The Role Of Dating In Bleak House And Our Mutual Friend, By Charles Dickens

Throughout our lives, many of us crave and strive to be loved and cherished. Many find purpose and happiness when they share reciprocated affection with another person. Heartbreak often occurs when what we wished for in a relationship is not returned in the same manner. Miranda in “Sexy” by Jhumpa Lahiri felt this at the end of her relationship with a married man named Dev. He had treated her unlike anyone else before. This caused her to believe their relationship meant the same to him as it did to her, despite him being married to another women. Mr. Kapasi in “Interpreter of Maladies” found affection towards a woman who was cold towards her family, but was warm and showed great interest in him. He had started to believe she was different

Love has the power to change the world. It can do far more than any speech, treaty, or war. Love, on a smaller scale, can especially impact the lives of those who communicate and receive it. This passion has the ability to assuage, provide comfort, and provide life. In particular, one girl dedicates her life to spreading love, even when she must sacrifice a large amount of her time. This woman is Lucie Manette. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to prove that love and sacrifice can impact one’s life.

Dating back to the early 1900’s and all the way through to the present, romantic relationships have been viewed differently. From strict unwritten dating regulations to not having regulations at all, recent generations have become more liberated in making their own decisions. The progressing times have made us become a more accepting society and have caused a decrease in the strong practice of religion and class. Even though differences such as religion and class in relationships were more than an issue they were not always a complete deterrence.

The human idea of love is quite possibly the most misunderstood in today’s society. Love can be between a man and woman, mother/father and their kids, or even really good friends. However, these relationships of love go through many interactions and stages to start and progress. Many psychological events must occur and be worked through in order to be successful. All relationships must endure the five perspectives of human behavior. These perspectives are biological, learning, social and cultural, cognitive, and psychodynamic influences.

The relationship between women and men might be complicated for some while sometimes even a really loving relationship cannot survive if people chose their personal longing as a priority. Women and men fight in relationships; fight for more independence, fight to prove their worthiness and keep forgetting that love is not a fight but a mutual support.

Upon a comparative study of the texts Emma and Clueless, we can see that the quality of relationships in society bears strong similarities, despite their different contexts. Emma is set in 16th century England, where the rigid social structure dominated social interaction. This is contrasted to Clueless, which is set in 1990’s Beverly Hills where popularity was integral to determining a relationship. Being integral to modern society, relationships were used as medium to secure wealth and to find purpose in one’s life, in different contexts. Additionally, the restrictive nature of relationships has changed over the course of time despite still existing in a different sense. The strict class based society of the Regency Era limited relationships in Emma while social groups at school dictated the dynamics of relationships in Clueless. However, the popularity of marriages has decreased, with many teens opting to settle with dating before any further commitment. By discussing the different purposes and changes in relationships over the two texts we can develop clear ideas about the quality of relationships in society.

In this article from Time magazine entitled “Crazy Love”, the author Steven Pinker, discusses the implications of falling in love, the extent of its effect on human beings, and the methodology of people’s endeavors to find potential spouses. The author argues that experiencing love has the power to drive humans to take actions that under rational circumstances, they would likely not partake in. Pinker asserts that the symptoms of romantic infatuation are “different from both raw lust and the enduring commitment that keeps lovers together.” That we as human beings should all know the symptoms: the idealization of our significant others, massive mood swings that vary from ecstasy to despair, the inability to eat or sleep, and the “intense need for signs of reciprocated feelings.” He

The love story is one of the oldest and most cherished traditions in any world culture. The prevalence of romantic works throughout history, whether Greek myths, Jane Austen’s dramatic narratives, or today’s dime-a-dozen romantic novels, ultimately encourages us to believe in the power of true love. We identify with the archetypal star-crossed lovers, who combat established convention in order to assert their romance, because we too yearn for our own “happily-ever-afters.” When used in conjunction with reason, love is the highest form of compassion – without it, we could not possibly interact productively with one another or develop as individuals. But when we take a new perspective and examine love as an independent,

The stark divide between love and marriage shown right the way through cannot be comprehended fully by the twenty-first century reader: in today’s society marriage and love are mutually exclusive - you very rarely get one

However, Dickens also relates specific

Charles Dickens was the most famous writer of the Victorian era. He believed that writing could play a big role in fixing the problems of the world. He wrote about the problems of the society during his time. His famous works include Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House etc. He saw the conditions of the people during that age due to the growing things that took place around him in nineteenth century and documented these in the form of a novel or short stories which became very popular. Other writers of that age just wrote about the growing industries and the good part of the society but Dickens was very different from them. He wanted that the readers should know the worst side of that age, the problems that people were facing. Bleak House is one of his dark novel. It is the ninth novel of Charles Dickens which was first published as a serial between March 1852 and September 1853. It contains a number of characters and several sub plots. In the novel all the characters are somehow connected to one another which we will know as the story unfolds. The story has two narrator, one is Esther Summerson and the other one is a third person narrator. Esther is the main character of the novel. She was an orphan girl brought up by Miss Barbary who treated her very badly without any reason. As the story continues we will come to know that Esther is the daughter of Lady Deadlock. So the complete story contains many secrets and subjects.

“Lonely Hearts” conveys a deep sense of desperation of those who seek alternative methods of finding love. This trend of matchmaking has significantly grown from the

People as well as writers often mistake infatuation with love. As a result, “love at first sight” is a common trope in film and literature. Love is something that takes time and effort; people must choose to put in the care and understanding into a relationship for it to be considered love. While the two are similar, infatuation is attraction to someone based on their appearance; love is mutual affection and the act of looking beyond someone’s problems and flaws. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the main characters all indulge in infatuation, but never love. Because Pip and Estella’s lives are built off of appearances rather than character, they cannot form healthy relationships and thus cannot experience true love.

In our society today a person can often look around a room of people and see nothing but the top of their heads, along with their eyes staring down at lit up screen filled with tremendous possibilities. One thing you doubtfully will view is everyone surrounding talking to each other making kinship with in their proximity. Instead, making connections through their phones. In the article written by Nancy Jo Sales “Tinder and the Dawn of the“Dating Apocalypse””, Sales speaks of the dating culture of the current twenty-first century and her views on how online dating has affected thus creating a sort of “Dating Apocalypse”. In the culture of intimacy may it be consciously or subconsciously people are seeking love and security in their lives through hookups and technological dating cites such as Tinder.

In Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens takes on an impersonal narrative of a brother, Charley, and a sister, Liz, in the street after the she rejected his best friend’s proposal. This launches Charley into a tantrum of emotion that which he tries to make up for. The emotion and motives behind Charley’s attempts are revealed through diction, syntax, and choice of detail, as he tries to convince his sister.