Be Kind! A Few Thoughts about Oliver Twist

Hello Dear Readers,

It's been a full summer for my little clan and now we are all gearing up for fall. This week I'll be doing my back-to-school shopping.

I finally finished Oliver Twist! Woo-hoo!

I believe it took me longer to read than any novel on the list so far. With the exception of maybe Anna Karenina.

But don't let that scare you away from it if you haven't read it already. It wasn't the book; it was me. During my illness last month, I couldn't read much at all. I read the last 3/4 of it while on vacation with my family last week. 

Dickens managed to mingle a lot of humor into a dark subject. He is not as blatantly preachy as Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin, but he get's his sermon in and it's an essential one: BE KIND!

If I had one complaint it would be that I expected more of Oliver in Oliver Twist. He was like this dear little angel that just floated through adversity. His circumstances changed but he did not change much at all. 

I'm sitting here pondering this a bit . . . I realize he got angry and flew into Noah Claypool and ran away, but even that was righteous anger.

I suppose I prefer a main character who becomes transformed.

You may remember I was reading the novel list in chronological order according to publication dates. I had skipped a few titles at one point and I've now gone back to read the earlier novels I missed before. From this vantage point, I can see how characterization has evolved into something more sophisticated today. Dickens' characters are memorable, but they play out their roles in a way that is somewhat predictable. Have you read Oliver Twist? If so, did you get this sense?

Then again, this was one of the first novels on the WEM list in which the plotline was not a surprise for me. I've seen film versions of OT since I was a kid.

The chapter, "The Flight of Sikes" made me think of Crime and Punishment and underscored my impression that Dostoevsky was beyond compare. I noticed in one of the footnotes to Anna Karenina that Tolstoy read Dickens, so maybe Dostoevsky read him too -- who knows? 

My favorite characters are Mr. & Mrs. Bumble. Absolutely hilarious. I relished every scene in which they showed up. They deserve their own novel. 

OK, one more complaint: Why does Fagin have to be the Jew? He isn't portrayed as an evil person who happens to be Jewish. He is Fagin: the Jew! the Devil! The constant reminders that he is Jewish made me cringe. I thought it paradoxical that while Dickens preaches BE KIND, his intolerance is showing. Ugh. 

So that's about it for now. It's late. I've started running again! I hope to get up early for that tomorrow. 

Have you had a good summer? I hope you enjoy what is left of it! Blessings!

With Love,

Adriana

P.S. Jane Eyre is up next!

Blink: Facial Expressions in Literature and Life

Perhaps the most common -- and most important -- forms of rapid cognition are the judgments we make and the impressions we form of other people. Every waking minute that we are in the presence of someone, we come up with a constant stream of predictions and inferences about what that person is thinking and feeling. 

When someone says, "I love you," we look into that person's eyes to judge his or her sincerity. When we meet someone new, we often pick up on subtle signals, so that afterward, even though he or she may have talked in a normal and friendly manner, we may say, "I don't think he liked me," or "I don't think she's very happy." 

We easily parse complex distinctions in facial expression. If you were to see me grinning, for example, with my eyes twinkling, you'd say I was amused. But if you were to see me nod and smile exaggeratedly, with the corners of my lips tightened, you would take it that I had been teased and was responding sarcastically. If I were to make eye contact with someone, give a small smile, and then look down and avert my gaze, you would think I was flirting.

If I were to follow a remark with a quick smile and then nod or tilt my head sideways, you might conclude that I just said something a little harsh and wanted to take the edge off it. 

 

You wouldn't need to hear anything I was saying in order to reach these conclusions. They would just come to you, blink.

Excerpt from Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

We all read faces by nature with varying degrees of perception -- even my baby seeks out my eyes when I speak to her -- but I believe the authors of the classics were uniquely attentive to facial expressions and body language.  Long before Lie to Me, long before Dr. Paul Ekman's research findings and co-discovery of micro-expressions, writers of the world's greatest literature were expertly unpacking the human face.

