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Nature vs. nurture: Filling the parental vacuum in "Nicholas Nickleby", "David Copperfield" and "Great Expectations"

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Date Issued:
1992
Summary:
When a boy's mother is absent--either dead or lacking in the maternal graces--it is natural for him to look to his father for additional love and guidance. However, if the father is equally ineffectual, the child may seek outside sources to fill the parental void. Natural parents do not guarantee a nurturing atmosphere. Charles Dickens's novels exhibit this form of familial erosion over and over again; his substitutes for marginal mothers (and, consequently, failing fathers) are aunts and uncles, sisters, friends, sweethearts, employers, servants, and, in some cases, the child himself. Primary substitutes are not satisfactory either; Dickens's protagonists must usually go through a couple of failures before the right one is found. It is through this process that the parental vacuum is filled. The works reflect a "Nature vs. Nurture" tug-of-war, with nurture far and away, the winner.
Title: Nature vs. nurture: Filling the parental vacuum in "Nicholas Nickleby", "David Copperfield" and "Great Expectations".
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Name(s): Aguila, Susan Donath
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of English
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1992
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 57 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: When a boy's mother is absent--either dead or lacking in the maternal graces--it is natural for him to look to his father for additional love and guidance. However, if the father is equally ineffectual, the child may seek outside sources to fill the parental void. Natural parents do not guarantee a nurturing atmosphere. Charles Dickens's novels exhibit this form of familial erosion over and over again; his substitutes for marginal mothers (and, consequently, failing fathers) are aunts and uncles, sisters, friends, sweethearts, employers, servants, and, in some cases, the child himself. Primary substitutes are not satisfactory either; Dickens's protagonists must usually go through a couple of failures before the right one is found. It is through this process that the parental vacuum is filled. The works reflect a "Nature vs. Nurture" tug-of-war, with nurture far and away, the winner.
Identifier: 14829 (digitool), FADT14829 (IID), fau:11617 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Adviser: William Coyle.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.
Subject(s): Literature, English
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14829
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.