How does Charles Dickens Expose Victorian Society Awful Treatment Of The Children Of The Poor?

Dickens shows the mistreatment in the workhouses but also makes jokes of the officials in charge. He uses characternyms ' Bumble' and malapropisms to show the officials as misunderstood, clumsy, ignorant people. Which emphasises his feelings toward the poor.

Dickens shows the mistreatment of the poor children by using emotive language and some pathos. "Please, Sir, can I have some more?" The officials see this as a disgrace, this also shows how Dickens felt about the workhouse officials. To ask for more in Victorian times as a poor child was looked down on and Dickens uses an emphasis on the naivety and innocence of the children to make the reader feel empathy for Oliver.

The narrator highlights the hardships of the children throughout the novel. He again uses characternyms to emphasise how the officials are very clumsy 'Bumble.' From the beginning of the novel Dickens shows the officials misunderstood of the quality of life for the poor and uses satire and sarcasm. Mrs Mann is an excellent example of being misunderstood about the hardships of children. Dickens highlights her careless attitude towards looking after poor children "So she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use." "Susan take Oliver and them two brats upstairs and wash them directly." This suggests that the children have not been bathed for a while which could lead the poor children being taken care of poorly. This also suggests that perhaps they only wash the children when the officials are there and no other time, so they give the image that they are doing a good job by making them more presentable. She appears to be a very selfish character who keeps money for herself, this shows how careless she can be. This careless attitude was one of the main reasons why the poor children's lives were so bad. Which cost many their lives.

The board, who were the rich people who consisted of the major and people in very high decisions made decisions about where the poor children would go after experiencing the workhouse. The board were very rude, inconsiderate people which shows Dickens hatred of them. Oliver was made to go to sea, as the board knew that the sailors would "flog him to death." Oliver had no choice in this, which shows how uncaring the officials were.

Oliver meets Dick later on who is poor child destined to death. Dickens uses pathos to help the readers feel sad for him. Many children such as Dick died simply from neglect during the Victorian times, which now is seen as a disgrace but then it wasn't even noticed.

Dickens introduces Fagin into the book that is also a very important character, he is introduced to show that crime also affected children. Fagin sends Oliver into a life of crime by making Oliver do dirty deeds for him.

Oliver is shot at and left in a ditch to fend for himself which shows that they did not care about the poor children. Fagin made Oliver feel as if he belonged some where. Oliver felt of Fagin as a father figure as every person who had looked after him rejected him.

At the end of the play Oliver is returned to his rightful family and given all the money, a healthy life and a proper father. The people who hurt him where arrested and jailed. This book was aimed to show that from birth many poor children such as Oliver were cruelly treated and lots died. The children who survived had a terrible and devastating journey to cope through and very few had the ending that Oliver had. That Victorian upper class people didn't realise what was happening and that what they did affected every person.