Who saw life steadily1 and saw it whole.
On the contrary, his vision of life, though vivid, was almost always partial. He was capable of doing a great deal of bad work, which he himself liked. The plots of his novels, on which he toiled2 tremendously, are negligible; indeed it is often difficult to follow and impossible to remember them. The one of his books that is notably3 fine in structure and approximately faultless in technique—A Tale of Two Cities—is so unlike his other novels that it stands in a class by itself, as an example of what he could have done if he had chosen to follow that line. In a way it is his most perfect piece of work. But it is not his most characteristic piece of work, and therefore I think it has less value for us than some of his other books in which his peculiar4, distinctive5, unrivalled powers are more fully6 shown.
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After all, art must not only interpret the world but also reveal the artist. The lasting7 interest of his vision, its distinction, its charm, depend, at least in some real degree, upon the personal touch. Being himself a part of the things that are seen, he must “paint the thing as he sees it” if he wishes to win the approval of “the God of things as they are.”
Now the artistic8 value of Dickens’s way of seeing things lay in its fitness to the purpose which he had in mind and heart,—a really great purpose, namely, to enhance the interest of life by good enchantment9, to save people from the plague of dulness and the curse of indifference10 by showing them that the world is full of the stuff for hearty11 laughter and deep sympathy. This way of seeing things, with constant reference to their humourous and sentimental12 potency13, was essential to the genius of Dickens. His method of making other people see it was strongly influenced, if not absolutely determined14, by two facts which seemed to lie outside of his career as an author: first, his training as a reporter for the press; second, his favourite avocation15 as an amateur actor, stage-manager, and dramatic reader.
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The style of Dickens at its best is that of an inspired reporter. It is rapid, graphic16, pictorial17, aiming always at a certain heightening of effect, making the shadows darker and the lights brighter for the purpose of intensifying18 sensation. He did not get it in the study but in the street. Take his description in Martin Chuzzlewit of Todgers’s Boarding House with its complicated smells and its mottled shades of dinginess20; or take his picture in Little Dorrit of Marseilles burning in the August sunlight with its broad, white, universal stare. Here is the art of journalism,—the trick of intensification21 by omission,—carried to the limit. He aims distinctly at a certain effect, and he makes sure of getting it.
He takes long walks in the heart of London, attends police courts, goes behind the scenes of theatres, rides in omnibuses, visits prisons and workhouses. You think he is seeking realism. Quite wrong. He is seeking a sense of reality which shall make realism look cheap. He is not trying to put up canned goods which shall seem more or less like fresh vegetables. He is trying to extract the essential
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flavour of places and people so that you can taste it in a drop.
We find in his style an accumulation of details all bearing on a certain point; nothing that serves his purpose is overlooked; everything that is likely to distract the attention or obscure his aim is disregarded. The head-lines are in the text. When the brute22, Bill Sykes, says to Nancy: “Get up,” you know what is coming. When Mrs. Todgers gives a party to Mr. Pecksniff you know what is coming. But the point is that when it comes, tragedy or comedy, it is as pure and unadulterated as the most brilliant of reporters could make it.
Naturally, Dickens puts more emphasis upon the contrast between his characters than upon the contrast within them. The internal inconsistencies and struggles, the slow processes of growth and change which are the delight of the psychological novelist do not especially interest him. He sees things black or white, not gray. The objects that attract him most, and on which he lavishes23 his art, do not belong to the average, but to the extraordinary. Dickens is not a commonplace merchant.
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He is a dealer24 in oddities and rarities, in fact the keeper of an “Old Curiosity Shop,” and he knows how to set forth25 his goods with incomparable skill.
His drawing of character is sharp rather than deep. He makes the figure stand out, always recognizable, but not always thoroughly26 understood. Many of his people are simply admirable incarnations of their particular trades or professions: Mould the undertaker, old Weller the coachman, Tulkinghorn the lawyer, Elijah Program the political demagogue, Blimber the school-master, Stiggins the religious ranter, Betsey Prig the day-nurse, Cap’n Cuttle the retired27 skipper. They are all as easy to identify as the wooden image in front of a tobacconist’s shop. Others are embodiments of a single passion or quality: Pecksniff of unctuous28 hypocrisy29, Micawber of joyous30 improvidence31, Mr. Toots of dumb sentimentalism, Little Dorrit of the motherly instinct in a girl, Joe Gargery of the motherly instinct in a man, Mark Tapley of resolute32 and strenuous33 optimism. If these persons do anything out of harmony with their head-lines, Dickens does not tell of it. He does not care for the incongruities34, the
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modifications, the fine shadings which soften35 and complicate19 the philosophic36 and reflective view of life. He wants to write his “story” sharply, picturesquely37, with “snap” and plenty of local colour; and he does it, in his happiest hours, with all the verve and skill of a star reporter for the Morning Journal of the Enchanted38 City.
