Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that
attempts to analyze a specific field as a complex system of interrelated parts. Thus,
meaning is produced and reproduced within a culture through various practices,
phenomena, and activities. Especially after World War II, structuralism rejected the
concept of human freedom and choice; instead it focuses on the way that human behavior
is determined by various structures.
While Charles Dickens
lived much before World War II, his writings evidence this belief in the determination
of human behaior by such various structures. His character, Mr. Jaggers, often gives
voice to this belief. For instance, when Pip goes to the lawyer to ask about Estella's
true history, Mr. Jaggers explains why she was given to Miss Havisham to raise; the act
was an attempt to counter the determining control of Victorian society upon the destiny
of the poor:
Put the case that he often saw children solemnly
tried at the criminal bar, where they were held up to be seen; put the case that he
habitually knew of their being imprisoned, whipped, transported, neglected, cast out,
qualified in all ways for the hangman, and growing up to be hanged. ...Put the case that
here was one pretty little child out of the heap, who could be saved....Put the case
that this was
done....
Likewise, the
history of Abel Magwitch witnesses this determination of behavior for one who is born
into what Dickens termed the "prison of poverty." He tells Pip that to survive, he had
to be involved in
Tramping, begging, thieving, working sometimes
when I could...[he was] a bit of a poacher, ...a bit of a haymaker, a bit of a hawker, a
bit of most things that don't pay and lead to
trouble....
When arrested for
his involvement with Compeyson, Magwitch received the harsher sentence although
Compeyson was the more culpable, because Compeyson looked "the
gentleman."
Similarly, Pip is confined to his class in
Great Expectations. As a boy, he is told that he is "common." His
story is one of an individual's growth within a strict social order. Pip's craving for
social advancement outside his own culture is cause for his mistaken values on social
prestige and money. His narrow view of the world, brought on by his initial low social
status, is, however, much improved by his association with the gentleman Herbert Pocket
and Mr. Jaggers clerk, Mr. Wemmick, who both demonstrate kindness and love. Through his
experiences, then, Pip's "great expectations" of becoming a gentleman socially mature
into the realization that a true gentleman is one who possesses not merely social
status, but also
humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment