In the first paragraph of the novel, Dickens writes about a “workhouse”. A workhouse was a “large, imposing and unattractive building”. It was a place were poor people lived and worked because they had nowhere else to go. They had minimal and unpleasant food and were treated appallingly. Workhouses were “designed to look intimidating and uninviting”. This is from the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Oliver Twist.
Dickens refers to “This world of sorrow and trouble” This tells us that Dickens thought that the world was sad and full of trouble and sorrow.
Dickens says that he does not envy those people born into a workhouse. This is because the conditions in workhouses were terrible. Families were split up and put in separate areas. The only food was gruel. It was a horrible environment for people to be born into.
Dickens talks about “a pauper old woman, who was rendered rather misty by … an unwonted allowance of beer” and a parish surgeon who did such matters “by contract”. Dickens is trying to say about the appalling and uncaring and inadequate medical attention in workhouses. Boards generally employed the cheapest doctors.
Dickens refers to Oliver as “ A new burden…imposed upon the parish”. This seems to be not Dickens view but the view of those who managed the workhouses and society in general.
Dickens explains that the nurse had been drinking from “a green glass bottle, the contents of which she had been tasting in a corner with evident satisfaction”. Dickens views of the people who were meant to be taking care of others were not high. He thinks they are inadequate for the job, are selfish and don’t care about who they are meant to be looking after.
Dickens writes about Oliver’s mother. He says, “She imprinted her cold white lips passionately on its forehead”. The use of the word “passionately” stands out at this point because it is the first positive image so far in the novel. Dickens is trying to show how badly unmarried poor mothers were treated in the mid 1800’s.
The doctor states that Oliver is likely to be “troublesome”. This is shocking to the reader, as it is doubtful that he is to be any more “troublesome” than any other newborn.
At the end of the first chapter, Dickens expresses that Oliver s “a parish child- the orphan of a workhouse…to be cuffed and buffeted through the world- despised by all, and pitied by none”. Poor orphans had a very bad status in the mid 1800’s as people thought it was their own fault they were poor.
Dickens is sarcastic when he says that Oliver was “left to the tender mercies of church wardens” because Christian officials should be kind and helpful towards poor people, yet these people were to punish them.
In the opening of Chapter 2 it says, “…Oliver was the victim of a systematic course of deception” Dickens is trying to give his readers the message that Oliver has been a victim from birth.
Dickens refers to the parish babies as “ juvenile offenders against the poor laws” This is not Dickens’ view but the view of others. They thought poor babies were a burden upon the parish.
Dickens then explains that Mrs Mann “was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children: and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself”. Dickens is trying to say that Mrs Mann and similar women in her position are not really wise but are really cunning and are deceiving the parish.
Dickens presents images of the babies being neglected. He wants the readers to be shocked by these images and goes into detail to shock the readers even more than to just say that he children were neglected.
Oliver’s birthday treatment at Mrs Mann’s and in front of the Board is surprising and shocking as no one noticed that it was his birthday and were cruel to him.
Mrs Mann threatens Oliver to make him pretend that he is disappointed to be leaving her. “He caught sight of Mrs Mann, who had got behind the beadle’s chair, and was shaking her fist at him”. It also goes on to say that she had beaten him so often that he understood at once.
We are told that when Oliver returns to the workhouse he was given “a rough, hard bed” and so “sobbed himself to sleep. What a noble illustration of the tender laws of England!” Thinking of the saying “You’ve made your bed: now you’ll have to lie on it” Oliver had no opportunity to “make his bed”, he is just a victim of society. Dickens is being sarcastic when he says “ What a noble illustration of the tender laws of England” because it is not noble at all, they had no high principles that you would expect from someone who is noble.
Dickens mocks the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 because he does not agrees with this law at all and dislikes.
The “master” is physically compared to Oliver. The master is described as “ a fat, healthy man”. Dickens is trying to show, by using such a contrast, how underfed and badly treated the boys and Oliver were in comparison the “fat, healthy man” that was the master who obviously got enough food to eat.
When Oliver asks for more gruel, the master responds by aiming “a blow at Oliver’s head with the ladle”. This violence is not at all necessary and shows the readers how badly treated Oliver was.
Dickens is attempting to say, in Oliver Twist how charity in the 1800’s was a terrible system and how badly treated the poor were.
