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When a critic speaks of the infusion of the didactic spirit into the novel, he or she means the 'teaching spirit' of the novel in either its plot structure, character development, or the way the author philosophically uses the novel to teach the reader, by reflecting upon the good or bad fates of the novel's protagonists. The eminent critic who referred to the didactic spirit of the novel thus meant that it is not surprising, given the teaching or instructive spirit of novels that novelists show readers how they ought to behave or how life ought to be using the examples of fictional characters. Novelists thus could be called prophets or seers because they use what happens to the interior or exterior life of their characters for instructive purposes, as if these characters were living in myths, or as if the characters had mythical significance.

Dickens clearly functions...
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