charles dickens essay - oliver twist
Oliver Twist
Being born just before your mother dies is a terrible thing to have to deal with, but to have no other relative to care for you, nurture you and to love you, it makes life incredibly difficult. However, at this age in the Victorian era, there were many complications that nowadays we do not encounter. To grow up unloved, not knowing how it feels to have a mother is already hard enough as it is, but to be shunned by society is just cruelty to one's mind. In the Victorian era, being illegitimately born was considered a horrible thing, and therefore you would've been shunned by society, you would be considered the lowest of the low. A novel which portrays these themes is Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, where Oliver was illegitimate and was mistreated in his life, not knowing love. His life was tainted, tainted by his birth, his birth as an illegitimate child burdened his life. Therefore, he faced the consequences.
Agnes Fleming was pregnant with her child, Oliver Twist. "'She was brought here last night,' replied the old woman, 'by the overseer's order. She was found lying in the street; - she had walked some distance, for her shoes were worn to pieces, but where she came from, or where she was going to, nobody knows'". By writing this, Charles Dickens shows the readers the harshness that illegitimate mothers had to go through, Agnes was not helped at all when she was lying in the street, nobody cared. After giving birth to Oliver, Agnes says "let me see the child, and die", Charles Dickens creates emotion in the reader by writing this because it is very emotive, the fact that her final request is to see her child makes the reader question how a human can be treated this way. After the birth of Oliver, she died. The infant was placed in a private juvenile home. "Oliver's eighth birth-day found him a pale, thin child, somewhat diminutive of stature, and decidedly small in circumference". Charles Dickens wrote this to tell the readers how badly he was treated, he was not fed properly, therefore he was pale and thin, which persuades the readers to feel sympathy towards Oliver. After nine years of mistreatment, he is returned to the workhouse for even more abuse. Oliver attempted to ask for more food, but was punished. "'That boy will be hung,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat; 'I know that boy will be hung'". This shows us how injustice can be so cruel towards even children, Oliver had just asked for more food because he was hungry, but instead of more food the man predicted that he would be hung, this could make readers question the cruelty towards children. He was apprenticed to Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker. Charles Dickens wrote about Oliver working at the undertakers to show readers that child labour was wrong, a child of his age working. Noah Claypole, a charity boy working for Mr. Sowerberry, goads Oliver to rebellion, for which Oliver is severely flogged. This is where Charles Dickens tells the readers about child abuse and how it's wrong.
Oliver was provoked by Noah, and yet he was the one that was punished. "'Oh you little un-grate-ful, mur-de-rous, hor-rid villain!'" and "Mrs Sowerberry plunged into the kitchen, and assisted to hold him with one hand, while she scratched his face with the other'". These quotes tell us how children can be cruelly abused in Victorian times. "They dragged Oliver, struggling and shouting, but nothing daunted, into the dust-cellar, and there locked him up". Charles Dickens reveals the cruelty that can be given to children. It also is emotive and captures the readers' sympathy because the reason he ...
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Oliver was provoked by Noah, and yet he was the one that was punished. "'Oh you little un-grate-ful, mur-de-rous, hor-rid villain!'" and "Mrs Sowerberry plunged into the kitchen, and assisted to hold him with one hand, while she scratched his face with the other'". These quotes tell us how children can be cruelly abused in Victorian times. "They dragged Oliver, struggling and shouting, but nothing daunted, into the dust-cellar, and there locked him up". Charles Dickens reveals the cruelty that can be given to children. It also is emotive and captures the readers' sympathy because the reason he was locked up was because he had been provoked by Noah Claypole, he taunted Oliver by speaking rudely about his mother which infuriated Oliver which led him to strike Noah. This captures sympathy because it was not entirely his fault in the first place. Consequently, Oliver runs away and heads for London where he meets John Dawkins and The Artful Dodger, who brings Oliver to Fagin, the ringleader of a gang of criminals. Fagin is an important character in Oliver Twist because he was the one that influenced Oliver into a life of crime and educated him in how to perform crimes. Fagin also treats the children he picks up as 'dispensable', he uses them to take risks for him, and he gets all the money from the robberies. It also tells us how the people in Victorian times did not care about children who run away from home or are orphans, unlike the present; the lack of care for children is what Charles Dickens is trying to tell the readers, and this is the reason why people like Fagin can get there hands on vulnerable children. It makes the readers question the laws and treatment of children even more. Oliver goes out with Charles Bates and the Dodger to pick an old man's pocket and fled leaving Oliver to be arrested and face the punishment. At the police station, Oliver is cleared by a witness, the bookseller. Mr. Brownlow sympathised with the boy and had him taken in and cared for at his home. Later on, Bill Sykes, a vicious and violent criminal and Fagin told Nancy to kidnap Oliver and return him to the gang. Sykes takes Oliver to a rendezvous with Toby Crackit and they go to a house that they are planning to burglarise but Oliver gets shot in the process. The robbers run off and abandon Oliver in a ditch. This shows us that Oliver's conspirators did not care about him; they left him to die. This is emotive and sparks off emotions in the reader; making them question how someone can let a child die like that. Oliver regained consciousness in the ditch and stumbled to the nearest house which was the house they attempted to burgle. Mrs. Maylie, the owner of the house, takes Oliver in and protects him. This shows that not all people are uncaring, by writing this, Charles Dickens probably wanted to persuade the reader to be more like Mrs. Maylie, a caring and kind person who took Oliver in and gave him a home.
