Subject: "The image of a positive hero in the works of Charles Dickens on the example of novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"

course paper

Subject: "The image of a positive hero in the works of Charles Dickens on the example of novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"

Plan

Introduction
Chapter I. Charles Dickens ' place in nineteenth-century English literature
1.1 Critical Realism in nineteenth-century English Literature
1.2 Brief description of Ch. ' s creative work By Dickens
Chapter II. Images of positive characters in the works of Dickens
2.1 A positive character in literature
2.2 Biography of Dickens as a source of images of positive characters in his work
2.3 Images of positive characters in novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction

The subject of this research is images of positive characters in the works of Charles Dickens; the topic is revealed on the example of novels "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"."

In "Oliver Twist" Dickens first addressed the question of the interaction of the individual and society, the child's personality and its surrounding social environment; he is one of the few writers who portray with amazing skill the fate of children in modern society, their characters, complex inner world and diverse experiences. Dombey Dickens ' image of Paul opens up an unprecedented exploration of the child's view of life; the image of Paul opens up new horizons in the image of a child. [7]
The aim of the research is to analyze the images of positive characters in Dickens ' works, to identify their most characteristic features, to identify the sources of images of positive characters in the writer's work, and to conduct a comparative characterization of the characters (using the example of specific works).
The subject of research is the work of Charles Dickens as a great realist, the creator of immortal images in literature; the object of research is novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"."
The main method used in the study is the method used when considering two or more works – the comparative method; the method of literary text analysis is partially applied.
Relevance of the work: Dickens and his work are widely known in our country, despite the fact that the first acquaintance of the Russian reader with the English novelist occurred more than a hundred years ago (then Dickens became one of the most beloved foreign writers in Russia). The images of his positive characters still excite readers today, embodying faith in a person, love for him, and warm and sincere sympathy for his situation. Vital truth, subtle psychological analysis, deep humanism in the portrayal of positive characters-ordinary people with their joys and troubles – this is what makes the works of the great English realist relevant and interesting for any reader.
The practical significance of the work is that its materials can be used by students when analyzing Dickens ' works, in particular, when analyzing the images of positive characters in the writer's work, as well as when writing works on similar topics ("The main features of Dickens 'positive hero", "The evolution of a positive hero in the works of Dickens").
The theoretical basis of the work is the works of domestic and foreign scientists devoted to the life and work of Charles Dickens (see bibliography); the analysis of images of positive characters is based on the analysis of novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"."

Chapter 1. The Place of Ch.Dickens in nineteenth-century English Literature

1.1 Critical Realism in nineteenth-century English Literature

Realism established itself in English literature as a leading trend in the 30-40s of the XIX century, reaching its heyday in the second half of the 40s. realis is a method and direction in art based on a truthful and objective representation of reality. [1]

Critical (or social) realism replaced enlightenment realism in nineteenth-century literature; its typology was defined by the following features::
- the principle of social conditioning of characters ' characters and events;
- the characters of the works contain collective features of any social group (typical features);
- a special form of psychologism (the inner world of the hero is depicted in connection with the conditions of his life);
- historicism (the character acts as a hero of the time, a person of the epoch) and objective reproduction of reality based on a deep knowledge of life material;
- a combination of typical features and deep individualization in the image of characters, as well as the image of their characters in development. [6]
In the 1830s and 40s, the novel genre was gaining popularity in English literature – the realistic novel combined the best achievements of the enlightenment novel, the discoveries of romantics and the experience of creating a historical novel (W. Scott). The best works of English critical realism are being created:"Dombey and Son"."Dickens, "Vanity Fair" W.Thackeray, "Jane Eyre", "Shirley" by Sh.Bronte, "Mary Barton" E.Gaskell. Although England, having entered a new phase of development, won a leading position on the international stage in industry and trade, the position of the masses of the people contradicted the official version of "universal prosperity". Critical realists helped their contemporaries reflect on the fundamental problems of the era, revealing to them the depth of social contradictions – not "good old England", but a country torn by contradictions, in which the class struggle did not subside, was depicted in their works. [2]
In their work, the English realists comprehensively reflected the life of modern society; they made the object of criticism and ridicule not only individual representatives of the bourgeois-democratic environment, but also the system of laws and orders that was established by those in power. realist writers pose problems of great social significance and directly lead the reader to the conclusion about the inhumanity and injustice of the existing social system. The English realists turned to the main conflict of the epoch – the conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In a Dickens novel "Hard Times", in"Shirley" Bronte and "Mary Barton" Gaskell presents the problem of the relationship between capitalists and workers. [4] The novel's social and geographical boundaries expand: the slums of London and the English countryside, small factory towns and large industrial centers. There is also a new type of hero – these are not just people from the people, they are people who think deeply about life, feel subtly, react warmly to their surroundings and actively act (John Barton in the novel "Mary Barton" E. Gaskell, poor governess Jane Eyre, heroine of the novel of the same name by S. Bronte, blacksmith Joe in the Dickens novel "High hopes").
New features of the English critical novel are also revealed in the epic multi-dimensional scale in the depiction of society, which novelists strive for – many works can be called "encyclopedia of life" - as Charles Dickens in the novel "David Copperfield" seeks to convey the "movement of life", which he figuratively compares to an ever-flowing river, silently carrying its waters from the sea. from childhood to adolescence and to the years of maturity [1]. The mastery of portraying the human personality in interaction with the environment and conditioned by circumstances is also deepened – the same David Copperfield is shown in the process of formation and development of his character, in contradictions and internal struggle.
However, after 1848, the works of such major realist writers as Thackeray, Bronte, and Gaskell lost their former accusatory power – in the novel "Newcomers" compared with "Vanity Fair" significantly reduced the power of Thackeray's satirical exposure of bourgeois-aristocratic England. After "Jane Eyre" and "Shirley" Bronte did not create more significant works on their subject. In "Mary Barton"Gaskell raised the actual problem of the workers' situation, but her subsequent works ("Ruth", "The New York Times", etc.)Cranford") are significantly inferior "Mary Barton" in ideological and artistic terms. [4] One of the major English novelists, George Alist, tries to lead the reader away from solving big questions of a social nature altogether. Even in her best novel "Mill on the Floss" shallow copying of reality replaces broad generalizations, the writer replaces deep knowledge and analysis of reality with superficial descriptiveness. [5]
Large canvases, brought to life by the rise of the working-class movement and reflecting the socio-political and private life of various social strata of English society, are being replaced in the works of English critical realists by works that are more and more distant from the pressing problems of our time and touch only on individual, private vices of capitalist society; English critical realism is entering a period of crisis [1].
But the creativity of Ch.Dickens stands out sharply from the general background of English literature of those years; realism in his works does not decrease, but reaches even greater strength and depth of generalizations. Among his most significant works of the 50s are "Bleak House","Little Dorrit","Hard times" - Dickens remains a staunch and consistent defender of the basic principles of critical realism: these works raise important social issues, bring out wonderful images of ordinary people (A Lonely Tom, workers, an Inhabitant of the Farmstead of Broken Hearts) – the writer's worldview becomes even more democratic, satire prevails over humor in his works. Dickens does not limit himself to portraying individual aspects of English reality-creating such generalized images as the Chancery Court in "Bleak House" and "The Court of Chancery".Ministry of Circumlocution" b "Little Dorrit", he sought to show the bourgeois system as a whole. [3]
The world of images represented by critical realism is the whole of Victorian England, the whole society of that time. Striving for an objective reproduction of reality, critical realists reflected the patterns of social and political life in circumstances and conflicts. [1] And perhaps no one has been able to express all the social tensions, all the contradictions of his era, as fully as Charles Dickens.
realism literature novel hero
1.2 Brief description of Ch. ' s creative workBy Dickens

