In 1800 8% of the population owned 98% of the land. These people had all the money and all of the Political power. Around the time that “Oliver Twist” was written a new middle class was emerging. These were Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers and those who gained money from business. In the novel Mr Brownlow and the Maylies represent this new middle class. The working class was split up into two: those who worked on the land, in factories and in the mines and the people that went to the workhouses were the “deserving poor.” The other group was made up of thieves, vagabonds and prostitutes. Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sikes and the pick pocketing boys represent this underworld.
In his novel, Dickens talks about an old and poor street owned by the poor. Dickens uses detailed descriptive writing to describe the conditions of the street and how the poor lived.
In these times there was no legislation to provide for or to improve living and working conditions. Therefore there was no public health system; no free clean running water or sewage system and no education.
“Some houses which had become unsafe from age and decay were prevented from falling, by huge beams of wood reared against the walls.”
This quote is part of his description of the street, this is one of the parts of the story that Dickens describes passionately and seriously because this was key to his message and irony would have spoilt the moment.
In 1834 it was decided that all poor should be looked after in the workhouses. The royal commission had said that these places were meant to be as unpleasant as possible. Some rules that were set out in the workhouses were that the poor be:
“Starved by a gradual process in the house or by a quick one out of it.”
They also separated families and put women in one area and the men in the other. Some people would turn to crime (despite the death penalty existing for petty crimes) rather than go to the workhouse.
Dickens describes the workhouse using irony he called the members off the board:
“Very sage, deep, philosophical men.”
When he means the complete opposite, they were actually very unwise and cruel people. Dickens writes that the workhouse
“Was a regular place of entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern were there was nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea and supper all year round; a brick and mortar Elysium, where it was all play and no work.” Even though it wasn’t, the work house was again exactly the opposite; the board simply used it as an excuse to make the living conditions of the workhouse even worse for the poor people staying in them.
I think that Dickens uses irony to describe the workhouses and the board because when people who are like the board read the story they could laugh at the irony but also apply it to themselves causing them to feel differently about the way they act.
Dickens Knows all about the lower end of the chain having to work from an early age himself. He used to work in a blacking factory after his father was sent to debters prison.
The children of the poor were expected to work from an early age. There was no protection for them and children often got given the most dangerous jobs to do: chimney sweeping, mining and factory working. Facilities for child workers were high.
Dickens introduces a character called Mr Gamfield a chimney sweep who seeks Oliver to be hi new apprentice. Dickens deliberately creates Mr Gamfield as an evil and cruel person and he shows this in various ways. He makes Mr Gamfield speak in a rough, uneducated, and in an un-intellectual way. This shows that the reader that Oliver would do better not to go with Mr Gamfield because, Mr Gamfield is too uneducated to teach Oliver anything useful.
Mr Gamfields actions are cruel as well, shown by the way that he treats his donkey. He beats him regularly, hurls insults at him and curses him at every available second.
“Mr Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the donkey generally but m ore particularly on his eyes; and, running after him, bestowed a blow on his head, which would inevitably beaten in any skull but a donkeys.”
This quote shows that Mr Gamfield would most likely to have been cruel master to Oliver just like he was to his donkey.
Oliver went to Mr Sowerberries instead to be an undertaker’s apprentice; he was treated well by Mr Sowerberry who seemed to like him a lot. But Mrs Sowerberry, being the stubborn woman that she was felt exactly the opposite about Oliver to Mr Sowerberry, just like everything else.
Unfortunately for Oliver Mrs Sowerberry wears the trousers in the relationship so Mr Sowerberry would do whatever Mrs Sowerberry told him.
The class system in Queen Victoria’s reign consisted of four main classes; the poor, who were the lowest of the low, who were looked down upon by all. The working class, who were still quite low but would try and work their way up the ladder through business and through hard work. The Middle class was made up of gentlemen who lived honourably and looked down upon almost everybody. This particular class was rather new to the class system. And finally the upper class who were either related in any way to the royal family or at least very close friends or even people who owned a lot of land.
The poor were split into two lots; the deserving poor, who worked hard to earn themselves a living by going down the mines or working in the factories and on the land.
Then there were the undeserving poor who were scoundrels, criminals, vagabonds and prostitutes Fagin and the boys, Bill Sikes and Nancy made up this lot.
Women were treated poorly in the Victorian days; poor women were especially looked down upon. Dickens makes an example of this cruel prejudice through the doctor delivering the Oliver.
“The old story,” he said, shaking his head, “no wedding ring.”
Obviously the doctor thought that Oliver’s mother was a prostitute because the had no wedding ring yet was giving birth, which people logically thought that she was selling her body.
Most women did not choose prostitution but were forced into it in order to survive. They seemed to think that it was the only way to earn money for them selves.
