著者

篠田 昭夫

出版者

東海大学

雑誌

東海大学紀要. 文学部 (ISSN:05636760)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.10, pp.40-A32, 1968

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After bearing up against the successive humiliating experiences through his boyhood and youth till he made his debut as a popular writer in "Pickwick Papers," Charles Dickens had been running up a ladder of success with lively steps ; and it is "David Copperfield," his half-autobiography, that at the point of reaching the very pinnacle of worldly success, he produced composedly, remembering his following a thorny path in his younger days. Therefore, it may be said as a matter oi course that the whole of the novel is gently coloured by 'tranquil brightness.' But this remark only explains the garment enveloping this book. I should say that we ought not overlook the fact that a sensation of resistance as compensation singularly expanded in the mind of Dickens, as natural results of his keen sensibility receiving an incurable severe wound from great hardships in his boyhood, and that it casts its gigantic shadow on all of his works including this book. In "David Copperfield," it seems to me that the author's anti-social sentiment rises to the surface more distinctly than the other books, for it is incarnated through his rare mental condition like beautiful St. Martin's summer. And Uriah Heep is an image which was shaped through the process of this being condensed. He has a stubborn hostile feeling against the world arising from his extreme self-love, that is, 'vicious narcissism.' On his above-mentioned mental attitude steadfastly constructed from the miserable experiences in his boyhood, the image of the author's same one is thrown ; and accordingly, the more diabolical he grows, the more frantically the author's hidden desire to revenge blazes. Nevertheless, Dickens's fiery sentiment as this is destined to be suppressed by force, for where symmetry or harmony is disturbed art never crystallizes. Such being the case, Uriah Heep, furious as he is, isfinally left out in the cold as a barnacle. I infeJ that after all he is only invested with the function as an object of the author's intense satire and hatred, from the following matter : David Copperfield, a hero of this book, who is the author's alter ego and a model of diligence and sincerity, gives a crushing defeat to Uriah in gradually capturing Agnes Wickfield, the mirror of virtue, by his enchantment. And at the same time it sounds natural to me that the wild passions whirling around inside the too much vigorous author gush out into the tone of the descriptions of him as stated above.