This article emphasizes the manner in which Dickens’s novel should be approached as a teaching aid in the process of study by identifying the main themes and values suggested by the text, but also their usefulness when it comes to teaching activities. The perspective of education through literature implies the identification of certain strategies applied for the reflective thinking, development of critical thinking, empathy and speaking competence of students. At the same time, this article also mentions examples of practice during classes, adapted to different levels of study, interactive methods as debate, role play, portfolio, or interdisciplinary projects. Therefore, the novel overcomes the level of literary observation and becomes a valuable educational aid, useful when it comes to achieving competences and the development of an ethical and civic view related to the reality.
Charles Dickens’s writings hold a privileged place in literature due to characters’ complexity, social critique and depth of the moral dimension. His novels are important when it comes to various opportunities involving the pedagogical approach, as it includes themes such as education, childhood, social values, individual responsibility and shaping personality, all of them being representative for the contemporary education.
On the one hand, the epistemology of narrative rarely concerns the concept of time from the point of view of an adult. It only takes it for granted that the narrations take place in time within a given temporal framework and ”it uncritically indentifies the given temporal framework with the ordinary representation of time as a linear succession of abstract «nows»”. (…) On the other hand, the phenomenology of time-experience usually overlooks the fact that narrative activity provides a privileged access to the way we articulate our experience of time.”.
Charles Dickens wrote many bildungsroman novels, but ”Great expectations” (published in 1861) is one of his greatest works, due to its narrative discourse and the development of the characters. Pip’s perspective, the main character, is a perception of the world painted in the colors of his own ambitions, in three sections in time. Pip experienced the cruelty of the real world, even if he himself has caused suffering to those around him. His coming of age is difficult, marked by loss. Mirroring his past, he notices that his experience proved that true values in life are friendship, loyalty and true feelings, not his childhood ambitions.
The purpose of this reflection is to identify the outline of the temporal problematic, given the ambiguities and paradoxes in Dickens’s bildungsroman novel ”Great Expectations”. Unlike the other bildungsroman novels, our protagonist has gained his experience through loss, not through achievement; therefore, Pip’s maturity is marked by loss. While trying to identify his place in the world, to discover his identity, he notices his mistakes and their negative consequences. He discovers the fact that his ambitions as a child were foolish and his experience helps him redefine his values.
As a child, Dickens himself was poor, so we should compare his work and moral of the story to his own life moral and his father’s imprisonment. But we should also identify the fact that the lesson at the end of the novel represents his response to the Victorian society, involving the gentility.
The purpose of this reflection is also based on the analysis of the social and psychological state of the protagonist, from childhood to adulthood. The main theme of the work is based on the aesthetic of the Victorian time and the specificity of childhood during those days, but mainly on the writer’s ability to link the characters to their environment using a few sentences. Dickens creates the specific atmosphere using orality as a literary device; therefore the author’s voice should also be distinguished. During Victorian times, Dickens used to offer public readings, his works being special through this literary feature. Many times, few elements of the plot, the details and the ending were influenced by the auditor’s reactions and perspectives.
”Great expectations” is one of Dickens’s autobiographical works and respects the above mentioned features, as the protagonist is linked to his environment, marked by the Victorian society. His psychological development is described according to the places where he lives, defining and marking his becoming. The author tells the story from the first person point of view, identifying himself with the main character, unlike other works. Therefore, we argue that precision is one of the features in his work, while the author tells the story through the eyes of the protagonist.
Charles Dickens uses subtle devices to describe the personality of his characters, in order to design their complexity or their specific features, avoiding melodrama, but also expressing feelings and deciphering the psychological meanings of the actions, keeping the text simple, while coming closer and closer to a psychological realism.
”Great expectations” is a self-development work, a voyage toward finding one’s identity, where the protagonist discovers over time their true values over the childish ambitions and ideals, based on reality.
From childhood to adulthood, we travel in time and find ourselves as unrecognizable many times, our features as human beings are changeable, replaceable, even if they form our identity, we are infinite shapes, always striving for better, for perfection, we cannot make the difference between good or evil. We also need guidance, this is why we need literature in our lives, to help us discover the true face of people around us, to face disappointments in finding that people are not as they seem to be and that the world is not as beaming as it may appear in front of our eyes. This way, Dickens’s novel offers new perspectives and new beginnings and great expectations are justified.
Dickens portrays the reality in precise details and one of the features of his work is that the characters are more important than the action itself. In ”Great expectations”, Pip discovers that, in order to be accepted and loved by the others, actions overcome the image. In order to accomplish his dreams, Pip wants to escape from his sad reality by moving to the city and gathering a good fortune and marry Estella. We also notice that the novel is a realist novel with romantic elements.
In terms of discourse, the focus is on the type of speech not on the reality of the subject thus it is a type of ”self referential language, a language which talks about itself”. Dickens, in his novels, focuses on the vocabulary used by the characters in order to reflect their real environment.
The narrator of ”Great expectations”, Pip, hold various parts, from a child to an adult man, with a humanistic touch.
Overall, Pip is the chosen one to serve the connections of the characters and events within the plot. Dickens uses his protagonist to make a commentary about society, morality, class struggles and values, by establishing the narrator as a way of disassociating himself from the story thus Pip becomes the translator for the mindset of the author.
All in all, Dickens allows the reader to identify what happens in Pip’s mind in terms of life, connection to society and sense of self. Sometimes, the protagonist seems so detached, as if he narrated someone else’s mind, allowing the reader to gain freedom and independence in the story, the narrative discourse becoming an outline for the infinite shapes of the imagination and perspectives of life.
In order to use the depth of the psychological approach in the classroom, I suggest a post-reading activity, such as debate. The activity bears the title ”Pip’s chance in life – options, values and personal development” and it is meant for high school students (IX-XII). Main aims: to identify the moral values and the inner conflicts of the characters, to design and support a point of view with reasons, to develop empathy and critical thinking, to connect the literary work to real life experiences. Main objectives: by the end of the activity, students will be able to identify the evolution of the main character related to his experiences, to explain and identify the influence of the environment and education on the identity, to justify if social success means personal achievement, to understand their own values and wishes. The activity starts with the question regarding the meaning of great expectations. Students write three individual answers, than they talk about them in pairs. Then, in groups, students argue on Pip’s childhood and his coming of age, his life as an adult, holding responsibilities, according to the information above mentioned, concluding the idea of bildungsroman and its features. Each group fills in a graphic with the following headers: event, emotions, values, life lesson. The debate activity concerns the saying that ”money CAN buy happiness”. Students work in two teams this time and they give reasons for their opinion using examples from the novel.
This activity holds a valuable contribution to the development of critical reading competences, speaking and logical thinking, also to achieving values as empathy, responsibility, and integrity and self-evaluation ability. By approaching Pip’s experiences through one’s own life experiences, students are encouraged to reflect on the connection between success, education and personality.
This activity is a modern approach as it focuses on active learning through collaboration and sharing the literary message related to real life experiences.
References
1. A Ricoeur reader: reflection and imagination, edited by Mario J. Valdés, ISBN 0-7450-0993-X, Harvester Weatsheaf, 1991;
2. Dickens, Ch., Great Expectations, Chpman and Hall, 1861;
3. Manheim, L., The Dickens hero as a child, Vol. 1, 1969;
4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations
5. www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/literary-devices/narrative-dicosurse/
6. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14753634.2010.510339