The Irish standard., 1896-09-26
The WOMEN Of DICKENS.
Characters the Great Novelist Drew
for Our Entertainment.

4 for Our Entertainment.
/ A contributor to the San Francisco
Chronicle has been rejecting ON the
women of Dickens creation, and he con-
Icludes that they are remarkable for their
sharp distinctiveness. The women, he
says, form wonderful group. Such as
have read Dickens will find entertain
ment in the writer's observations, part
of which we quote:
| Dickens has dealt kindly with the sex.
Nearly all his women are amiable, and
few silly He has not a Becky Sharp in
his entire gallery. They are good Great
ures, loving and self-sacrificing. They
are proud and sensitive, but seldom re-
vengeful. Thackeray's women, except the
redubtable Becky, are mostly namby-
pamby beings. They are sweepers, cooks
and bed-makers. They are ladylike to a
degree. but they surfeit one with their
sweetness. They are all, except the
misunderstanding Beatrice, highly proper.
They marry and have families. Few ever
suffer the agonies of unreciprocated af-
lection.
In all the women Of Dickens, we find
but two who are of the silly stamp. One
is Dora, David Copperfields child bride,
and the other Mrs. Nickleby. Yet Dora Is
such kittenish baby that one can hardly
find fault with her, and Mrs: Nickleby's
blunders and adventures are amusing
enough to be an apology for her existence.
That Dickens had IN intense sympathy
with those daughters Of his imagination
is shown in his correspondence When
ever he has written about his work.
When "The Old Curiosity Shop was run
ming in serial numbers, the author was
in receipt of many letters begging him to
to take care Of Little Nell and make her
happy after her wanderings with her Ola
grandfather along the dusty roads and
green meadows of Kent. But his sense OF
the artistic necessities OF his work was
pcor Nell's doom. His regret is OK
pressed in the following extract from one
of his letters:
IT should have been glad to join your
pleasant party ne writes, "but all next
week I shall be laid up with a broken
heart. for must occupy myself, in finish
ling The Curiosity Shop and it is such a
painful task to me that I must concen-
trate upon it, tooth and nail, and go out
nowhere until it is done. I am, for the
time being, nearly dead with the work
and grief for the loss Of my child. .
Again his suggestions to the artist for
the illustrations to accompany the chap
ter descriptive of NelPs death show how
much endeared to him she was, and now
painfully he felt her loss, though his pen
wrote her death warrant.
| s'The child lying dead in the little
sleeping room, which is behind an open
screen. It is winter time, so there are no
flowers; but upon her breast and pillow
and about the bed there may be strips OF
holly and berries and such free things
Window overgrown with ivy. The little
boy who had to talk with her about
angels may be by the BEDSIDE, put
think it will be quieter and more peace1ul
| if she is alone I want it to express the
most beautiful repose and tranquility,
and to have something of a happy look
if death can"
! From Neil, the tender and devoted
child. with the heart of woman, we
we turn to Lady Dedlock, the naughty,
aattered, yet wretched wife of the proud
Lincolnshire baronet She is one Of the
few women whom Dickens brought to
tragic end. Most of them have their
trialsand temptations, but peace and hap
piness crown their life's vicissitudes. Few
70 wrong. Little Emily, though she
Yielded to the temptations Of Steerforth,
found a tranquil home with her Uncle
Peggotty at last. Edith Dombey, who, in
a spirit Of wounded pride and with an in
satiate desire to humble her husband to
the dust ran away with Carker, still pre-
served her purity. Even Nancy, before
she perishes under Bill Sykes bludgeon,
had almost condoned a life of vice by the
good she attempted to do at the close OF
her wretched existence. There are none
of them wholly bad, excepting perhaps
Hortense, the French maid, who. shoots
old Tulkinghorn, and this part, though so
much turns upon it, gives more import
ance to the act than the individual.
| Again, as types of indomitable pride,
we have Mrs. Steerforth and Rosa Dartle.
The latter is certainly the hardest and
most implacable female character that
Dickens has ever drawn. Her intense
self-repression, her hopeless love, not I'M
mingled with bitter hate, for Steerforth,
her malignant pursuit Of Little Emily,
her denunciation of her friend and pa
troness form a. combination fortunately
rarely found among the women OF the
great novelist. Even the Wretehed out
cast, Alice, who hurls her aims N the face
of gentle Harriet Carker, softens in the
end. But Rosa Dartle is the same I'M
placabe being, fostering with hate, re-
morse and appointment. And although
the same passions find expression in
these women there Is total dissimilarity
in the individual. The master never
borrows from one creation to express
similar emotions in the other. Herein
les the absolute perfection of his art.
Nine. Defarge, bloodthirsty, desperate
murderess, has no affinity in the demon
stration of her hate with the others Of
strong passions and an earnest thirst for
reprisal.
The loving women of Dickens are
largely in the ascendancy. Esther Sum-
merson, in "Bleak House" whose gentle
and unselfsh character pervades the en-
tire book, may be compared with Little
| Dorritt,'' the child of the Marshalsea.
Here again is the illustration of almost
similar virtues, fidelity and self
sacrifice, Dickens still creates indepen-
dent characters. There is nothing in
Little Dorritt'' that reminds us Of Esther
surmerson, nor does Esther, though a
type of the same admirable qualities, sug
gest in any way Little Dorrit's' person
Atty. Both are lovable, both delightful,
vet we can imagine both, as it were, NOV
| ing in different hemispheres. FLORENCE
Dombey is tenderly drawn, but is not far
J removed from Dora. Agnes is nun-like
woman, but borders on the prfggish class.
She is almost too mild and colorless for
! a woman of flesh and blood, and such
l niohous dna1a with a1onn