In respect of character a face may make certain admissions by its outline; but it fully confesses only in its changes. So much is this the case that what is called the play of the features often helps more in understanding a man or woman than the earnest labors of all the others members together.

~ The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Sometimes a flash of expression merely adds depth to characterization. In The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, Caspar Goodwood did not have to tell Henrietta Stackpole in words that he was desperate to meet Isabel Archer in England.

"Did he ask you to speak to me?"

"Not in so many words. But his eyes asked it -- and his handshake, when he bade me good-bye."

~ The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

It can mean more than what a character actually says in dialogue. Sometimes what is written on a character's face even contradicts what he says.

...[Anna] was not listening to [Vronsky's] words, she was reading his thoughts from the expression of his face. 

~ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Often what flashes across a character's face is critical to the plot. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov is burdened with attempting to conceal his guilt from Porfiry Petrovich, the magistrate in charge of investigating the murder of an elderly pawn broker and her sister.

Porfiry Petrovich suddenly looked at [Raskolnikov] with obvious mockery, narrowing his eyes and as if winking at him. However, perhaps it only seemed so to Raskolnikov, because it lasted no more than an instant. There was something of the sort, at least. Raskolnikov would have sworn to God that he winked at him, devil knew why."He knows!" flashed in him like lightening. 

~ Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

In The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel comes upon her husband, Gilbert Osmond engaged in a conversation with their mutual friend, Madame Merle. 

...the thing made an image, lasting only a moment, like a sudden flicker of light. Their relative position, their absorbed mutual gaze struck her as something detected. But it was all over by the time she had fairly seen it.

~The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Indeed, body language ultimately reveals all.

"Dost thou know child, wherefore thy mother wears this letter?""Truly I do!" answered Pearl, looking brightly into her mother's face. "It is for the same reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart!" 

~ The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Your poor lip is twitching again, like the other day," Porfiry Pertrovich muttered, even as if sympathetically. 

~ Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

And of course it is especially effective in a love scene.

Yeobright and Eustacia looked at each other for one instant, as if each had in mind those few moments during which a certain moonlit scene was common to both.

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

The moment had arrived when [Eustacia's] lip would tremble in spite of herself, and when the gasp could no longer be kept down. 

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

At the very instant when the apparition was vanishing, [Kitty's] truthful eyes glanced at [Levin]. She recognized him, and her face lighted up with amazed delight.

~ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Did I mention it is effective in a love scene? Oh yes. 

Here is Kitty and Levin's love scene:

. . . swift, swift light steps sounded on the parquet, and his bliss, his life, himself -- what was best in himself, what he had so long sought and longed for -- was quickly, so quickly approaching him. She did not walk but seemed, by some unseen force, to float to him. He saw nothing but her clear, truthful eyes, frightened by the same bliss of love that flooded his heart. Those eyes were shining nearer and nearer, blinding him with their light of love. She stopped close to him, touching him. Her hands rose and dropped on his shoulders. She had done all she could -- she had run up to him and given herself up entirely, shyly, blissfully. He put his arms around her and pressed his lips to her mouth that sought his kiss.  

~ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I have collected literally hundreds of examples of blink from my reading. It was difficult to choose which ones to share with you for this post. I hope these quotes will inspire you to be more attentive to facial expressions and body language in both literature and life.

Crime and Punishment Wrap-Up

by Adriana

Note to Myself:
Following The Well-Educated Mind does not mean merely reading through a list of Great Books and underlining the stuff I like! There are questions I must answer! This is "The Great Books Workout," not a stroll in the park!

Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Warning! This Post Contains Spoilers!

Law school drop-out, Rodion Raskolnikov, has a theory: Some men are "extraordinary"; others are merely "ordinary". "Extraordinary" men (like Napoleon, for example)  need not follow the same laws as ordinary men because they are above the law. Raskolnikov thinks he is one of these Napoleonic, demi-god types. To test his theory, he commits murder. Yet instead of triggering a rise to greatness, his action causes him to dive into a heinous downward spiral. We follow his internal punishment and witness the weight of his transgression throughout most of the novel. The thing that bothers him most? He's not Napoleon after all.


