2024 : 12 : 6
Masoud Keshavarz

Masoud Keshavarz

Academic rank: Assistant Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6585-2752
Education: PhD.
ScopusId:
HIndex:
Faculty: Literature and Languages
Address: Arak University
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Research

Title
An Analysis of Male Characters in Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens Based on R. W. Connell's Theory of Masculinity
Type
Thesis
Keywords
Martin Chuzzlewit, R. W. Connell, masculinity, dominant, subordination, complicity, marginalization
Year
2024
Researchers Masoud Keshavarz(PrimaryAdvisor)، Mohammad Ghaffary(Advisor)، Hadee Oudah Lafta Lafta(Student)

Abstract

This study presents an Analysis of male characters in Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens based on R.W. Connell's theory of Masculinity. The objective of the study are the four types of masculinity , which are (hegemony , complicity , subordinate and marginalized)according to R.W Connells he stated that these four types are represent the social hierarchy of male characters in society and each one of these types are present a set of social , moral and cultural characteristics and adjectives ,Connells said that ,"hegemony" represents the dominant masculine male character in society ,the one who feel himself the rightful person to gain power and control over women and man ,the other type is "complicity" this kind of masculinity ,the male character have the mental and physical characteristics however this type of characters is not showing the bad side rather than ,they show their gentleness and kindness ,the sweet talk and love for other .As for the subordinate masculine which shows the feminine side of their characters , in their speech and behavior ,and the last category is the marginalized they are weak ,unimportant male characters . and based on these four types ,will analyze and classify the characters of the novel according to their masculinity characteristics , such as behaviors ,attitudes , conversation with other characters ,also their interaction with other characters , their personal view towards other people , their attitudes will be examined socially , according to their speech and clear personal perspective . this thesis elaborate on the analyzing of these characters and their interaction and speeches with male characters they present by applying R.W. Connell's of masculinity. through dialogue ,attitudes and action , by tracing the characters who exist in the novel from the first chapters until the last chapters ,in their speech , their action , falling and raising action , their reaction towards speech and personal events ,their changes from a specific pattern to other , their physical appearance and the indication it highlight also examining their conversation hidden meaning ,their diverse personal characteristics , it was found that the characters were acting based on their social gender characteristics and they were gaining these characteristics and attitudes according to their gender hierarchy , moreover the dominant characters shows the difference in speech and attitudes from the complicity who were showing their gentleness and kindness with women ,but their respect and cleverness were obvious in their action without declaring it for public such as in (Pecksniff and Old Martin Chuzzlewit ,) who were present the hegemony category and (Jonas Chuzzlewit )who used to show Dominant characteristics in the first chapters , and then he turn to be a "complicity )in the later chapters . As for (Young Martin Chuzzlewit and Pinch ,as well as Westlock ) who used to presents the complicity masculinity , on the other hand we can see the other types of this classification are the opposite , the subordinate and marginalized were the lower scale of this social gender hierarchy ,the subordinate such as (Paul Sweedlepipe and Agustus Moddle )were presenting feminine side more than masculine side ,and the marginalized one (Benjamin, Mr. Chuffey and Mark Tapley ) were not very important even with their service ,they could be dismissed .in the end ,the dominant characters turn to be Old martin Chuzzlewit by managing himself to be the controlled one over the hole novel ,in the last chapters the table turn and everything been revealed . on the same context the study are important for social gender studies and also for Victorian novel to be studies based on this theory .