『블리크 하우스』- 디킨즈의 이상적 국가모델

문상화(Sangwha Moon) 19세기영어권문학회 2009 19세기 영어권 문학 Vol.13 No.1

In Bleak House Charles Dickens suggests his ideal model of a nation where healthy and diligent middle class people, represented by Esther Summerson and Allan Woodcourt, would control and govern. According to Charles Dickens, England in 1850s had suffered from various social problems: inefficiency of government institutes, incompetent aristocracy, ridiculous fashion of charity only focusing on foreign countries and serious living conditions of lower working class in England. Dickens seems to suggest that England needs new class in order to solve these serious problems. Dickens suggests that new class must be good at the rational way of thought and practical concept on economy. In Bleak House he shows that established ruling class and uneducated poor working class can not rule over England due to various reasons. He shows healthy middle class represented by Esther Summerson and Allan Woodcourt can and must take over the responsibility to control England.

『블리크 하우스』

문상화(Sangwha Moon) 19세기영어권문학회 2011 19세기 영어권 문학 Vol.15 No.2

In Bleak House that depicts the story of the case of Jarndyce, Dickens shows three categories of characters for social reform,: persons who ask for help, persons who give a help and persons who are qualitied to give a help. The persons of the first group represented by Mr. Turveydrop are dependent on the aids from others. The persons of the second group represented by Mrs. Jellyby are obstinate philanthropists who do not care about beneficiaries’ situation. The persons of the third group represented by Allan Woodcourt are professionals who are generous, having been aboard. Dickens suggests in Bleak House that Victorian society must be reformed with the aid of the persons of the third group. Dickens believes that people represented by Woodcourt can be pastor-like leader who show the definite way and compromise the conflicts between classes. In the end of the novel, the reason Jarndyce gave up Esther Summerson is Woodcourt seems to be the most suitable to the reform.

『물속의 아이들』 -진화론의 문학적 수용

문상화 ( Sangwha Moon ) 21세기영어영문학회 2016 영어영문학21 Vol.29 No.4

The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley reveals the conflict between creation and evolution. It is natural for Kingsley as a clergyman to believe in creation, and as a scientist to accept evolution. In The Water Babies, he tries to solve this contradiction. The book was written for adolescent readers for the purpose of moral education. The first part of the book describes the protagonist Tom, a chimney sweep, who jumps into the river to escape Mr. Grimes, and the second part of the book describes Tom`s journey to the Other-end-of-Nowhere in the water. His journey involves learning moral lessons, and he comes to understand moral evolution through the fairy Ellie, the personified Nature. The moral evolution in this story is the core that decides the direction of evolution. If some creatures refuse to abandon immoral attitudes due to inertia, they would be against evolution. Kingsley insists that there is no direction in evolution, and that it is the morality of creatures that decides the direction of evolution. I believe that Kingsley`s stance on moral evolution comes from his status as a clergyman. He could not deny either the teaching of creation in the Bible or the scientific explanation of evolution as a scientist. In oder to compromise the two conflicting positions, he suggests his own argument that evolution is possible, but that, without good morality, any creature cannot proceed toward better situations. Considering that The Water Babies was written for adolescent readers, we need not criticize the educational intention of this book. Rather, it is better for us to read The Water Babies as a parody of evolution, which had shaken the foundation of Victorian society, and to understand the work as a medicine for the anxiety of the Victorian Era.

『위대한 유산』에 나타난 여성성과 남성성의 갈등

문상화 ( Sangwha Moon ) 21세기영어영문학회 2015 영어영문학21 Vol.28 No.3

Great Expectations can be interpreted from the viewpoint of the struggle between the male and the female. In the context of the Victorian culture, men were supposed to be gentlemen with education, riches and gentle manners. As the aspiration for the ascent of status was huge among the middle and lower class people. they tried to get the means for the ascent through money, education and manners. Women were not different from the cases of men. They were enforced to be the angles of home, pressing their desire to enjoy themselves. This article shows that Great Expectations is the process of the harmony of feminity and masculinity. In this novel, feminity is symbolized through the heroin, Estella who tried to control her dominator through feminine fret and sexuality which were not allowed to reveal in the Victorian society. Masculinity, also, reveals masculine power through the process of the development of Pip who symbolizes the middle or lower class people. To Pip, the masculine power means the physical power to overwhelm the other in quarrel in addition to the manners of gentleman. These two aspects are not harmonized in the story, and they are mixed through holding of two characters at the end of the story, which means Dickens implies that the struggle between has been solves in the imaginary world.

에드윈 드루드의 비밀 : 디킨즈의 과거에 대한 시각 Dickens's Viewpoint to the Past

문상화 광주대학교 인문과학연구소 2002 인문과학 Vol.7 No.-

Although Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood has remained as an uncompleted novel due to the author's sudden death from overwork, the novel seems to have some clues to indicate Dickens' viewpoint to the past. We have to guess the mystery of Drood's disappearance with only the given clues because the novel was not finished yet. The problem is, however, the given clues include so various implications that we cannot learn the meaning of the clues in one reading. The vague or undefinable meanings of the clues remind me of the changing meaning of the past. In his The Principles of Geology, Charles Lyell argued that we could not reconstruct the accurate shape of the ancient temples with only fragmental knowledge even though we could approach the approximate structure, and this argument is repeated by Charles Darwin in his book. The Origin of species. The theme of vagueness of the past appears in The Mystery of Edwin Drood in three aspects: the real history of the Nun's House, the meaning of the inscribed letters P. J. T. and the disappearance of Edwin Drood. Like archaeological knowledge, which can be modified according to further excavations, the real meanings of the ambiguous proofs can be read differently depending on one's perspective to the past.

적자생존 : 에스터 썸머슨의 경우 The Case of Esther Summerson

文相和 광주대학교 인문과학연구소 1998 인문과학 Vol.4 No.-

Though the structure, plot, and imagery of Bleak House, Dickens dramatizes the conflict between progressive evolutionary theory and Christian ethics. The sheer force of the social world, unchecked at the denouement, reflects the dangers he sees in natural law's prevailing in tis culture. But the Biblical tropes. devolutionary imagery, and the romantic resolution of the communal world posits a world governed by imaginative, but material justice. This lopsided dialectic expresses the dilemma facing his audience. And, through his narrative structures. Dickens appeals to them to evolve the Christian tradition into empirical altruism.