hardworking, gregarious, cheerful,
benevolent, and imaginative, but at the same
time they betray pettiness and egotism
sufficient to avoid their appearing wholly
romaticized. Hard Times, written fifteen
years later than Nickleby, integrates its
entertainers far more closely into the
texture of the novel's themes and images,
but both sets of theatrical characters are
portrayed with affection and serve common
purposes: they embody positive values and
selflessly assist central characters.14)
Recognizing the fundamental similarity
of the kinds of characters they are can help
us to see more clearly the consonance of
their functions within the works in which
they appear. The actors are not merely
players of roles but also variety artistes; the
equestrians are not merely skilled riders but
also character impersonators. The diverse
nature of their activities involves the artiste
in appearing simultaneously as self and as
other; he or she undertakes a role without
disguising the actor who is performing that
role. Performance thus becomes complex play
with reality, at once asserting the actor's
individual identity and reaching beyond that
identity into an imagined one. Integrity,
imagination, and desire to please are the
essential ingredients of such theatricality,
and they are represented as invaluable
attributes of both Sleary's and Crummles's
companies.
In addition to clarifying the nature of
Dickens's theatrical characters, historical
understanding can also alert us to be on our
guard against simplistic or anachronistic
interpretations of Dickens's art, such as the
claim that the central action of his novels is
"the elaborate performance of a cheap melo
drama."15) While it is certainly true that all
of Dickens's novels present a clash of moral
absolutes personified by typed characters,
with heightened rhetoric and set-piece
scenes which show the influence of
contemporary stage conventions, there is no
need to view these methods disparagingly, as
"cheap"; melodrama in fiction is a method,
which strives towards clarification of
essential patterns beneath surface realities
and towards ideal solutions to particularized
problems.16) Moreover, much of his fiction is
theatrical without being specifically
melodramatic: the variety of characters and
settings, the pictorial nature of key
moments, the detailed attention to apparel
and location, all participate in the kinds of
diverse theatricality outlined above. And it
should also be evident that many elements in
Dickens's fiction are not specifically
theatrical at all: the fascination with
language, the concern with education, the
development of narrative voices, and the
exploration of psychological complexities are
but a few. The influence of melodrama on
Dickens's art is patent, but it accounts for
only a portion of his richness.
Again, when we find it argued that
theatricality in the sense of role-playing
constitutes the "living heart" of Dickens's
work we can be grateful for the insight but
should be wary of the extent to which it
applies.17) Actors strutting the stage in
Dickens's novels deceive no one except the
occasional child, such as Dickens's imagined
young self in "Dullborough Town", who is
astonished to find in the theatre that
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