In this graphic and emphatic39 quality the art of Dickens in fiction resembles the art of Hogarth in painting. But Dickens, like Hogarth, was much more than a reporter. He was a dramatist, and therefore he was also, by necessity, a moralist.
I do not mean that Dickens had a dramatic genius in the Greek sense that he habitually40 dealt with the eternal conflict between human passion and inscrutable destiny. I mean only this: that his lifelong love for the theatre often led him, consciously or unconsciously, to construct the scenario41 of a story with a view to dramatic effect, and to work up the details of a crisis precisely42 as if he saw it in his mind’s eye on the stage.
Notice how the dramatis personæ are clearly marked as comic, or tragic43, or sentimental. The
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moment they come upon the scene you can tell whether they are meant to appeal to your risibilities or to your sensibilities. You are in no danger of laughing at the heroine, or weeping over the funny man. Dickens knows too much to leave his audience in perplexity. He even gives to some of his personages set phrases, like the musical motifs44 of the various characters in the operas of Wagner, by which you may easily identify them. Mr. Micawber is forever “waiting for something to turn up.” Mr. Toots always reminds us that “it’s of no consequence.” Sairey Gamp never appears without her imaginary friend Mrs. Harris. Mrs. General has “prunes and prism” perpetually on her lips.
Observe, also, how carefully the scene is set, and how wonderfully the preparation is made for a dramatic climax45 in the story. If it is a comic climax, like the trial of Mr. Pickwick for breach46 of promise, nothing is forgotten, from the hysterics of the obese47 Mrs. Bardell to the feigned48 indignation of Sergeant49 Buzfuz over the incriminating phrase “chops and tomato sauce!”
If it is a tragic climax, like the death of Bill Sykes,
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a score of dark premonitions lead up to it, the dingiest50 slum of London is chosen for it, the grimy streets are filled with a furious crowd to witness it, and just as the murderer is about to escape, the ghostly eyes of his victim glare upon him, and he plunges51 from the roof, tangled52 in his rope, to be hanged by the hand of the Eternal Judge as surely as if he stood upon the gallows53.
Or suppose the climax is not one of shame and terror, but of pure pity and tenderness, like the death of Little Nell. Then the quiet room is prepared for it, and the white bed is decked with winter berries and green leaves that the child loved because they loved the light; and gentle friends are there to read and talk to her, and she sleeps herself away in loving dreams, and the poor old grandfather, whom she has guided by the hand and comforted, kneels at her bedside, wondering why his dear Nell lies so still, and the very words which tell us of her peace and his grief, move rhythmically54 and plaintively55, like soft music with a dying fall.
Close the book. The curtain descends56. The drama is finished. The master has had his way with
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us; he has made us laugh; he has made us cry. We have been at the play.
But was it not as real to us while it lasted as many of the scenes in which we actors daily take our parts? And did it not mellow57 our spirits with mirth, and soften our hearts with tears? And now that it is over are we not likely to be a little better, a little kinder, a little happier for what we have laughed at or wept over?
Ah, master of the good enchantment, you have given us hours of ease and joy, and we thank you for them. But there is a greater gift than that. You have made us more willing to go cheerfully and companionably along the strange, crowded, winding58 way of human life, because you have deepened our faith that there is something of the divine on earth, and something of the human in heaven.
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1
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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avocation
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| n.副业，业余爱好 | |
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graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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pictorial
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| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
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intensifying
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉 | |
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complicate
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| vt.使复杂化，使混乱，使难懂 | |
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dinginess
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| n.暗淡，肮脏 | |
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intensification
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| n.激烈化，增强明暗度；加厚 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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lavishes
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的第三人称单数 ) | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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unctuous
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| adj.油腔滑调的，大胆的 | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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improvidence
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| n.目光短浅 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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33
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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34
incongruities
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| n.不协调( incongruity的名词复数 )；不一致；不适合；不协调的东西 | |
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35
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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picturesquely
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38
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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39
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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40
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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41
scenario
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| n.剧本，脚本；概要 | |
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42
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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43
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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44
motifs
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| n. （文艺作品等的）主题( motif的名词复数 )；中心思想；基本模式；基本图案 | |
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45
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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46
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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47
obese
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| adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的 | |
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48
feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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49
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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50
dingiest
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| adj.暗淡的，乏味的( dingy的最高级 )；肮脏的 | |
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51
plunges
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| n.跳进，投入vt.使投入，使插入，使陷入vi.投入，跳进，陷入v.颠簸( plunge的第三人称单数 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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52
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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53
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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54
rhythmically
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| adv.有节奏地 | |
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55
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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56
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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57
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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58
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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