CHAPTER 4
CHARLES DICKENS : ART OF PLOT CONSTRUCTION
Introduction : Charles Dickens is a good story-teller, but there is absence of a good plot in his novels. The kind of plot he had inheritor from Fielding and Smolett, was picaresque and melodramatic. Hic plots are usually weak. According to David Cecil :
“Dickens cannot construct for one thing, his books have no organic unity they are full of detachable episodes, characters who serve no purpose in furthering the plot.”
His Circumstances : Dickens has been criticised for the looseness of his plots. He could not construct a form in which to set down his apprehension of the world. Allen has observed :
“Charles Dickens wrote as an improviser, caring little about unity of plot or probability except loosely to tie up the end of the action in the last chapter. So his novels… are often like shapeless bags into which all manner of different objects, of varying shapes and sizes, have been ruthlessly crammed. They contain something for everybody, and the parts you do not like you can more or less ignore.”
All this is true but we should not lose sight of his circumstances Dickens had not before him any certain and polished form of the novel | Points to Remember when he began to write. It had so far 1. Introduction been merely a picaresque romantic | 2. His Circumstances tale, a mere record of events. It was 3. No Artistic unity just taking on the form of a plotted 4. Improbable and Superfluous narrative and an analysis of
Parts character. At such a time the work
5. No plan or Invention before Dickens was not that of writing
6. Plot Subordinated to
character novels. He was mainly concerned with
7. Unnatural closing Scenes producing a story suitable for
8. A Well-told Story publication in monthly instalments. |david copperfield book pdf
9. Conclusion. He had to keep the interest of the public alive and gave a climax with proper excitement to every instalment to make the readers wait for the next number.
No Artistic Unity : His plots are not organic wholes. There is no artistic unity because a number of episodic stories, not related to the main theme, are introduced. The narrative has much that is superfluous and is, thus, incoherent. There are coincidences which are highly misplaced. Things do not happen in a proper and natural david copperfield book pdf
manner but when and where Dickens introduces them almost wilfully. His plots become artificial and unnatural because of this misuse of coincidence.
Improbable and Superfluous Parts : Dickens’s plots have much that is unconvincing because it is improbable. Instead of the plain motives of human life his plots have absurd and fantastic things. “There is no real pressure on reality, no logic of cause and effect.”Incidents are detached from one another and pieces of good or evil fortune happen without causes or consequence. Gissing says:
“Too often the novelist (Dickens) prefers some far-fetched eccentricity, some piece of knavishness, some unlikely occurrence, about which to weave his tale.”
There is often much tedious superfluity. A chapter frequently opens with a long passage of tedious moralizing, not at all related to the story. The situations are unnatural because, it seems, Dickens could never contrive a probable situation. He gives us scenes which he intends to be very effective but which lack substance and, therefore, fall flat.
No Plan or Invention : Dickens keeps some circumstances long concealed for the purpose of his story but he cannot bring them out at the right place and moment. He cannot contrive a story well. He moves in such a manner that he finds himself surrounded by complications and is forced to use unnatural means to untie the knots. Sometimes he gives us very wild things because he has great fondness for melodramatic effects. Dickens suffers from poverty of invention. Some of his stories are unhappily conceived. He introduces intrigues only because some intrigue is necessary. The theatrical situations are generally unconvincing. He introduces in his novels merely david copperfield book pdf conventional factors and artificial intrigues in the manner of Fielding. STE Plot Subordinated to Character : The main interest of Dickens’s plots lies in character and not very much in the story. Plot is subordinated to character. Sometimes there are characters which have no organic relation with the plot. Dickens stretches the plot to accommodate them, with the result that do not permanently fit in and sometimes, when we remember one of them for some quality, we cannot recall to mind the novel in which we met that character. Hugh Walker says :
“One of Dickens’s faults as an artist is to introduce unnecessary characters, characters who drop in from nowhere, exercise no influence on the story, and sometimes disappear unnoticed.”
He often sacrifices unity and integrity of plot in the interest of character because he cares more for character than for plot. Plot there is, but it is broken and disturbed by the characters. There is humorous Cnversation for several pages, and when we return to the main stom. we find it difficult to piece together the old threads which have got lost in the conversation. As David Cecil says:
*Very often he leaves a great many threads loose till the very last napter; and then finds there is not enough time to tie them neatly. The main strands are knotted roughly together, the minor wisps are left hanging forlornly.”
Unnatural Closing Scenes : The result of the carelessness mentioned above is that Dickens’s closing scenes are forced and unnatural. They are often contrived in the tradition of the theatre. A happy end is forced and becomes unnatural. He takes care that the story ends with poetic justice. The virtuous are suitably rewarded and the wicked punished, of course. This, like other conventional factors in his plots, results from Dickens’s fondness for the theatre and the picaresque tradition. The construction is sometimes loose because he had to write rapidly for the next instalment.
A Well-told Story : In spite of all his shortcomings Dickens is a very good story-teller. David Cecil says:
“Dickens may not construct the story well, but he tells it admirably. With the first sentence he grips the attention of the readers let it go till the very end.”
Conclusion : Dickens was more interested in character plots. In most of his novels, plot is subordinated to the of Dickens’s novels were serialized in monthly Copperfield was initially published in twenty instalm David Copperfield was characterized by a large numai also.