Inquiry:

What is the inciting incident? For Raskolnikov, the point of no return is the scene in which he murders an elderly pawn broker, Alyona Ivanova, and her sister, Lizaveta, with an axe.

Can you identify the climax? Yes. I think everything in this novel hinges on the moment when Raskolnikov, a murderer, confesses to Sonia, a pious prostitute. I anticipated the scene quite anxiously. Every time they were alone together I thought, Now?; all the falling action of this novel occurs after this moment.

Suddenly a strange, unexpected feeling of corrosive hatred for Sonya came over his heart. As if surprised and frightened by this feeling, he suddenly raised his head and looked at her intently, but he met her anxious and painfully caring eyes fixed upon him; here was love; his hatred vanished like a phantom. That was not it; he had mistaken one feeling for another. All it meant was that the moment had come. Part V, Chapter IV

What is the author's argument? If you feel the urge to prove you are a demi-god, kindly leave your axe at home.

Why did the author write this book? I had to do some research to figure this one out. Dostoevsky explained his reason in a letter to  publisher, Mikhail Kathov: 

Dostoyevsky's letter to Katkov reveals his immediate inspiration, to which he remained faithful even after his original plan evolved into a much more ambitious creation: a desire to counteract what he regarded as nefarious consequences arising from the doctrines of Russian nihilism.

Russian what?

The Nihilist movement was a Russian movement in the 1860s which rejected all authorities. It is derived from the Latin word "nihil", which means "nothing". After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the Nihilists were known throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence in order to bring about political change. source

Ayiyi!

Did the author lay out facts to support his purpose? Yes. Raskolnilov did not become the Napoleonic Übermensch he thought he would become when he defied the law and pursued what he had considered a "higher purpose". Killing the pawnbroker and her sister caused him to completely unravel.

Did the author succeed or fail?  Well, I suppose that yes, he made his purpose clear. I'm convinced that murdering someone to prove a point to oneself is delusional, absurd, base, and vile.

Logic:

What does the writer want me to believe?

The only thing that truly sets individuals apart as extraordinary is self-sacrifice. Our heroine, Sonia Marmeladova, consistently sacrificed for others in this story. Dostoevsky used her as a type of Christ. I loved her character because of her Christ-like attributes.

Also, there was something else I think Dostoevsky wanted me to believe (which is, in fact, something I do believe). The following is a quote about the protagonist Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's close friend, Vladimir Solovyov:

Raskolnikov's] boundless self-confidence must disappear in the face of what is greater than himself, and his self-fabricated justification must humble itself before the higher justice of God.

Oh. That's good. Now read it again in the first person:
My self-fabricated justification must humble itself before the higher justice of God.  If I had to distill Crime and Punishment down to one simple moral, this is it.

What does the writer want me to experience? Tragedy and redemption. A graphic, intimate exploration of a murderer's thoughts, insight into his bizarre motive.

Am I convinced? Yes. Though the setting of this of this novel was sad and creepy, I can see how the breaking down of a person's world view can create profound confusion and lead to tragedy. It was a hard read because it was so dark, but the redemptive ending provided hard earned relief. One of the best endings I've read. Ever.

Have I experienced what writer wants me to experience? I believe so. I experienced the dingy tenements, backstreets and poverty of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. I've experienced the psychology of a tortured soul. I've discovered intense purity in an unlikey person (Sonia Marmeladova) and I've witnessed the healing power of self-sacrifice and confession.

Most of these questions originally come from my guidebook for a classical education, The Well-Educated Mind. I copied the questions (not the answers) from my friend Ruth's blog, An Experiment With The Well-Educated Mind (except for the one about the inciting incident, that comes from Donald Miller's book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years) . Visit Ruth's blog to read her answers!