Charles Dickens is one of those great writers who make up the pride of national English culture; a whole epoch in the development of English literature is connected with his work. Among the remarkable galaxy of critical realists, whose speech in the 30-40s had a wide socio-political resonance, Dickens was the most prominent representative.

Dickens ' realism has always been democratic - like other critical realists, he turned to a new hero-the common man in his daily struggle for existence. Dickens strongly opposed the position of the so-called "reactionary romantics"(Collins, Reid, Tennyson), who led the reader away from the truth of life or deliberately embellished it. Dickens remained true to the basic principle of critical realism-to be true to the truth of life:"But one of the goals of this book is to show the harsh truth..." [9]
Behind the exaggerated, grotesque figures of Dickens – both comic and tragic-lies the truth of the image, the truth of great art. In some collision with the truth of life, the traditionally successful endings of Dickens ' works inevitably come – for example, in "Oliver Twist" Oliver's happy finding of a family and even some property collides with the logic of reality itself – the desire to prove the inevitability of the victory of good over evil is too obvious here; this is more the end of a fairy tale than a realistic novel, in this case Dickens the moralist clearly contradicts Dickens the artist. But Dickens's images of life in the workhouse and the London slums are deeply realistic. The story of Oliver Twist in the workhouse is an account of the brutality with which the Victorian system suppressed the disenfranchised, faceless lower classes of society, and how brutal and ruthless this system was, even if it was carried out within the framework of the law: "... all poor people were given a choice (since, of course, they did not want anyone else). they wanted to force me to either slowly starve to death in the workhouse, or quickly die outside its walls" [9].
In the words of an English critic,"Dickens was deeply connected in spirit with ordinary people... unlike our newspaper demagogues, he did not write what the people wanted – he wanted what the people wanted" [7]. To portray the society of his time – this is the conscious goal of Charles Dickens.
Traditionally, there are four main periods in Dickens ' work. The first category includes his early humorous essays ("sketches"), published in 1836 as a separate book ("Essays by Boz") and attract readers with humor and fine observation. In his essays, Dickens acts as an urbanist writer, a life writer of London. Knowing and loving this vast city, which is striking in its contrasts, Dickens writes "pictures from nature": clerks, shopkeepers, cabmen, delivery boys-about them he tells many funny and sad stories [4]. "Essays by Boz" is called a kind of prologue to the work of Dickens-the novelist: here he is not just a sharp observer and a witty storyteller – he sympathizes with his characters and loves them. The same period also includes "Notes of the Pickwick Club" - a novel in which Dickens ' skill as a humorist was fully manifested. But Pickwick is not only a comic hero: he attracts with his kindness, honesty, trustfulness to people, unwillingness to put up with injustice. At the same time, the writer's early social novels were created – "Oliver Twist" and "Nicholas Nickleby" - after the publication of which Dickens rightfully took a place among the largest realist writers.
Exactly in "Oliver Twist" the hero becomes a child-Dickens was one of the first to address the child as a positive hero, revealing his tragic fate in the bourgeois world, depicting his touching spontaneity and responsiveness.
In the preface to "To Oliver Twist" Dickens for the first time formulates the program of his work, emphasizing that one of the tasks of his book is to show the "harsh truth" and be faithful to it to the end – this is the main principle of critical realism. [2]
The second period of Dickens ' creative work covers 1842-48, the most significant work created at this time – "Dombey and Son"." In this novel, the writer's realistic skill reaches its peak. The novel was created during the period of the highest rise of Chartism in England and in the midst of revolutionary events in other countries. The experience of life, the wealth of observations, the heated atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Europe, through which Dickens traveled, allowed him to create a work with great ideological depth and artistic persuasiveness. In "Dombey and Son" presents a broad picture of English life – everything here, down to the smallest detail, is subordinated to the unity of design. The ideological and artistic center of the novel is the image of Mr Dombey, which is one of the best Dickensian images in the gallery. The main method of creating an image of Dombey is hyperbole – Dickens clearly exaggerates Dombey's character traits and behavior. This image embodies the power of money, which governs the life of bourgeois society [3].
An undoubted success of the writer should be considered the image of little Paul Dombey. This image opened up new horizons in the study of the "children's view of life" [8]; with a conquering skill, the character of Paul, his inner world, the depth of emotions, and the instinctive rejection of lies, hypocrisy and hypocrisy are depicted. In the Dombey family, everything is subject to the harsh laws of the inhuman world of capital-great hopes are placed on Paul, but they are not destined to come true – Paul dies. He is a victim of the"economic" view of life. Dickens debunks the view of the child as a potential economic unit-Paul was destined for wealth and high position, but his father's selfishness and pride destroyed him; for Mr Dombey, Paul was only an uncomplaining servant of the interests of his thriving firm [4].
The 1950s are the third period of Dickens ' creative work, when he addresses acute social problems of the era, acting mainly as a satirist. The gallery of children's images here is continued by David Copperfield from the novel of the same name, which is largely autobiographical. The image of David lacks the one-sidedness and straightforwardness that were inherent in the image of Oliver Twist; the writer seeks to show the hero in the process of formation and development of personality. Having passed through difficult life trials, David is not disappointed in life – he retains kindness and responsiveness, faith in people. David Copperfield differs in its structure and overall tone Дэвид Копперфилд"from theтmain works of Dickens in the 1950s – it is written in soft lyrical tones, and it is characterized by subtle humor. This is a transitional work from the early periods of creativity to later ones.
