H o w t o R e a d L i t e r a t u r e1 8 2than the village green. It is as though characters loom up out of
the crowd, allow us a quick, vivid impression of themselves, then
disappear for ever into the throng.
In Dickens’s world, this serves only to heighten their mysterious-
ness. Many of his characters appear secretive and inscrutable. They
have a cryptic quality about them, as though their inner lives are
impenetrable to others. Perhaps they have no inner life at all, being
nothing but a set of surfaces. Sometimes they seem more like
pieces of furniture than living beings. Or perhaps their true selves
are locked away behind their appearances, beyond reach of an
observer. Once again, this mode of characterisation reflects life in
the city. In the anonymity of the great metropolis, individuals seem
shut up in their solitary lives, with little continuous knowledge of
or involvement with one another. Human contacts are fleeting and
sporadic. People appear as enigmas to each other. So in portraying
urban men and women as he does, Dickens is arguably more
realistic than showing them in the round.
A literary work may be realist but not realistic. It may present a
world which appears familiar, but in a way that is shallow and
unconvincing. Slushy romances and third- rate detective stories fall
into this category. Or a work may be non- realist but realistic,
projecting a world unlike our own but in ways which reveal some-
thing true and significant about everyday experience. Gulliver’s
Travels is a case in point. Hamlet is non- realist because young men
do not usually speak in verse while berating their mothers or
running a sword through their prospective fathers- in- law. But the
play is realistic in some more subtle sense of the word. Being true
to life does not always mean being true to everyday appearances. It
might mean taking them apart.