Nancy, Bill Sykes girlfriend, tells Rose, Mrs Maylie's niece, also Agnes Fleming's sister, about Monks', a sickly, vicious young man, prone to violent fits and teeming with inexplicable hatred, and Fagin's plot to destroy Oliver. Rose tells Mr. Brownlow what Nancy has told her, Harry Maylie, Mr. Grimwig and Mr Losberne were also briefed. Fagin comes to the conclusion that Nancy has betrayed the gang and tells Bill Sykes, who bludgeons her to death. When Oliver was in his birth town he received a will from his father who had died long before the events in the novel, he was the father of Monks' also but had separated from Monks' mother and had a love affair with Agnes Fleming, Oliver's mother. They were to flee the country but he had died before they had the chance. He had left this will, which left part of his property to Oliver. Oliver decided to share his fortune with Monks due to Mr. Brownlow's recommendation. However, Monks later dies in prison. With no more family left, Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver and they settle near the parsonage.
Charles Dickens was born in February 7th 1812 during the rule of George III. His father had a poor head for finances, and in 1824 found himself imprisoned for debt. Charles Dickens was sent to work in a shoe-dye factory at a young age. This experience psychologically scarred him. This could have been one of the reasons why he felt so strongly about child labour. He gave an insight into his own experiences by writing about Oliver and about him working in the undertakers at this young age. The phrase, "ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble" suggests his opinion of life at this time. He felt strongly about this, and wanted others to see the truth behind the blinds in which the church and government pulled over the publics' eyes. He did this by doing what he did best; writing. Charles Dickens was a popular writer, so therefore he was very influential to his readers. He began serialising Oliver Twist in a magazine called Bentley's Miscellany in 1837. He left cliff hangers at the end of each chapter so that he could serialise the novel, he made the readers want to find out what happened next, therefore Charles Dickens slowly lured them into the social comment he was making, so that they could see what was happening to people like Oliver.
Charles Dickens might have started his novel in a workhouse to suggest that this was one of the main focuses of the novel, the workhouse conditions. Oliver was born in a workhouse illegitimately. His mother was wealthy and had a high social status, yet he was shunned because he was born out of wedlock. The quote, "to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, pitied by none" tells us how Oliver would've been treated, he would've been hated, and no-one would pity him. Charles Dickens wanted to tell people how terrible the Victorian laws were, by manifesting the mistreatment of Oliver because he was illegitimately born. Charles Dickens could not have changed the law so easily by himself but the public had the influences to change society and he appealed to them.
Charles Dickens created his characters so that the audience could relate to them. For example, Oliver's mother was a woman of high status, but because of the illegitimacy involved, Oliver was not considered middle class but a lowlife, he was considered the lowest class in society. This would've captured the middle class people's attention because they would see how even people of good birth can be treated badly because of the social rules of the time, and the fact that someone of their 'class' was mistreated so badly would make them feel sympathy for Oliver and consider whether the mistreatment of children like Oliver should be allowed. "If he could have known that he was an orphan, left to the tender mercies of churchwardens and overseers, perhaps he would've
cried more" might've appealed to the audience, maybe more to adults that have children because the thought of a child crying is something a parent would want to prevent from happening. If Oliver's character was that of someone like the Artful Dodger, he would've appealed less, because the Artful Dodger did not have the innocence of Oliver. This was a strong way to spread his social message to the public.
The fact that Oliver said to the master "please, sir, I want some more" portrays his innocence and his hunger and when Charles Dickens wrote ,"the simple fact was, that Oliver, instead of possessing too little feeling, possessed rather too much", he showed the innocence of Oliver's personality. The fact that the terrible events that happened to him scarred him greatly and yet he still carried on, he had overcome the burden in his life and carried on, and this appealed to the audience even more.
I think that Charles Dickens not only set the novel in London but other places in England as well to show that it was not only London that had these problems, basically, Charles Dickens was making a social comment about England as a whole, showing that there were these problems all over England. I think he also based parts of Oliver's life in the workhouse to show his readers how awful the workhouse conditions were and the harsh mistreatment that people of any age could receive.
The way Charles Dickens wrote his novel was an extremely effective way to catch his reader's attention. He used Oliver's innocence to appeal to the readers so that he can use their sympathy to aid him in his mission to change the social climate. He used his own experiences to make the effect more powerful. Charles Dickens disliked the way society was run. The workhouses, child labour, illegitimacy, injustice, all these he made comments on using his novel and using Oliver's character as an example. He used his popularity to influence people with his opinions and his social comments. He wanted to capture his readers' sympathy and use it to try and make the society a better place to live in, a place where everyone could be treated fairly and equally without discrimination.
1th April 2005
Ms Brooks
C/w H/w
Venh-Pat Ly // 9F
Assignment Details: In what way was Charles Dickens making a social comment with his novel, Oliver twist?
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