In 1853, Dickens finished "Bleak House", a multi-problematic and multi-faceted work, characterized by the boldness and sharpness of social generalizations, and the great impressive power of satirical images. The object of criticism here is English conservatism, the desire of the bourgeoisie to preserve the established order and routine that prevails in state institutions. The theme of the novel is a lawsuit between the Jarndyce family, and all the characters in the novel are somehow involved in this process. Many generations of Jarndyce's have been witnesses and participants in the trial, but when the trial ends, it turns out that the inheritance over which the dispute was going on is not even enough to cover legal costs. Clever businessmen from the chancery court made money from the judicial red tape [8]. The object of Dickens ' angry satire is the senselessness and brutality of this kind of order: he boldly compares the chancery court to a ragpicker's rag shop, and the Lord Chancellor to a crazed junk dealer Crook. Crook's terrible and unusual death from spontaneous combustion symbolizes the inevitability of the collapse of an obsolete state machine.
Dickens reveals the influence of social conditions on character formation in the image of Richard-cheerful and capable, he is also involved in the Jarndyce process, and this fatally affects his entire subsequent life – he is obsessed with the expectation of wealth, becomes suspicious, makes his wife unhappy, undermines his health and accelerates his death. The dark color of the novel conveys the growing pessimism in the writer's views [4].
The last period of the writer's creative work dates back to the 60s of the XIX century, when the general tone of his novels becomes even more pessimistic-Dickens loses faith in the possibility of realizing his ideal in modern conditions. During these years, created "A Tale of Two Cities","Great expectations"."
Village boy Pip from "Great Expectations" is the focus of the author's attention throughout the story. Pip's character is dynamic – it is in constant motion and change. here is another "Dickensian child" with its childish inventions (its hopes of a large inheritance), its childish arrogance, and its childish affections (its attitude towards little Emily and Joe). Joe, the husband of Pip's sister the blacksmith – is also a big child: his dreams of happiness are unassuming and fit into one exclamation:"That'll be wonderful!"[7] For Joe, everything will be "wonderful"if he has a favorite job, a peaceful family life. His simplicity and wisdom are the simplicity and wisdom of a big, naive, kind child. The life and views of a simple village blacksmith Joe is a kind of program that Dickens offers, contrasting it with the delusions and mistakes of Pip. Joe calmly and simply looks at life, believing that "you will never get anything wrong", only the truthwill "get yourway" [7]. Joe knows perfectly well that he belongs among the common people, in his own village; unlike Pip, he wants to remain himself: "it would probably be better if ordinary people, that is, those who are simpler and poorer, would still hold on to each other" [7]. But Dickens in the last years of his work did not believe in the possibility of an idyllic happiness with family and complete detachment from all life's contradictions, so the general tone of the novel is pessimistic, the path of its characters – Pip, Estella – is heavy and full of disappointments. The tone of the description changes as Pip grows and matures under the influence of the tragic circumstances of his life, as his hopes and illusions collapse. In the second part of the novel, Pip soberly looks at life-hence the increasing tone of condemnation of others, sharpness of critical remarks, conciseness and clarity of characteristics. [1] According to the plan and skill of its implementation, the novel "Great Expectations" stands among the best works of Dickens, continuing the general line of his realistic work.
In the last decade of his life, the productivity of Dickens ' work has significantly decreased compared to previous years, and the writer is less likely to present new works of art. But he turned to a new form of communication with a wide range of readers – Dickens was very successful in giving public readings of his works; he read his works in almost every city in England, in 1863 he spoke in Paris, in 1868 - in the United States of America. The performance in front of the public resulted in the triumph of the writer-reader, delivering great aesthetic pleasure to his listeners [5]. The Last Novel of Dickens "Edwin's SecretDrood" was left unfinished – prevented by a sudden death. Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870.
So, in the 30-40s of the XIX century. critical realism became the leading trend in English literature, the main features of which were an inquisitive and relentless search for truth, objectivity of images, breadth of life pictures, sincerity of the author's position, humanism and democracy of ideological content, expressiveness of human characters [6].
Having published his novels in the mid-1930sXIX, Dickens opened a brilliant page in the history of English critical realism. Dickens was one of the first writers in English literature to show the life of ordinary people in the conditions of bourgeois civilization. Dickens ' humanism, his brilliant artistic skills as a humorist and satirist put his novels on a par with the best works of world literature. Dickens ' realistic novels contain true and vivid pictures of the life of England at that time. Addressing the root problems of his era, Dickens created a remarkable gallery of artistic images, one of the first to tell about the tragic fate of a child in the bourgeois world [4].
Dickens ' literary heritage has been included in the treasury of not only English, but also world culture. For more than a century, the traditions of his art continue to live in the works of the best representatives of English realistic literature.

