MASTERING THE UNMASTERED PAST TO MOVE THE PLOT FORWARD: DICKENS, MEMORY, AND NARRATOLOGY By Tory Ann Pingel This thesis focuses on how the collected memories of Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” David Copperfield in David Copperfield, and Esther Summerson in Bleak House affect the narratives of their lives. What makes this thesis significant is that it shows how a character creates one “self” when he/she has not remembered or reconciled past memories. When these characters are not living well with their memories, they become “lost selves” and create a “first story,” or a narrative that is in danger of becoming stagnant or stalled. For example, Scrooge represses his childhood memories, and his discourse is short, rude, and disconnected from humankind. Scrooge’s “first story” is that of a man who has no ability to connect with the people around him. It is self-centered, contains no personal relationships, and is destined to be left in the hands of the third-person narrator. This thesis argues that all of the characters take a personal journey wherein they reconcile their memories and live in the present with their memories in the past. Once the characters are able to successfully reconcile their memories, they are able to narrate their “second story.” For example, when Scrooge realizes that he can leave happy and sad memories in his past while having real relationships in the present, he gains the ability to narrate his “second story” of his “best self.” Scrooge’s ability to recognize his memories allows him to collect the language necessary to reconnect with society, and he gains the discourse to take control of the narrative from the third-person narrator. MASTERING THE UNMASTERED PAST TO MOVE THE PLOT FORWARD: DICKENS, MEMORY, AND NARRATOLOGY by Tory Ann Pingel A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts -English at The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Oshkosh WI 54901-8621 November 2013 PROVOST AND VICE CHANCELLOR -:t-t- ~ Advisor G _,-,II--+-I=-~.!.-,=--+-/----,'~3"","--_ Date Approved I I Date Approved -~--·~-----'7f---~--·~------- Member FORMAT APPROVAL Ie !f- ).'J-/ (::) Date Approved l')1, ~c...· r-/l-Ifrvv~ f --r:~*v.l<J<b:J.£<.~~_~-+-~--=~=-~"--"-' I ~~ =-=-=___ Member /D 3 Date Approved __1_1/_2_~--,--~_/__3' ___ Date Approved To my daughters, Peyton Elizabeth and Juliet McKenzie, you are my heart and my world, and you make me want to be a better person. I love you both. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Christine Roth, for the semester we spent together studying Charles Dickens and for all of the guidance she offered on this project. My deepest gratitude goes to my committee members, Dr. Liz Cannon, for believing in me throughout my graduate studies and for making me a better writer; and to Cary Henson, who taught me critical theory as an undergraduate and guided me through narratology as a graduate student. This project would not have been possible without all of their time and effort. To Lyn Braatz, whom I befriended in graduate school, but who will remain a friend always in life. I could not have managed to keep my wits about me without her always being there to listen, whether it was with school troubles or mommy problems. Finally, to my husband, John, who spent countless hours listening to me work through my wonkey ideas to see what would stick. His rational thinking helped me to pare down my ideas. This is just as much his project as it is mine. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I - EBENEZER SCROOGE: LIVING AND NARRATING IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE ............................. 18 CHAPTER II - DAVID COPPERFIELD: THE TRANSFORMATION OF A SCRAMBLED SOUL INTO A BEST SELF..................................... 44 CHAPTER III - AN INDIVIDUAL BORN OF A FRAGMENTED PAST 75 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 101 WORKS CITED ......................................................................................... 106 iv 1 Introduction “...through living the past again, and communicating to others the lesson it helped to teach me, I had been a happier man.” (Master Humphrey’s Clock vi.105-106) When Charles Dickens created his characters, he did more than just write about them: he transformed into his characters, often moving from his desk to a mirror to mimic their facial expressions or mouth their words. Given that Dickens was so close to his characters, one might reasonably assume that he impressed on them his own belief in the powers of memories and, as stated in the quote above, the valuable lessons that “living the past again” can teach. Three of Dickens’s characters--Ebenezer Scrooge from “A Christmas Carol,” David Copperfield from David Copperfield, and Esther Summerson from Bleak House--struggle to reconcile their past and present lives. Scrooge attempts to erase his painful past. David romanticizes his comfortable childhood and tries to recreate his past memories. Esther Summerson, who has few memories of her past, allows one memory of cruel words from her godmother to form an idea of self-worth that she believes is based on duty. The characters in these three novels struggle to communicate the lessons they learn from their past, and while they struggle to communicate with the reader, the narratives in which they find themselves present complications. Scrooge’s narrative is in danger of becoming stagnant because without memoires of his past that allow him to connect sympathetically with humankind, Scrooge lacks the language to narrate his own tale. David’s potential narrative is in danger of never being articulated 2 because he struggles with letting go the memories of his dead wife, and while he is mourning her and living in his past, he is unable to write. Esther’s narrative