author.

² Bronte There are two different narrators : one is Nelly Dean, who tells the story of Catherine and Heathcliff to Mr Lockwood, and the other is Mr Lockwood the same. Nelly includes her opinions in the narration, while Mr Lockwood only writes down, in the form of a journal, what Nelly says.

POSITION TOWARDS VICTORIAN SOCIETY :

² Abbott He uses sarcasm to criticise Victorian society and to make the reader understand his opinion. He wants to make fun of the convictions of his society.

² Dickens He wants to attack the Laws of Victorian society and to make people aware of the miserable conditions of the poor. His aim is to criticise the Victorians in order to show how difficult life is. He also uses humour and irony, but the prevailing mood of his novels is pity. In this way people could realize how much indifferent, corrupted, bad-administered their society was.

² Bronte She has a different view of society. She doesn't want to criticise it, but only to create a far world separate from it.

² Hardy He condemns the Victorian hypocrisy, in particular the treatment of women. When Tess is seduced by Alec he's not subject to social condemnation and she's the only to suffer. So Angel's past love affair can be forgotten, but the same can't happen to Tess. This aspect of the novel shocked some readers of the time.