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