is in danger of becoming lost to the “other” Chancery narrative of the novel because she lacks the self-confidence to believe that anything she says is worth telling. While the characters ignore, romanticize, and are struggling with their memories, they lack the idea of their “best self” and are trapped in a narrative that lacks a possible ending. Audrey Jaffe explores her idea of the “best self” in the scholarly article “Spectacular Sympathy: Visuality and Ideology in Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol.’” While Jaffe’s article focuses on how cultural representations and ideological values are represented through Dickens’s Christmas tale, her theory about the “best self” also applies directly to this project. Jaffe explains, “As a model of socialization through spectatorship, the narrative posits the visual as a means towards recapturing one’s lost or alienated self--and becoming one’s ‘best self’” (255). In adopting Jaffe’s idea of the “best self,” this thesis explores how Ebenezer Scrooge, David Copperfield, and Esther Summerson evolve into their “best self” on their journey of personal growth by learning lessons from their past and mastering their unmastered past. Scrooge describes the journey that each character in this thesis takes best when he said, “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” (110). While each character takes a different path to becoming their “best self,” they all must reconcile how to live with the lessons that their past, present, and future teach them. 3 In order to transform into their “best self” each character must learn to live with the lessons their memories teach them. Scrooge must be forced back into his past and must come to realize that living with his memories of the past connects him to all of humankind in the present. Once he is able to connect to the present, Scrooge gains the knowledge to take control of his own narrative and with the assumption that he will take over his narrative, the narrative is able to move forward. David is unable to live his life in the present because he longs to live in his comfortable past. By recreating his past life in his present life, his narrative takes on a misguided tone because he seems to always be living in a story: he loved the carefree times of his childhood, so he rewrites the story of his adult life to resemble his comfortable past. But once his wife Dora dies, he must change his story and change his practice of living only in the past. David’s life becomes happier, and his narrative is able to be continued, once he is able to leave his past in the past and live his life in the present. Esther’s initial path to living her “best self” is one based solely on a sense of duty, but on this path she lacks confidence in both herself and her narrative. She sees herself as always being part of the whole and attaches her identity to her duties as governess of Bleak House. Esther must gain a sense of self-worth and individuality while putting aside the guilt she feels about her past so that her narrative will have a chance to continue and not be marginalized by the Chancery narrative. Along with using the terms “lost self” and “best self” to describe the stages these characters experience, I will be using the terms “first story” and “second story.”1 Both of 1 In “‘But I Cried Very Much’; Esther Summerson as Narrator,” Michael S. Kearns speaks of Esther’s first story and second story. He explains, “Her first two paragraphs plus her final chapter belong to this second story and frame the first: they establish in narrative commentary represent important events in the second story, events indicating her continuing struggle to find her sense of self-value” (122-3). While I agree with 4 these “stories” are narratives of the self, but they function in different ways. The “first story” relates to Jaffe’s example of the “lost self.” It is a story that is incomplete-- regarding how the characters are living with the lessons that their memories teach and how this affects the character’s idea of their self. And not only is the self lost, but the narrative of the “first story” is also in danger of becoming lost or stagnant as well. Scrooge, for example, ignores his painful past, and as a result, has little story to reveal: his lack of compassion for other beings disconnects him from society, and the only relationship he maintains is with his money. His “first story” is self-centered, contains no personal relationships, and is destined to be left in the hands of the third-person narrator. David’s “lost self,” on the other hand, is so consumed with recreating the memories of his carefree childhood that his character becomes stalled in a sort of timeless phase where he is unable to look towards the future. David’s “first story” is his incessant need to recreate the past which hinders his ability to create lasting romantic relationships because he never envisions the future with his partner. David’s narrative is in danger of becoming only a narrative of stories where he is an actor in trying to recreate his past in his present life. Esther’s past memories focus on confusion regarding her parents, and guilt about her birth. Her godmother’s harsh words cloud her idea of her self-worth, and in her “first story” she believes she is worthy of love only if she is good and dutiful. Esther’s narrative is on the verge of becoming lost because she lacks the self-worth to see the value of her words and because she sees herself as nothing more than part of the “whole.” Kerans’s evaluation that Esther’s “second story” is connected with her sense of value, the fact that I explore the importance of living well with memories and how this act of living as their “best self” allows the characters to narrate their “second stories,” my ideas differ from Kearns.