本論文檢驗狄更斯的成長小說裡的都會景色氛圍，如何內化成為小說主角人格發展的潛能，讓他們在進入倫敦城之後，逐漸自純真的童年蛻變成為性格穩定的青年。本文第一章依照狄更斯創作小說的時序，以【孤雛淚】（Oliver Twist）、【塊肉餘生錄】（David Copperfield）與【孤星血淚】（Great Expectations）的創作過程，來探討此成長小說此一文類的定義與傳統對小說家的影響。第二章則是以學者巴克萊（J. H. Buckley）對成長小說的詮釋，亦即「空間介質」（the space between）的概念，說明小說當中城市的描述對於其成長角色有舉足輕重的地位，因此在探討自【塊肉餘生錄】至【孤星血淚】之間的創作進程時，【荒屋】（Bleak House）與【雙城記】（A Tale of Two Cities）這兩部對城市有細膩描寫的作品也成為本章節的討論重點。
	在成長小說中，「空間介質」既然表達了小說主角在「童年想像力」（Child’s Imagination）與「穩定成熟期」（Stable Maturity）之間的中介地帶，它也就隱含了小說主角對當下外在環境的直覺與對於未來的期望。本文的第三章，利用索緒爾（Ferdinand de Saussure）的語言理論，來探究此一期望的本質，以及這本質顯現在城市景色當中的效果。在城市當中有太多的文明機制在操控人的期望，如【荒屋】裡的書寫與法庭，而這些機制卻常讓小說的角色在進入城市時對於自我的認同感覺到空泛與虛無（nothingness），因為就如索緒爾所言，這充滿意符（signifiers）的文明空間裡，它與人們所努力追求的意旨（signified）之間的聯繫是沒有本質基礎的。因此，反而是倫敦城裡處處可見的荒蕪，相對於小說人物所期望的都市榮景，也就是貧民窟的意像，這樣人們使用文明機制努力要驅逐的事物，才讓很多小說角色重拾自我存在的感覺。
	本文的第三章，借用卜倫的詩學理論說明，小說裡的角色若要不陷入城市的虛無，就必須時時體會到自我的實質存有，而非將自己定位在虛幻的期待當中。 以【荒屋】為例，城市裡就有很多的自然意象，造就了貧民窟的破敗，就可以呈現這樣的自覺，如濃霧、雨、以及街道上的泥濘。狄更斯讓他的小說角色在這些景象中掙扎徘徊，逐漸感覺其自我生存的意義。以巴克萊提出「空間介質」的理論背景而言，這在城市掙扎求生的經驗，也就是成長小說的情節主體，展現了浪漫主義對感覺與理性的辯證，城市裡面的自然意象成為小說人物藉以成長的「空間介質」，是因為它們不僅呈現了小說人物的感官直覺，處於倫敦這樣奇特的地標上，它們也體現了在這稍縱即逝的直覺裡，這些人物必須往自己期望當中的意旨蹣跚前進的戲劇性命運。【荒屋】裡的女主角愛思特。桑莫生（Esther Summerson）在進入倫敦時，就開始了這樣的命運，穿梭在雨，霧以及泥濘之間，愛思特若有似無地感覺到城市價值觀對她生活的宰制與牽引，她只能保持自己細膩而瑣碎的感知能力，遠離瀰漫於城市裡面的空泛期望。
本文於結論中將提出，	在這城市的自然意象與空泛期望的困境之間，能夠脫繭而出的就是【孤星血淚】中的皮普（Pip）。皮普的故事與狄更斯在其他作品中對都會描寫最不一樣的地方，就是主角在泰晤士河上的領悟，河水匯流不定的漂浮感與他奮力划船拯救馬可維奇的形象合而為一，讓皮普與他的童年恐懼得到和解，並且意識到不停蛻變的生命過程才是他旅途的最終目的地。在這裡河流與【荒屋】中的濃霧等等自然意象相同，都代表了個人在直覺與期望之間的痛苦掙扎。而皮普在小說的結尾於河流上奮力前進的圖像，展現出他在意識與實質的存有上不停在接受意義與感官經驗的匯流而成為一異質的自我，而這匯聚與改變，經過狄更斯獨特的都會描述，賦予小說人物的成長最確切的定義。

This study analyzes Charles Dickens’s internalization of urban landscape into his Bildungsromane, specifying that the narration of urbanity contributes significantly to the fictional protagonists’ development from innocence to maturity.  In the chronicle of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations, Chapter One examines the tradition and definition of Bildungsroman as great influences on Dickens’s creations.  Chapter Two explores J. H. Buckley’s concept of the “space between” to identify the role of London in Dickens’s Bildungsromane, demonstrating that the creations of Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities, with their sophisticated descriptions of the city, enriched Dickens’s skill of narrating the protagonists’ growth. 
In Bildugnsroman, the “space between” reveals not only the stage between the “child’s imagination” and the “stable maturity” but also the fictional protagonist’s instincts to the external world and expectations.  Chapter Three, on the basis of Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistic theory, examines the expectations in the fictional characters’ urban experiences.  The civil mechanisms, like the writing and the court, manipulate Londoners’ expectations.  In the process of manipulation, Londoners may feel nothingness about themselves because, according to Saussure, the civil world full of signifiers have no essential connections with the signified that Londoners hunger for.  Ironically, the slum in the city, the areas that civilization tries to rule out by signification, is possible for the fictional characters to feel about themselves. 
            Chapter Three, borrowing Harold Bloom's poetic theory, points out that, in order to avoid urban nothingness, the fictional character must be conscious of his or her realistic self-existence rather than be indulged in the abstract expectations.  Some natural images in Dickens’s Bleak House present such dilemma, like the fog, the rain, and the mud, which construct the most part of Dickens’s urban slum.  The fictional characters struggle in these images to learn the fact that their identities in the city are actually blurred.  The dialect of the sense and sensibility, as the theoretical background of Buckley’s concept of the “space between,” corresponds to the fictional plots of urban experiences that dramatically reveal the characters’ dilemma between their instincts and expectations.  Esther Summerson in Bleak House, for example, presents this dilemma when she enters London.  Elusively feeling that she is manipulated by the urban expectations, Esther must persist in her delicate feelings about her surroundings so as to prevent herself from falling.  
	River is also Dickens’s image to present the Londoner’s dilemma.  I conclude my dissertation by the idea that the city in Great Expectations differs itself from that in Dickens’s other works by the presentation of the river.  After going through the fog, mud, and the rain in London (the similar natural images as those in Bleak House), Pip’s struggling on the Thames shows his stage of “stable maturity” when the flows merge with his figure of struggling to save Magwitch.  He is making peace not only with Magwitch but also with his primal fear since childhood.  The point of making peace suggests his epiphany that self-development must take place through the continual metamorphosis of life.

Introduction	1
Chapter One.  Buildungsroman and the Formation of Dickens’s Fictional Protagonists	7
I. Bildungsroman for Dickens	7
II. Oliver Twist	14
II. David Copperfield	19
III. Great Expectations	21
Chapter Two. The “Space Between”	26
I. Bleak House and Space Between	28
II. Symbolic Order and Devil’s Dance	31
Chapter Three. The Chasm of Urbanity	35
I. Mapping London in Saussurean Schema	36
II. Paper and Writing	44
III. The Court	54
IV. The Slum	59
Chapter Four. Phantasmagoric London	67
I. The Swarming City and the Wondering Heroine in Bleak House	70
II. The Fog	97
III. The Rain	105
IV. The Mud	114
Conclusion. The River in Great Expectations: The “Stable” Maturity	120
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