Chapter 2. Images of positive characters in the works of Dickens

2.1 A positive character in literature

Positive hero – an active character in a work of fiction, endowed with individual traits of character, behavior, appearance, certain beliefs; is the bearer of an aesthetic ideal, realized by him in his beliefs, actions, and relationships with other characters. A positive hero is a variable quantity; a positive hero is determined by the peculiarities of the social consciousness of the era, social ideals, the originality of the author's worldview and artistic method. However, it should be noted that there are works of fiction where the positive hero is not included in the character system [6].

2.2 Biography of Dickens as a source of images of positive characters in his work

Speaking about the biography of the writer, I would like first of all to address those facts that had a direct or indirect impact on the writer when creating images of his positive characters.

Charles Dickens, who went down in world literature as a great realist, humorist and satirist, was born on February 7, 1812 in the south of England on the outskirts of the port city of Portsmouth. The family tree of the future writer did not shine with the greatness of the name: Charles's paternal grandfather served as a footman and was married to a maid; his mother's father, Charles Barrow, as a cashier, systematically forged his reports and fled abroad for fear of prosecution [7]. His father, John Dickens, was a naval officer. He had to change his place of residence more than once – not only because of his duty, but also because of the financial difficulties that often arose. Nevertheless, the Dickens family, according to people who knew them for a long time, "was not without honor" [ ], which was reflected in the images of Dickens ' early works. It is obvious that he is trying to emphasize that this or that positive hero comes from a noble family: Mr. Pickwick is a gentleman of means, Kate and Nicholas Nickleby attract sympathy not as ordinary poor people, but as they come from an impoverished noble family. A noble background in itself determines the positivity of the hero: Oliver Twist is a nobleman by birth, and therefore the vices of the inhabitants of the thieves ' den cannot corrupt him. It is only in his later works that Dickens refuses to deliberately emphasize the noble origin of his hero. Pip from "Great expectations" - an ordinary village boy. However, his image reflects the experiences of the young Dickens, who was painfully ashamed of the fact that his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtors ' prison. Pip is also ashamed of his home, his rough shoes, his rough hands, his ignorance, and the fact that his best friend Joe is just a blacksmith. But none of Pip's hopes are fulfilled – in his quest for the world of "gentlemen", he is neither richer nor better off. His "great expectations" are probably the hopes of Dickens in his youth, the failure of which he proves in his mature work [3].
In 1817, the Dickens family moved to Chatham, where Charles spent his happiest childhood years. Early childhood impressions had a very peculiar effect on the further creation of artistic images: the first food for the imagination of little Charles was given by Christmas toys. Dickens himself was always preoccupied with the question of how his fantasy was formed – it was not for nothing that in 1850 he described in detail two toys that he particularly remembered on the Christmas tree: a snuffbox with a "demonic adviser" and a tumbler man. Having recalled them almost at the age of forty, Dickens identifies these toys as the primary sources of all his images: dark villains ("the adviser") and "cranks" (tumbler) [7]. The grim figures inhabiting his mature books are the Jew Fagin, Mr. Mardstone, and especially Bill Sykes in "Oliver Twist" are not just negative characters, but real villains; the fear they cause is a child's fear of the unknown, from which there is no escape.
However, we are more interested in positive characters – oddly enough, a little tumbler with crustacean eyes, over which little Charles laughed until he fell-this is a distant prototype of his famous "cranks" with a heart of gold-such as Pickwick, Joe, Captain Cuttle. According to one of the researchers of Dickens ' work, "the key to the great heroes of Dickens is that they are all great fools" [8]. Such is Mr Toots in "Dombey and Son"." Toots is just a pathetic dullard, but a dullard who claims the superiority of the heart over the mind. Dickens does not hide his vices, but in our eyes they suddenly become virtues; this is no longer just a little tumbler man, at which the reader laughs – some of the best human qualities are embodied in his image better than in the serious characters of Dickens: timidity of a loving heart, stupid and touching kindness. Toots is not only kind – he awakens kindness in the reader. He is still the same Dickensian child-he does not keep up with his studies, but he smokes famously; he spends money on fun and flaunts a cheap jewel-a ring, he is bold and timid at the same time; his teachers punish him, his family does not know what to do with him; everyone leads him by the nose-but Dickens it makes us fall in love with this inconspicuous person who so convincingly embodies the naive and kind in life.
However, toys were not the only sources of images; for example, the image of the old Glab ("Dombey and Son"), to which Paul is so attached, is brought to life by Charles ' first nanny, Mary Weller. The effect produced by her intricate tales of ghosts and gruesome murders on the future writer cannot be overestimated – another "homemade" fairy tale in the power of influence is not inferior to legend or myth; Dickens received a sincere pleasure from all the absurdities that abounded in nanny's stories, he listened to them with a mixed sense of delight and fear, succumbing to their incomprehensible charm [7]. So Paul Dombey takes a liking to Glub, an old man "with a face like a crab, in a shabby oilcloth suit,"who drove his little carriage and knew "all about the ocean, the fish that live in it, and the great monsters"." [10] Old Glab is unusual, but for Paul - and for the author-the truth in the world is behind the Glab, not the Blimbers, who grandly declare that there is "no room for different Glabs" in their establishment" [10]; for the Blimbers, Glab is a monster; for Paul, they are monsters; a child's instinct he accurately guesses where a good person is, and where-only a pedantic educator; it is noteworthy that a simple uneducated person (Glab) affects the child more strongly than this educator, having neither a system nor a program of education – only stories that are remarkable for their unusual nature [8].
