a dislike to all such sentimental scenes,--but Rebecca, satisfied with her part in the transaction, never presented herself before Colonel Dobbin and the lady whom he married" (Thackeray 871).
What is crucial here is the carefully patterned presentation of the evolution of character and the utter control of the novelistic form by the novelist. Thackeray repeatedly addresses the reader, as if he is forming a compact with the reader to discuss how things are with his characters and indeed with the novel itself: "Emmy's head sank down, and for almost the last time in which she shall be called upon to weep in this history, she commenced that work. . . . Who shall analyse those tears, and say whether they were sweet or bitter?" (Thackeray 866; emphasis added). As a matter of fact Thackeray has decisively analyzed the tears and their milieu, and his decisiveness is in the background of the entire plot of the novel. This is a scene of moral balance, crafted to achieve an emotional impact but also to prepare the way for the resolution of Becky Sharp's psychology as fundamentally decent, if fundamentally flawed.
Charles Dickens's widely known experiences as a youngster in a London workhouse provide fodder for the starkly drawn extremity of David Copperfield's circumstances, particularly in the workhouse and at Blunderstone after his mother dies. It is important to observe, as Allen does, the fusion of crusading author and his personal history; Allen cites Dickens's being "sent out at twelve to work at Warren's Blacking Factory . . . [which] left a wound in him that never healed" (Allen 186).
We could guess as much if the passionate indignation of the second chapter of David Copperfield were our only evidence. . . . He is attacking a whole social system in all its complexity wherever it seems to come to impede or prevent the flow of generous impulse between man and man, the exercise of natural kindness and trust (Allen 186,188).
On th...