During the Middle Ages, authors of such works as Piers Plowman and the Canterbury Tales employed allegorical characters and situations to correct problematic behavior through religious instruction; they utilized the behavior of flat allegorical figures to highlight individual sins and institutional problems in social behavior. More specifically, one can find the allegory of the Seven Deadly Sins appearing in literature throughout history. It is the aim of this text to illustrate the way that Charles Dickenss David Copperfield is situated within allegorical tradition, and, particularly, it is the purpose of this study to examine the relation of Chaucers use of allegory to Dickenss text.
Dickens novel David Copperfield reflects the influence of medieval allegory, popularized by the morality play, in the English literary tradition, by employing an allegorical use of the Seven Deadly Sins parallel to Chaucers and to use these allegorical figures to urge social and individual reform. Dickenss text also provides evidence of a connection to Chaucers Canterbury Tales; Micawber notes For myself, My Canterbury Pilgrimage has done much (David Copperfield 738). Throughout the pilgrimage, David learns to temper his emotions through his struggles with those Vices that he encounters, and he comes to recognize, though he loved Steerforth, the imbalance that caused his heros fall. This study compares textual evidence and examines the Victorian readers familiarity with Chaucer and medieval allegory; these avenues of inquiry come together to bolster the notion that Dickens was indeed impacted by Chaucers allegorical use of the Seven Deadly Sins.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-08082008-115412 |
| Date | 08 August 2008 |
| Creators | Wiant, Martha Kate |
| Contributors | Linda Hughes |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/msword |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-08082008-115412/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0092 seconds