John Locke's Epistemological Empiricism and its Impact upon the Realistic Victorian Literature: Dickens' Great Expectations

Year 2021, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 262 - 271, 13.06.2021

Safaa Falah Hasan Alsaragna

Abstract

This paper suggests an exclusive study by investigating the impact of Locke’s philosophies that are mainly implemented in his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding on the field of literature in general and on the Victorian literature in particular. The study will concentrate on Locke's reflections on the Victorian realistic literature and by applying Lockean notions on Dickens’ Great Expectations and its main character Pip. Dickens has recorded the voyage of Pip from his innocent childhood to his expectations of adulthood. He solved the enigma of Pip’s character and portrayed his inner world by firmly inspiring the base concepts and theories of Locke. Locke's empirical thought has intervened in the work mentioned above by recording cognitive development and enhancing its concept of realism. As to say, the writings of Dickens and his contemporaries not only resulted from the tough circumstances of the century, yet from Locke’s philosophical production as well.

Keywords

John Locke, Empiricism, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Realism

Project Number

1

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