a A.Naef-Hinderling, The Search for the Culprit, p.22-23.
b A.Naef Hinderling, The Search for the Culprit, p.26.
as a child who is both "good" and "bad", as a little person who is full of love and full of
agression, who is insecure, jealous and demanding but who is also eager to help, to
accept the other, to give. The child's divided self-representations go hand in hand with
contradictory object-representations. In the child's mind there exists the picture of an
all-loving holy mother as well as that of a mother who is a threatening monster. The
more aggressive the child feels himself to be - and a child whose baby-brother or baby-
sister has died will consider himself a monster of aggressiveness - the more he will
protect his 'good mother' image from being contaminated by his "bad mother' image by
keeping the two images as far apart as possible. This splitting mechanism makes it very
difficult for the child to realize that his "good mother" and his "bad mother" are one
and the same person.(a)
Naef-Hinderling eindigt haar eerste hoofdstuk met Dickens' klacht: "It is wonderful to me, how
I could have been so easily cast away at such an age." Deze klacht refereert aan Dickens'
vroegste jeugd. Maar daarmede wordt het schoensmeerfabriekje 'a blessing in disguise'. Zonder
deze ervaring was hij het kind in zichzelf vergeten en niet de fantasie-rijke schrijver geworden.
Naef-Hinderling gaat uitvoerig op de gevolgen van dit gebrek aan zelf-spiegeling in
Dickens' leven in:
The fact that Dickens was forever on the look-out for a reliable mirroring self-
object can be deduced from various incidents in his life. Quite a few people may have
taken on this function, for example John Forster, W.H.Wills, his wife Catherine, his
sisters-in-law Mary Hogarth and Georgina Hogarth, his children, particularly his
daughter Mamie, and perhaps also his mistress of later years, Ellen Ternan. We could
include in this list his readers and the audiences of his public readings....
It is obvious that Forster had to encourage his friend and to tell him constantly
how good he was. Dickens sent all his manuscripts first to Forster, who helped him
greatly in preparing the text for printing by proof-reading, cutting out passages if the
manuscript was too long, etc. Whenever Dickens planned a new book or a story it was
to Forster that he imparted his ideas and he also sought his advice when he had to
decide on the title of a novel or the name of a particularly character....(b)
Er vail bij het betoog van Naef-Hinderling enkele kanttekeningen te maken.
In het maartnummer merkte ik reeds het volgende op:
Wandelend van zijn huurkamertje naar zijn werk, naar de Marshalsea en zondags naar
zijn zuster om samen met haar naar de Marshalsea te gaan, kwam Charles door oude
delen van Londen: Strand, Covent Garden, Blackfriar Bridge and de oude Londen
Bridge. De grote straten hadden al flikkerend gaslicht, de kleine hier en daar een olie
lamp. Ackroyd meent, dat hij hier en door de 'common boys' sexueel is opgevoed:
In The Pickwick Papers Sam Weller's father says of his son: "I took a good deal o' pains
with his eddication, Sir, let him run in the streets when he was very young, and shift for
his-self. It's the only way to make a boy sharp, Sir." To be sharp means to be knowing
