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【Abstract】This is an ecocritical study of Our Mutual Friend by the well-known British writer Charles Dickens.It explores the destruction of ecological environment，social ecology and spiritual ecology when people center on the material reality at Victorian age.In this essay，it reveals Dickens’s ecological thought by analyzing the natural descriptions and interpersonal relationships from the perspective of social and spiritual ecology.It also indicates Dickens’s call for coming back to nature.
【Key words】Our Mutual Friend； ecological environment； social ecology； spiritual ecology
As Charles Dickens’s last completed novel，Our Mutual Friend depicts vividly the filth that industrial revolution brings to the Victorian society.It is permeated with excessively existed symbols which cannot be regarded only as scenery descriptions.
Ecocriticism aims to study the relationship between human and nature in terms of human’s attitude towards nature，the influence of human culture on nature and the attitude towards nature in literature works.Through reading Our Mutual Friend，we can fully understand the loss of spiritual paradise in that eroded society.
I.In Our Mutual Friend，Dickens employs unique technique to describe natural surroundings.There is such a description：“The moon had gone down，and a mist crept along the banks of the river，seen through which the trees were the ghosts of trees，and the water was the ghost of water…while the cold eastern glare，expressionless as to heat or color，with the eye of the firmament quenched，might have been likened to the stare of the dead.” Mist has always been the inalienable attachment to London city in Dickens’s novels.
It cannot be denied that industrial revolution and urbanization greatly promoted the wheel of human society to a high speed.What followed by，however，is the deterioration of material environment.The severe air pollution，bad weather and natural condition make labors and the poor pay a heavy price.They live in “unimaginable filthy and stink conditions，breathing deliberately poisoned air”.Dickens’s sharp observation is deeply attracted by the ruinous condition of London behind its prosperous surface.
II.Along with the destruction to the ecological environment，Dickens also pay much attention to interpersonal contradictions.The ecological crisis of modern society exists not only in environmental deterioration but social crisis.Facing the continuous degeneration of natural resources，human relations get worse and worse by the challenge of struggling for life.Further on，the spiritual ecology follows down. The initial description opens with the scene of Lizzie and her father who are obviously “doing something they often did，and were seeking what they often sought”.This frightening description offers “a sense of uncertainty and fear” and “serves to emphasize a known horror”.The two figures，being the low class of society，search corpus corpse on the Thames for a living.The very fire that warmed you when you were a babby was picked out of the river alongside the coal barges.The very basket that you slept in，the tide washed ashore.In Our Mutual Friend，the poor spend the night in the streets，having no shelter to go； the rich，however，enjoy the hilarious nightlife of London and rest in the daytime.
III.Dust in Our Mutual Friend is a symbol of great inescapable weight.All wealth comes from dust，and then disappears as dust.Putting it so directly，Dickens suggest human to give up chasing after money and back to the unpolluted nature.In the midst of all characters’ milieus，the Thames is more or less intermingled with everyone’s life.It occupies so vital a part in the formation of the frightening story that it presents to readers more like the whole nature than a mere river.As a repeatedly motif，it is bestowed with sacred meaningful moral by Dickens.Just like the meaning used by church during the sacrament of Baptism as a form of rebirth “by water and the Spirit”，“a new way of creation from water and Spirit”，the Thames in Our Mutual Friend stands for the very medium through which characters attain their renewal of life via death.
At the final of the novel，Dickens gives the Thames a fresh look with all the characters enjoying the delightful gathering around it.Nature comes back to its original look and human live harmoniously with the whole nature.It is the significant appeal of Dickens’s ecological thought.
*本文章是国家社会科学基金项目《基督教文学中疑难案件的法学问题研究》的研究成果。
作者简介：刘燕飞，女，1990年10月20日出生，山东东营人，中国政法大学硕士研究生，英语语言文学专业英美文学方向。
【Key words】Our Mutual Friend； ecological environment； social ecology； spiritual ecology
As Charles Dickens’s last completed novel，Our Mutual Friend depicts vividly the filth that industrial revolution brings to the Victorian society.It is permeated with excessively existed symbols which cannot be regarded only as scenery descriptions.
Ecocriticism aims to study the relationship between human and nature in terms of human’s attitude towards nature，the influence of human culture on nature and the attitude towards nature in literature works.Through reading Our Mutual Friend，we can fully understand the loss of spiritual paradise in that eroded society.
I.In Our Mutual Friend，Dickens employs unique technique to describe natural surroundings.There is such a description：“The moon had gone down，and a mist crept along the banks of the river，seen through which the trees were the ghosts of trees，and the water was the ghost of water…while the cold eastern glare，expressionless as to heat or color，with the eye of the firmament quenched，might have been likened to the stare of the dead.” Mist has always been the inalienable attachment to London city in Dickens’s novels.
It cannot be denied that industrial revolution and urbanization greatly promoted the wheel of human society to a high speed.What followed by，however，is the deterioration of material environment.The severe air pollution，bad weather and natural condition make labors and the poor pay a heavy price.They live in “unimaginable filthy and stink conditions，breathing deliberately poisoned air”.Dickens’s sharp observation is deeply attracted by the ruinous condition of London behind its prosperous surface.
II.Along with the destruction to the ecological environment，Dickens also pay much attention to interpersonal contradictions.The ecological crisis of modern society exists not only in environmental deterioration but social crisis.Facing the continuous degeneration of natural resources，human relations get worse and worse by the challenge of struggling for life.Further on，the spiritual ecology follows down. The initial description opens with the scene of Lizzie and her father who are obviously “doing something they often did，and were seeking what they often sought”.This frightening description offers “a sense of uncertainty and fear” and “serves to emphasize a known horror”.The two figures，being the low class of society，search corpus corpse on the Thames for a living.The very fire that warmed you when you were a babby was picked out of the river alongside the coal barges.The very basket that you slept in，the tide washed ashore.In Our Mutual Friend，the poor spend the night in the streets，having no shelter to go； the rich，however，enjoy the hilarious nightlife of London and rest in the daytime.
III.Dust in Our Mutual Friend is a symbol of great inescapable weight.All wealth comes from dust，and then disappears as dust.Putting it so directly，Dickens suggest human to give up chasing after money and back to the unpolluted nature.In the midst of all characters’ milieus，the Thames is more or less intermingled with everyone’s life.It occupies so vital a part in the formation of the frightening story that it presents to readers more like the whole nature than a mere river.As a repeatedly motif，it is bestowed with sacred meaningful moral by Dickens.Just like the meaning used by church during the sacrament of Baptism as a form of rebirth “by water and the Spirit”，“a new way of creation from water and Spirit”，the Thames in Our Mutual Friend stands for the very medium through which characters attain their renewal of life via death.
At the final of the novel，Dickens gives the Thames a fresh look with all the characters enjoying the delightful gathering around it.Nature comes back to its original look and human live harmoniously with the whole nature.It is the significant appeal of Dickens’s ecological thought.
*本文章是国家社会科学基金项目《基督教文学中疑难案件的法学问题研究》的研究成果。
作者简介：刘燕飞，女，1990年10月20日出生，山东东营人，中国政法大学硕士研究生，英语语言文学专业英美文学方向。