But Mary Weller, "dear nanny,"as Charles called her, is the prototype and Paulie Toodle of the "Dombey and Son", which embodies the best qualities of ordinary people. She may be a little clueless and drag Paul and Florence to visit (just as Mary Weller visits her countless friends, taking Charles with her), but she is kind and sympathetic. Her Simple Words about Florence ("I don't get bored with her, I love children verymuch "[10]) are in sharp contrast to the cold statement of fact: "His [Dombey's] attitude towards the girl was negative from the moment she was born"." Paulie is a simple woman, without flattery or admiration for the power of gold – she is afraid of Mr Dombey, but does everything possible to draw his attention to Florence, whom she loves and pities.
Of course, in addition to children's fairy tales, there were also books; the young Charles discovered such great examples of the picaresque novel of the 18th century as "The story of Tom Jones" Fielding, "Don Quiote" Cervantes. It is not without reason that Dostoevsky noted that Mr. Pickwick is basically akin to Don Quixote, and Sam Weller is, in fact, the loyal, cunning and experienced servant and assistant of Sancho Panza, who teaches his naive master how to live in the world. Dickens owes his childish reading to a rich stock of ready-made images, which he adapted to the new era with its Victorian eccentricity and individualism [2].
Reading Dickens, we notice his special fondness for strange little girls and girls - these are half-children with an early sense of duty, "prodigies of virtue, little mothers" [7]. They are lovely – but they are too poor and unearthly, they do not have the charming charm of childhood: such are Little Dorrit, little Nell, Agnes, and, of course, Florence Dombey; colorless and empty are the Roses of Mailey and Nancy, for all their virtues. It seems that all these positive feminineimages simply cannot have a real prototype; however, for Charles Dickens, such a prototype existed: it was his sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, whose company Dickens enjoyed; but in May 1837, Mary Hogarth died; she was 17 years old, and she died in Dickens ' arms. His grief was boundless; 10 days after Mary's death, he wrote to his friend Bird about her: "I am deeply convinced that there has never been a creature so perfect in the world; I knew her spiritual beauty, I knew what a priceless treasure this girl" was."].
The sudden death of his sister-in-law strengthened Dickens in his peculiar and non-vital ideas about a certain ideal woman, which affected his work – many literary critics believe that Dickens never succeeded in creating female images: his heroines-girls or not-are empty and weak-willed, devoid of personality, capable of treachery, like baby Emmy ("David Copperfield") or parasitism, like Roz Mailey ("The Devil's Child").Oliver Twist" [8]. Positive characters also retain the same traits and properties "Oliver Twist" in general: "... this is a whole army of kind, noble, but colorless and sugary sensitive, although sometimes comically eccentric, characters"... [7].
Many of the characters directly emerged from the experiences of Dickens, mainly related to his childhood years: it is not for nothing that he chooses for "DavidCopperfield" form of biography. Of course, Copperwild is not Dickens, but many episodes that have an autobiographical character help us to feel the experiences of the author himself: the period of his life when he worked in a wax factory, Dickens wrote in "Copperfield" - here is a child completely left to his own devices, who has experienced the full weight of exhausting work, the torments of hunger, the despair of loneliness and helplessness, the pain of undeserved humiliation. And the hapless Mr. Micawber, a perpetual failure and irresponsibly frivolous, embodies some of the character traits of the writer's father: John Dickens was completely lacking in practical acumen and business qualities, but was very pretentious; he was kind and sympathetic, but surprisingly frivolous towards his wife and children – for example, it never occurred to him to send his son to school. John Dickens was too busy "saving his family" and was only too happy that his son was always "at hand"; and he could always be sent "on important business". [4] Out of these unsettled days came all Dickens's"lost" children, beggars and abandoned-Oliver Twist, the homeless orphan, is one of them; but the son of a rich businessman, Paul Dombey – is also one of them, for with all his father's love and care for him, he is not childishly sad, he is not a child. "like an old man or a young dwarf," and would have been completely alone in his father's cold house if it hadn't been for Florence.
The power and persuasiveness of"David Copperfield" is not only that much of it is based on facts (Dickens has long made notes for his biography), but also that the positive character of Dickens-David-tells about his life personally and passionately; many characters have exaggerated features (the same Micawber, Mr. McCarthy). Mardstone, Steerforth), but this is not an exaggeration of the writer – this is how friends and enemies exaggerate in life. Once again, Dickens, through his hero, reveals to us the spontaneity of perception that he himself possessed: we see Mardstone through the eyes of a child's hatred – as it should be, any boy would hate such a stepfather; we see Steerforth through the eyes of a child's love – David admired him, and quite naturally could have exaggerated his merits. All the characters here are shown through David's eyes – and a child, and a living person in general, tends to exaggerate one thing and downplay the other due to the subjectivity and emotionality of perception.
In "Copperfield" not everything is taken from the life of Dickens, but the mentioned emotionalьperception is conveyed surprisingly accurately – in the words of one of the critics, "this is the most intimate novel of Dickens... it recreates life from the echoes and hints of memory" [3]. Behind David, we constantly feel the real Dickens; we can't directly project the biography of the writer on his work, but we can't deny its obvious and strong influence on him either-David Copperfield looks back at the past in search of the meaning of the years lived – and we completely entrust ourselves to the hero, following his memories – it seems to us that everything is and it was. For Dickens "Copperfield" was a favorite creation: "I never took this thing calmly, it completely owned me when I wrote it" [2]. It is in this thing that we not only feel the influence of the writer's biography on the image of his positive hero – David: the art of the book helps to forget that it is a work of art; according to Dickens, in this novel he was able to "very skillfully intertwine truth with fiction" [2].

