The themes of uncertainty, muddle and imprisonment, which are inextricably linked, permeate Charles Dickens’s novels. In his ‘early’ first five novels, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge, society is depicted as emerging from the Classical episteme of the eighteenth century into a period of uncertainty that is dominated by values inspired by mercantilism. Social and bureaucratic institutional practices have been outpaced by commercial developments and are shown to be lacking; they are outdated and irrelevant in meeting the needs of a society that is in the process of rejecting its feudal history. Yet, during these uncertain times, these archaic instruments of social control continue to exert a power over the individual in the absence of something more relevant to a commercialised nineteenth-century society. The legislature, the judiciary and the executive all continue to exercise their misguided power over those under their control, capturing these in webs and labyrinths of uncertainty, with the result that Mr Pickwick, Oliver, Nicholas, Little Nell and Barnaby all fall victim to these vagaries, and experience prison in one form or another. The second, or ‘middle’ group of novels, comprising Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House and Hard Times, reveal something different. Although institutions are still depicted as deeply flawed, Dickens shifts his focus from the inadequacies of social institutions to the flawed individuals who inhabit this defective society; individuals who are required to rid themselves of their flaws in order to achieve authenticity and, thus, enable a regeneration within society to take place. The ‘final’ novels, Little Dorrit, The Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend, seem to suggest that the ambit of commercialisation, with its skewed values, is so all-encompassing that no character is able to escape its clutches. The result is a society and its citizens who are inescapably imprisoned in their respective physical, emotional and moral prisons. This thesis examines the development and consequences of institutional uncertainty on the individual and on society. It is argued that Dickens follows a Foucauldian trajectory, initially visiting the uncertainties of the times on the bodies of his characters during the early nineteenth century, attempting to create ‘docile bodies’ of his characters through discipline and punishment of the soul in the middle of the century and, finally, in the second half of the century, revealing an entire society caught up in the morass of uncertainty from which there appears to be no escape. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

Die vorliegende Untersuchung arbeitet die wesentlichen gesellschaftspolitischen und ökonomischen Entwicklungslinien heraus, die sich während der geschichtlichen Umbruchphase um 1830 im deutschen Raum aus dem letzten Akt von Goethes Faust II ableiten lassen. Tiefgreifende politische, wirtschaftlich-technische und kulturelle Umwälzungen zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts wirkten auf Goethe als Zeitgenossen ein und wurden von ihm in seinem literarischen Spätwerk verarbeitet. Aus Goethes Alterswerk Faust II heraus lassen sich Konstanten und Entwicklungen seiner Zeit sichtbar machen und, immer eingebettet in den zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext, konkret nachweisen. Diese Ausarbeitung will aufzeigen, dass Goethe im letzten Akt von Faust II einen sich zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts vollziehenden – und teils bereits vollzogenen - Wandel der menschlichen Geisteshaltung attestiert. Säkularisierung und zweckorientierte Rationalität, Beschleunigung, Enthumanisierung und Unterwerfung von Mensch und Natur stehen hierbei im Mittelpunkt. Fausts aus seinem Pakt mit dem Teufel entstandene Welt nimmt die uns heute umgebende vorweg, die geprägt ist von Datenflut, elektronischen Medien, einer von Alltagshektik geprägten Realität und systemimmanenten Expansionsstreben. Allein dies verleiht dem Drama ein unübersehbar hohes Gegenwartspotential. / This thesis explores the trends of socio-political developments during the period of historical changes in Germany around 1830 that can be deduced from Act V of Goethe´s Faust II. Profound political, technical, economic and cultural changes at the beginning of the nineteenth century had an impact on Goethe as a contemporary and appear in his late literary work. Thus specific constants and developments of his time are also presented in and can be deduced from one of the great literary works of the aged poet, Faust II. This paper shows that the final act of Faust II Goethe reveals profound changes in human mentality that took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century and partly even before: Secularization and ruthless rationality with a tendency to acceleration, de-humanization and unscrupulous submission of human beings and nature. The world that originated from Faust´s pact with the devil in Faust II anticipates the reality surrounding us nowadays, a reality characterized by a flood of data, electronic media and the hectic pace of everyday life, - a fact vouching for the play´s striking modernity. / Classics & World Languages / M.A. (German)

Die vorliegende Untersuchung arbeitet die wesentlichen gesellschaftspolitischen und ökonomischen Entwicklungslinien heraus, die sich während der geschichtlichen Umbruchphase um 1830 im deutschen Raum aus dem letzten Akt von Goethes Faust II ableiten lassen. Tiefgreifende politische, wirtschaftlich-technische und kulturelle Umwälzungen zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts wirkten auf Goethe als Zeitgenossen ein und wurden von ihm in seinem literarischen Spätwerk verarbeitet. Aus Goethes Alterswerk Faust II heraus lassen sich Konstanten und Entwicklungen seiner Zeit sichtbar machen und, immer eingebettet in den zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext, konkret nachweisen. Diese Ausarbeitung will aufzeigen, dass Goethe im letzten Akt von Faust II einen sich zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts vollziehenden – und teils bereits vollzogenen - Wandel der menschlichen Geisteshaltung attestiert. Säkularisierung und zweckorientierte Rationalität, Beschleunigung, Enthumanisierung und Unterwerfung von Mensch und Natur stehen hierbei im Mittelpunkt. Fausts aus seinem Pakt mit dem Teufel entstandene Welt nimmt die uns heute umgebende vorweg, die geprägt ist von Datenflut, elektronischen Medien, einer von Alltagshektik geprägten Realität und systemimmanenten Expansionsstreben. Allein dies verleiht dem Drama ein unübersehbar hohes Gegenwartspotential. / This thesis explores the trends of socio-political developments during the period of historical changes in Germany around 1830 that can be deduced from Act V of Goethe´s Faust II. Profound political, technical, economic and cultural changes at the beginning of the nineteenth century had an impact on Goethe as a contemporary and appear in his late literary work. Thus specific constants and developments of his time are also presented in and can be deduced from one of the great literary works of the aged poet, Faust II. This paper shows that the final act of Faust II Goethe reveals profound changes in human mentality that took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century and partly even before: Secularization and ruthless rationality with a tendency to acceleration, de-humanization and unscrupulous submission of human beings and nature. The world that originated from Faust´s pact with the devil in Faust II anticipates the reality surrounding us nowadays, a reality characterized by a flood of data, electronic media and the hectic pace of everyday life, - a fact vouching for the play´s striking modernity. / Classics and World Languages / M.A. (German)