Eccentrics in literature

Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli by Ronald Firbank and Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf both liberate the text from the expected form to engage emotional awareness and instigate reform of societal standards. Employing Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the carnivalesque and grotesque realism as a means to create this perspective is unconventional; nevertheless, Firbank, predominantly misunderstood, and Woolf, more regarded but largely misinterpreted, both address sexuality and religion to parody what they believe to be the retrogression of civilization by narrating christenings, pageants, and other forms of carnival. Both novels forefront nonconformity, and the conspicuous influence of debasement is identified as a form of salient renewal. Christopher Ames, Melba-Cuddy Keane, and Alice Fox have already expressed remarkable insight into Woolf; unfortunately not a single scholar has approached Firbank’s text in this manner, and this essay discusses the value of both authors in the aspect of Bakhktin’s theories.

Charles Dickens liked to create eccentric pairs within his novels by contrasting one benevolent with one unscrupulous caricature. In his first novel, Pickwick Papers, good-hearted Samuel Pickwick is set off against deceitful Alfred Jingle. In Dombey and Son, produced mid-point in his writing career, compassionate Captain Ned Cuttle is distinguished from cunning Major Joseph Bagstock. In his last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, humanitarian Nicodemus Boffin counterposes corrupt Silas Wegg. These characters are humorously portrayed through their appearance and speech, as well as through the farcical situations in which Dickens places them. They also become metaphors for human qualities, such as greed, naivete, pride and compassion, thereby clarifying Dickens's serious themes.