2.3 Images of positive characters in novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son"

Novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son" was created in different periods of the writer's work:"Oliver Twist" is one of Dickens ' earliest social novels, which he finished in March 1839."Dombey and Son"is the best work of the 40s, which opens up a more in-depth approach of the writer to social phenomena and is rightfully considered a"brilliant novel"[7], while in"Oliver Twist" many critics point out shortcomings – for example, the process of human-environmental relations is not sufficiently convincingly revealed, the direct influence of surrounding social conditions on the evolution of characters, on the formation of their characters is not shown. However, both of these novels can be combined as works in which children act as positive characters.

Dickens, choosing a child as a positive hero for his works, tried to awaken in his adult readers the past childhood, their childlike immediacy of perceptions and assessments. He always argued that in a world where practicality and industrialization reigned supreme, it was necessary to develop the imagination in every possible way, encouraging children's imagination. In the writer himself, an active, witty, painfully feeling and reacting writer got along in an amazing way – and a strange and receptive child with an unusual worldview. It is not for nothing that the writer's childhood years served as the source of many images in his work [3].
Little Oliver comes into the world, and the harsh life makes its demands on him with all its ruthlessness: "...he was marked and numbered and immediately took his place – a child in the care of the parish, an orphan from the workhouse, a humble, half-starved wretch, doomed to endure shocks, making his way in the light, a wretch who is not a child of the world, but a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, a child of the world, everyone despised and no one pitied, [9] Oliver's childhood is spent among poor orphans like himself, "not burdened with either too much food or too little clothing", [9] as Warden Bumble and Mrs. Man do their best to make the most of those meager resources. supplies of food and clothing that are provided to the parish orphans. Children here die of starvation and beatings, or turn into pathetic, downtrodden, intimidated creatures. But Oliver isn't touching because he's a broken victim who doesn't dare say a word, doesn't expect anything, and doesn't hope for anything. Oliver is touching because he is an optimist. His timid request for an extra portion of porridge: "Be so kind, sir, I want more" [9] is regarded as a dangerous rebellion because he dares, knowing that there is a lie, still believe in the truth. The whole tragedy of this scene is that Oliver expects good and believes in justice; with this childish faith, Oliver denounces injustice not because it is bad from an economic or social point of view, but simply because it is bad. With the same naive faith in goodness and hope of sympathy, he turns to Mr. Bumble: "Everyone hates me. Oh, sir, please don't be angry with me!"[9] Mr. Bumble is surprised, and it cannot be otherwise – because he has long lost the childlike spontaneity that we see in Oliver and that Dickens tries to awaken in his readers [3].
Oliver, on the other hand, remains direct and naive – he remains a child! – throughout the story, as an apprentice to the undertaker, as a member of a gang of thieves, as a victim of the villain Sykes and the keeper of the thieves ' den Fagin, and as a witness to the darkest aspects of life, he retains his usual purity and childlike naivete-in the midst of a gang of thieves and in the house of the good gentleman Mr. Brownlow, he speaks and behaves with unfailing generosity - his character is formed outside the influence of surrounding circumstances. This leads some critics to say that this positive image is essentially just an empty space [7]. Dickens, in their view, introduces the image of Oliver in the novel as a symbol of the human soul under the influence of external forces; the writer needs it in order to awaken in the reader a sense of compassion (after all, he is a small, lonely, offended child) and hatred for the ruthless system that turns poverty, ignorance and faith into good. it is useful to create fear and disgust before a gang of thieves, to dispel the false halo of romance around the image of the criminal world. However, the images of Fagin, Sykes, the Clever Dodger, and Noah Claypole are much more convincing than "a whole army of kind, noble, but colorless and sickly sensitive characters who become friends of the kid and eventually, by some miracle, turn out to be his relatives" [7].
Roz Mailey and Mr. Brownlow are also positive characters, but the former is too angelic and flawless, and the latter is too good-natured and well-disposed to be lively and convincing, or even remotely plausible. Just like in a fairy tale, these kind and merciful people suddenly and accidentally come to the aid of Oliver in all the difficult moments of his life. This is not very likely to be true, but in the preface to "To Oliver Twist "Dickens emphasizes that one of the goals of his book is to "show the harsh truth" [9]. But we must not forget that Dickens also considers the tasks of the artist from the point of view of moral influence on the reader – and in this case, Dickens the moralist contradicts Dickens the artist. He cares about justice and tries to convince his readers that "without deep love, kindness of heart and gratitude to the one whose law is mercy ... without this, happiness is unattainable" [9], And even if Rose Mailey is just one of his disembodied female images, just an echo of the blow inflicted on the author by Mary's death Hogarth; even if Mr. Brownlow is only a good-natured old gentleman, much less bright than the same Noah Claypole – these positive characters make the reader, like little Oliver Twist, believe childishly in the existence of charity, kindness and justice towards the oppressed and destitute.
The criminal world must be abominable-this idea Dickens proves through Oliver's rejection of the demands of the Fagin gang; the boy performs what he is assigned, mechanically, crying out to God for help, begging him to "better send down death now... save him from such deeds"[9]. The crime book that Fagin gives him, Oliver throws away in horror – this natural horror of a child before the ugly, vile, squalid life of a criminal gang Dickens recognizes as the only correct attitude. Even if Oliver, according to critics, is a weak – willed hero, a puppet-but this puppet is driven by the best intentions and beliefs of the author. If the novel's happy ending, Oliver's unexpected acquisition of family and property, and his unwavering moral integrity and faith in goodness don't show us things as they really are, then they just have to be. Dickens may have been sentimental in telling the story of Oliver Twist, but it is more accurate to say that he was wise, childishly wise: he looks at evil with beautiful wonder, through the eyes of his hero, Oliver Twist, attacking the workhouse with the simplicity of a boy who has met an ogre. [8] Completing the novel, albeit improbably, but safely for Oliver and his friends – all his positive characters-Dickens fervently demands truth and justice, as the boy from the orphanage demanded porridge.
