The struggle of life

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The Battle of Life: A Love Story (German: The battle of life. A love story ) is a story by Charles Dickens from 1846.

The story is one of the five Christmas stories that Dickens published as separate books for Christmas between 1843 and 1847. The best known is A Christmas Carol (German: A Christmas song in prose ) from 1843, followed by Chimes (German: Die Zauberglocken ) in 1844 and The Cricket on the Hearth (German: Das Heimchen am Herd ) as the third volume in 1845. It followed in 1846 The Battle of Life and 1847 The Haunted Man (German: Der Verwünschte ).

The first publication of The Battle of Life was made in 1846 by the publisher Bradbury and Evans in London with illustrations by Charles Green (1840-1898).

action

First part

In a place on a former battlefield lives the philosopher Dr. Anthony Jeddler with his two daughters, the younger Marion (favorite daughter) and Grace, who is perhaps four years older. From the knowledge of life on a former battlefield, on which many dead lay after a battle in the distant past, who did not know why they had died so cruelly, Dr. Jeddler his philosophical view that life is a farce, silly and not to be taken seriously. Dr. Jeddler was the guardian and asset manager for the orphan Alfred Heathfield. Alfred loves Marion, but she doesn't seem to return his love. However, she is urged by Grace, because the connection to Alfred is from Dr. Everyone is welcome. But we also learn that Grace has had a close relationship with Alfred since she was a child. The day the action begins is Marion's and Alfred's birthday. On this day, the guardianship comes to an end because Alfred has come of age. Corresponding papers are signed in the garden. The legal act is accompanied by the law firm's two lawyers, Mr. Snitchey and Mr. Craggs. Domestic servants Clemence Newsome (a woman with no physical appearance) and Benjamin Britain (a stubborn employee) have to draw as witnesses. We learn about the two sayings of Clemence Newsome on a thimble and a muscat strainer ("Forget and forgive" and "What you want people to do to you, you do it to them too"), which are their maxims in life.

Alfred then goes to college and asks that Grace look after Marion until he comes back. Alfred shares Dr. Not Jeddler's worldview. He thinks that there is no point in deriving your worldview from the battlefield, but that it is more important to see the many quiet labors and deeds of people who do them daily with great self-sacrifice and heroism, without fame or prestige.

Second part

It's been three years.

Michael Warden, a client, sits in the law firm of Mr. Snitchey and Mr. Craggs. He spent and squandered a large part of his fortune. Now he has to flee abroad because guilty prisoners are waiting for him in England. He entrusts Snitchey and Craggs with the management of his property, which can also generate an income for some time. He tells the two that he was staying with Dr. Jeddler was cared for by Marion after a horse accident and has come to love her. Now he wants to take her abroad with him (without her father's consent) as his partner who will help him find the right path. Snitchey and Craggs are placed in a difficult position because they are kept silent, even though Dr. Jeddler is her client.

In Dr. Jeddler's house, Marion and Michael Warden meet secretly, with the help of Clemcence Newsome, who also gets into a conflict of conscience.

Dr. Jeddler expects Alfred to return from university. It's Marion's birthday again. He wants to give him a festive reception, but he should marry Marion. In the middle of the party, while Alfred arrives, Marion disappears. She doesn't want to meet him. Everyone is very upset. Grace faints, Alfred holds her hand.

third part

It's been six years.

Against all expectations, including those of Benjamin Britain, he has meanwhile married Clemency and has leased an inn "Zum Muskatsieb" on the outskirts of town. They have two children and business is good thanks to Clemency's practical mind. A stranger in mourning clothes, it's Michael Warden, shows up at the hostel and asks the two of them about developments in recent years. He learns that Grace and Alfred have married, have a daughter named Marion and that Alfred works as a doctor in town. Warden gives the impression that Marion is dead, which Clemency hits very hard. Mr. Snitchey has a meeting with Michael Warden at the hostel. Meanwhile, his companion Graggs has died. He asks Warden to visit him and tells him that Dr. Jeddler wants to reveal all of Marion's secrets to his daughter Grace. Michael Warden has apparently paid off his debts by changing his lifestyle abroad and with the help of Snitchey's administration. He plans to sell his house and go abroad forever.

In Jeddler's house, Grace and Alfred, who is also privy, are sitting. He announced to Grace the revelation of Marion's fate for that day. It is their wedding day, but also the day of Marion and Alfred's birthdays. Then Marion appears in a white dress (compared to an angel). It is she in person. She explains to Grace that she didn't go abroad with Michael Warden, but with Dr. Jeddler's sister Martha lived all this time. She wanted to enable the connection between Alfred and Grace, because out of sisterly love she felt Grace's great love for Alfred and kept her great love for Alfred secret. All that was left for her to do was to disappear to enable Grace and Alfred to marry. Michael Warden had asked for Marion's hand from the age of 6. But she let him in on her plans, which he had accepted and not betrayed. Everyone is now on site: Dr. Jeddler, his sister Martha, Mr. Snitchey, Clemency, her husband Ben Britain and Michael Warden. Michael Warden takes the opportunity to meet Dr. Apologize to Jeddler and Alfred for his planned attack, the kidnapping of Marion. Marion's demeanor has shamed him and led him back onto the path of his own righteousness. He is donating the hostel, he was the lessor, on the occasion of reparation to Benjamin Britain and his wife Clemency. It is renamed "Muscat sieve and thimble" because of the important sayings (see above). In his life as a doctor, Alfred practices his view of life with his silent struggle for the health of his patients, and his father-in-law Dr. Jeddler has to revise his: "It is a world full of cordiality and a serious world with all the follies." At the end we learn that Michael Warden did not go abroad, but married Marion. They live in his house, which he did not sell, and are famous for their openness and hospitality in the whole area.

expenditure

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