Born into “this world or sorrow and trouble” our narrator seems to believe that Oliver’s chance of survival are extremely slim, so we are surprised when Dickens has him say; “it was the best thing for Oliver Twist that would by possibility have occurred” (being born in a workhouse), he also tells us the baby “lay gasping on a little flock mattress rather unequally poised between this world and the next”. All the odds are against Oliver yet this neglect saves him life! With amusing sarcasm Dickens suggests that if Oliver had been “surrounded by careful grandmothers, anxious aunts, experienced nurses and doctors of profound wisdom, he would most inevitably been killed in no time” There we see how Dickens reveals his criticism. He does not make plain statements in a sharp tone. What he does do he does is gives the reader a very exaggerated picture often presented as a list, so that the ideas move from sarcasm to the ridicules, then the reader finds themselves laughing whilst taking the point in.
Oliver’s survival is described as a “new burden upon the parish”. This is when Dickens picks up his attack, begun in a series of leading articles on the Times and the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834. This seemed to centralise care for the poor and infirm by taking responsibility away from individual parishes and appointing paid officers to oversee the relief of the poor. Rather than improve conditions Dickens felt poor people suffered more at the hands of these mostly greedy men.
Oliver’s mother dies as soon as she “imprinted her cold white lips passionately” on Oliver’s forehead for the first time. This is a very dramatic way to die and it creates pathos for the new orphan Oliver Twist. We feel sorry as we have just been told about how much of a chance Oliver has in life as being born in a workhouse is described as “the most fortunate and enviable circumstance that can possibly fall on a human being”, but we feel even more sorry for the orphan now his mother has died”
When the boys in the workhouse sit down to eat Dickens describes it as a “festive composition”. This suggests there is an excess of fine food, as the word feast comes from festive. Dickens is obviously being sarcastic and we also think he is greatly over exaggerating the point in order for us to understand how little food the boys in the workhouse got in the 19th century: “one porringer of gruel “is the amount allowed “and no more except upon great public occasions when two ounces and a quarter of bread besides” were added. Gruel was a thin, watery porridge which had no vitamin content. This meant that the boys were likely to be malnourished Once again we can hear the sarcastic edge to Dickens tone; official documents from the time confirm that this is not far from the truth.
There is a hierarchy even in the children, Noah Claypole calls Oliver “work’ us”, and he asks Oliver to address him as Mr Noah Claypole and he threatens to “whoop” him, oliver belives Noah as he has often experienced this. We know that Noah is not a workhouse orphan but his mother a washerwoman and father a drunken soldier discharged with a small pension to live off, Noah is also being bullied by the Shop boys, they call him “leather” and “charity”.
After the “profane offence of asking for more” Oliver was not to be sold, but the parish offered five pounds anyone to take Oliver of their hands. A violent chimney sweep named “Mr Gamfield” who needed five pounds to pay his rent money took it on himself to take Oliver of the parishes hands. “Stunning the donkey” so it would not move before walking into the parish to con the majustrates in believing he would be suttiable owner for Oliver. Because several boys have died under his supervision, the board considers five pounds too large a reward, and they settle on just over three pounds. When finalising the deal, Oliver begged in front of the magistrates who took it on themselves that he would not be sold to Gamfield and he was advertised yet again. The workhouse board considers sending him out to sea as a cabin boy, expecting that he would die quickly in such miserable conditions. However, Mr. Sowerberry, the parish undertaker, takes Oliver on as his apprentice. Mr. Bumble informs him that he will suffer dire consequences if he ever complains about his situation. This shows the lack of say he has in his future, it also shows the magistrates sympathy of Oliver, and possibly shows us that they don’t see the suffering the boys get in the parish and are new to it, explaining why they refused to sell Oliver to Gamfield.
Dickens sarcastically criticises Oliver’s “solitary incarceration” he says enemies of the system claim that “Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the pleasure of society or the advantages of religious consolation” Dickens then defends this statement by sarcastically saying “as for exercise it was nice cold weather, and he was allowed to perform his ablutions every morning under the pump, in a stone yard, in the presence of Mr Bumble, who prevented his catching a cold and causes a tingling sensation to pervade his frame, by repeated applications of the cane” Dickens sarcastically addresses exercise as being beaten, a physical punishment for Oliver.
Oliver is also abused mentally, at evening when the boys went to pray, Oliver was “kicked into the same apartment every evening” and there he listend to the other boys “ask god to guard them from the sins and vices of Oliver Twist”