The children of Dickens ' early works, including Oliver Twist, are not far removed from their predecessors in eighteenth – century literature- they are extremely disembodied, passive, guided by someone else's will. The image of Dombey Field, as mentioned above, opens up new horizons. A great creative success of Dickens is considered to be the image of Mr Dombey, around which all the plot lines of the novel are concentrated, but the novel is still called "Dombey".Dombey and Son", and to detach Paul's story from the book as a whole is to throw the whole novel away. [1]
Paul, defending his individuality, gets rid of the negative passive characteristic, which in the former Dickens was an obligatory indicator of childish naivety. Paul Dombey, too, is naive, but in a different way-such naivete is not good: he is quite naively interested in what money is – and suddenly, with childish insight, he debunks the golden idol that his father worships:"If they are good and can do anything, I don't understand why they didn't save my mother...they can't also make me strong and completely healthy, can they, Papa?... [10] Not only "papa", but the reader also understands that this is true; here, through Paul's mouth, and in the very beginning of the book, I can't understand why they didn't save my mother. in fact, the truth speaks. Paul's conversation with the mission is also deeply naive and naturalPipchin: "I don't think I love you any more, I want to go. This isn't my home. It's a very ugly house"." [10] Little Paul cannot bear the system of education to which his father subjects him; Blimber's School and Mrs Pipchin's boarding school are ruinous to him – the pedantry of the adults only serves to emphasize that Paul is still a child in need of care and affection. He becomes a victim of the economic view of the child – he was supposed to be the heir and successorof the father's business, who all his life increased the wealth of the firm. But for Paul, money is "cruel", he is a weak and sickly child, and not some fictional, abstract heir that his father sees in him. Only his sister Florence sees him as a child, and maybe even old Glabb, who tells him strange stories. Paul seeks solitude, does not participate in games, telling his companions that he does not need them; his face looks like a "young dwarf", and at night he dreams strange things. This is no longer Oliver Twist, who remains a child in all circumstances-Paul is depressed and prone to long thoughts, he is "tired, very lonely, very sad" [10]. Dickens points out that Paul soon lost the vividness he had at first, and became "even older, stranger, and more focused". [10] The only people who noticed Paul's condition were his sister Florence and Mr Toots – who were also positive characters in the film."Dombey and Son", though quite different.
Florence Dombey is essentially a combination of Rose Mayley and Oliver Twist. On the one hand, this is another pale female image that Dickens always found particularly unconvincing – "little mama", much more passive by nature than her brother. On the other hand, she, like Oliver Twist, takes on the role of a white canvas, on which Dickens-the artist imposes both the indifference of a cold father, and the warm affection of Paul, and the reader's sympathy for a rejected and hated daughter [4].
НSome critics consider Mr. Toots to be the best of positive images, not only in "Dombey and Son", but also in the entire work of the writer. Toots seems to be telling the reader that being kind and stupid is not a bad thing, but a very good thing, because you have that perfect simplicity for which everything is amazing. Toots is a big child, with a pure look of humility, he sees the world as it is, embodying a very deep truth: everything external is vain and false, and everything internal is unclear, unconscious, but true. Despite the fog that obscured his thoughts, Paul's small figure was never out of sight of Toots, who "asked him fifty times a day" how Paul was doing. Toots can forget who is in front of him and whether he has already asked him how he feels. But he will never forget what the essence of a person is, and he will never mistake the bad for the good. He admires true Christians by confusing their names; by doing everything wrong, he lives right. He reveres the Fighting Rooster for being strong, and Florence for being good, but knows exactly what is best, preferring kindness to strength, like a true man. Mr Toots is one of Dickens ' great oddities, embodying, oddly enough, the best human qualities [8].
However, Paul Dombey is also called a "little crank" in the novel, and the child thinks a lot about this, not understanding what others mean. It is from this moment that Dickens begins a careful and detailed insight into the inner world of a weak, sick child who thinks about his sister, the roar of the sea, the portrait on the stairs, the wild birds above the sea, and the clouds – thoughts that are not suitable for the heir to a prosperous firm. But the good thing about Paul is that he is Paul, just a nice little Paul, and not Dombey, the notorious Son that his father wants him to be. Paul had never felt his father's love – but rather that his father needed him; and though Dombey's feeling for his son was great, it was not for this that the weak little child needed it; and it was not for nothing that Paul thought of his mother and the old nurse before he died, and only asked his father not to "grieve for him,"knowing exactly what by death, all the hopes of Dombey-the hopes of an ambitious, proud man-will be dashed. It is important for Dickens to show Fields that are not part of the firm "Dombey and Son, "weighed down by the weight of hopes placed on him that are not to be fulfilled, and a simple child who seems eccentric because he is out of place. Mr Dombey, who has trampled on his son's feelings, is also ruining his own soul; he blindly follows Mrs Pipchin's dogma that "young people should not be too much forced, but should resort to affection – there is no need to think so, they never did in my time" [10]. Dickens paints an impressive picture of bad parenting at Miss Pipchin's and at "академии"Dr. Blimber's academy, and the consequences of such parenting: Paul, who was previously "childish, not averse to play, and generally not very sullen" [ ], turns into a lonely child surrounded by bizarre images created by his imagination. The image of Paul is more complex, deep and tragic than the image of the same Oliver Twist-in "Dombey and Son" the tragic fate of a child in a bourgeois world ruled by money is shown with terrible truth, not smoothed out by successful endings. Dickens makes the reader think deeply about the fate of little Paul, although his storydoes not occupy a relatively small placein the book. So, in the novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son" Dickens refers to the child as a positive hero, inviting his readers to find the same childlike immediacy of perception as his characters. The images of positive characters become more and more clearly defined from novel to novel, gaining complexity and individuality – if critics can call Oliver Twist a disembodied shadow, then Paul Dombey is undoubtedly a more complex image, shown in the light of the influence of surrounding social and moral conditions on the formation of a child's personality; Dickens refuses to be too straightforward in depicting the child's character, seeking to reveal, in its inherent psychological complexity, the inner world of little Paul Dombey, whose image is morally opposedto the gloomy image of his father.
Conclusion

