Oliver was tortured throughout his childhood; He didn’t have general rights. Today its different everybody had the right to eat, but Oliver didn’t believe he had that human right, if he dared ask for more he’d be beaten badly by Mrs Mann or The Beadle. She would starve the poor youngsters. Today harming a child is a serious offence, but in 1837 it was a normal way of punishment. Dickens brutishly implies The Beadle, along with the middle class, as being self indulgent. By contrast Oliver is terrified of The Beadle but The Beadle himself was a little nervous and scared of the board, he honoured them. This is shown as a hierarchy, with Oliver immovable at the bottom, and the magistrate right at the top. This demonstrates class divisions because it shows how each class reacted and behaved towards the other class. Mr Beadle changes his attitude when confronting the board, and then again to the lower class. He has two complete opposite attitudes towards the two different classes. This explains how they are separated from one another, like they belong to different worlds.
Later in this chapter Oliver is taken to the workhouse. He joined many other lonely miserable children, leading abnormal lives. They worked hard constantly all day everyday. They only stopped at meal times, but it wasn’t much of a meal, all they were given was a bowl of thin porridge called “gruel”, it was hardly enough to keep them alive. In 1834 the poor law was introduced, people who worked in these factories were given suitable amounts of food and worked average hours. But the upper class believed they were getting it easy, and enjoying themselves to much, living on free food and leading a life not having the worry of feeding their families. So the system made a dramatic change. The food was cut down to the bear minimum (extreme rationing) and they were forced to work long tiring hours. Basically the middle classes intentions were to slowly starve and work them to death, to make them suffer. They just wanted them to make money for themselves; to them they were just workers, like machines, the upper class controlled them, and the poor just accepted and went along with it, they had no power over their own feelings and rights.
Most importantly this relates to how Oliver is so ravenous, he is forced to ask for more. “Please sir I want some more” When doing so the beadle is astounded, how he has the nerve to ask for more. They purposed Oliver was the devil, that he was troublesome and wicked because he dare ask such things. Conversely the poor children were so close to death because of the small amounts of food they took in. But this represents how much of a hypocrite the beadle is, as he himself makes the poor class miserable and weak. Therefore I firmly believe the members of the board symbolise the devil, allowing blameless children to be persecuted by non stop labour and slow starvation.
This social Injustice continues throughout the novel, as this was the grounds of Dickens’s writing. Further more we see this carry through into chapter 11. Oliver remains to be stereo typed during the court room. He his held prisoner over night for being accused of pick pocketing, in a dark dingy cell, that lingered dreadful smells and horrific sightings such as rats and urine covering the ground. The less unfortunate were dumped “in dungeons, compared with which, those in Newgate, occupied by the most atrocious felons, tried , found guilty and under sentence of death are palaces.” This demonstrates that the two classes were unequal, the poor who committed petty crimes, where held in revolting cramped cells where as the 1st and 2nd class who committed serious offences such as murder, were held in prisons that were hygienic and pleasant environments to be in, the law protected the wealthy. This evidence points out that what class you were held under depends on how they treated you, they labelled you and it was impossible to be counted as an individual.
In this chapter Oliver is trialled by the magistrate, Mr Fang. The significance of his name makes his personality sound immoral, like he is a sharp person. He is seen as the devil, having fang teeth, trying to get his teeth into anybody and drag them down. This links to how the Beadle acts towards the children. This resulted in Oliver; he didn’t have a voice, while stood nervously in front of the magistrate. He was unable to speak for himself at this point, like he didn’t have the right. People believed the poor shouldn’t have a say because they will always be guilty. They judged those unfortunate and made them appear troublesome. Dickens betrays the magistrate he creates him as being a drunken man and all over the place. He is also comical, the magistrate tries to pin the blame on anybody, and he even accuses Mr Brownlow of stealing the book asking, “Is it paid for?” It demonstrates how Mr Fang just wanted to find someone guilty so he could depart from the office.
To sum up I believe Dickens defends the lower class and shows in detail how the poor were treated. Also how unequal the two class divisions were. I believe he wrote this novel to get people to understand how life was, and how different it was, showing people today the good changes that have happened.
