Novels are born of disillusionment

Discuss this statement with close reference to one or more novels you have studied.

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen and “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens, are both books that the world has adored for many years, and much has been gained from the stories they’ve told. These stories, one that could well be the greatest love story of all times, and the other a heart-wrenching story of an orphaned boy struggling to survive in a society that has no want, or capacity of sympathy for him, are both ones that present a chance to escape the reality of life and enter into another world. This world that we seek to enter is one without the harsh edge of reality. In these two worlds, the mistakes made, the obstacles faced, are all overcome, and an ending is achieved where the protagonist finds happiness and comfort. In reading these novels, we are taken in by a story unlikely to ever occur in real life. Yet, while the main plot line speaks of anything but disillusionment, we know the author is. Reality is integrated into both texts, showing the harshness of life that is experienced by all, but is overshadowed by the main plot. It is as if the knowledge of how life really is, is too heavy, a constant, unrelieved weight. In order to lighten, or forget that load, worlds have been created where people, and the authors, can escape to.

“Pride and Prejudice’ was written by Jane Austen, during a time where woman had barely any rights, and romance was formed on a dance floor. Where most marriages were not born of love but rather convenience, it is hard to believe that she could not have been disillusioned. Indeed, this knowledge is displayed clearly through the use of Elizabeth’s best friend Charlotte, whom upon becoming engaged with Mr Collins states ‘I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.” With this in mind, when approaching her novel, now classified as one of the greatest love stories of all times, it is hard to understand how she could have believed in what she was writing, how she could have thought that such a romance could have occurred as successfully as she wrote it. When she herself never had her happy ending, it comes to mind that maybe, though as disillusioned as it is easy to believe she would be, her book became her escape, the perfect ending she never gained. When one knows there to be none in the world we live, how else to manage the disappointment come from such disillusion as to create somewhere where all her dreams could end up true? And this seems very true of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Even now, where romance seems to have the chance at being so much more successful, can any of us really believe that a situation could occur, with so much stacked up in odds against it, where one man can make a turn around as large as Darcy, and their love succeed? Part of us knows deep down that life is not so simple and perfect, and that our own love stories will not necessarily be so triumphant. And with that knowledge, doesn’t that make us cling all the more to the unlikely scenario where it does? We love ‘Pride and Prejudice’ for its impossibility, for its beauty in which heartbreak can turn so completely around. The fact that heartbreak in the real world does not get so easily fixed only makes us cling to the illusion all the more so.

Charles Dickens presents a very cynical view of society in ‘Oliver Twist’, cleverly insulting while appearing to compliment. He used phrases such as ‘which might have warned an observant stranger that thoughts were passing in the beadle’s mind, too great for utterance’. Here he talks of a man that thinks very highly of himself and his position in society, and though Dickens appears to compliment him with this writing, it is clear from the rest of the text that he is insulting the man, showing him up to be a shallow, self-obsessed man with no real importance. With this opinionated writing it is all too obvious that he has been disillusioned to the world as a whole, his rose-tint of the world well and truly gone. However, despite this clearly cynical opinion in which he looks down on humanity, ‘Oliver Twist’ is, in the end, a very hopeful book, with a golden ending where all works out perfectly, chance, fate, and the better side of human nature working in coalition to produce a happy, if highly unlikely ending. Oliver, a poor orphaned boy, who, despite all the hard-ship he has suffered, does not lower himself to the baser instincts known to humans. And, amazingly, he is not killed, or lost, but found by an old gentleman and is saved. He is not some working class child, but the son of a gentleman. And with that, comes money and property enough to save him from the degraded life he has lived. Yet, this novel could not have been written without a sense of disillusionment, as there is far too much of it in the story. This disillusionment is shown through scenes such as Nancy’s death; ‘but such flesh, and so much blood!’.  It is not incredulously perfect, for if it was Nancy would not have been murdered, and Oliver’s friend ‘Poor Dick’ would have lived to greet his return, but rather only slightly miraculous, and from this it can be gained that it was born of disillusionment. But, as only so much reality can be handled, Charles Dickens still involves the miraculous, incredible story of Oliver’s luck. In writing it, it must have been all too obvious the chances of such a happening. Yet, write it he did to allow himself and others the enjoyment of a reality where it could happen, and does.

To conclude, most novels such as ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Oliver Twist’ could very well have been born of disillusionment, despite being far from disillusioned themselves. In each, situations occur in which improbable happenings give us an illusion of a much brighter, more perfect world where the ill that happens to us is made up for. However, for both, the likely hood of the authors believing in such a world are improbable, especially so in ‘Oliver Twist’ where Charles Dickens cynical views appear strongly, and in contrast to the happy ending he gives Oliver. It is believed that, these novels are so unlikely, so perfect in their own way, because of the disillusionment experienced by the author. In an effort to keeps some romanticism in the world, they create an over-perfect story where the pain is only one step in gaining great happiness.