Analyzing the images of positive characters in Dickens ' works on the example of novels "Oliver Twist" and "Dombey and Son", it can be established that Dickens was one of the first in English literature to address the child as a positive hero, discovering in him a touching responsiveness and spontaneity, a complex inner world, an instinctive dislike of lies, hypocrisy and hypocrisy.

The source of many images in the writer's work was the facts from his own biography. It is well known that Charles Dickens was an observant and painfully impressionable child, sensitive to all kinds of injustice – such is little Oliver Twist with his unwavering faith in goodness and justice, such is Paul Dombey, intensely thinking about how the world works. - Dickens reproduces with amazing accuracy the child's attitude to reality, his system of judgments and actions. for example, his idea of what our life should be like.
The images of Dickens ' positive characters can be unequal in the degree of artistic skill with which they are embodied, and in the power of persuasiveness – among them there are both deep, complex images in a new way (Paul Dombey, Mr Toots), and superficial, too far-fetched (Roz Mailey, Florence). But they all serve the same purpose-to teach the reader to believe in goodness, justice, and mercy; to make everyone look at the world through the eyes of a child, to discover in themselves the child's ability to laugh at what is funny and cry at what is sad, and most importantly - to be able to sincerely sympathize and empathize with its heroes; moreover – love these characters for who they are.
Thus, Dickens created in his works a wonderful gallery of images of positive characters, among which children's images occupy an important place; the child in Dickens is the bearer of the best human qualities: faith in truth and justice, unselfish kindness and selfless love. Dickens often contradicted the main principle of realism – "to show the hard truth" - in order to prove the inevitability of the victory of good over evil,but he did it in an effort to instill hope in the hearts of people. The writer's humanism, his passionate denunciation of social injustice, love and empathy for people make Dickens ' books close to the widest range of readers in England and far beyond.

Bibliography

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