After birth the conditions improved not the slightest, they where fed three times a day which doesn’t seem all that bad but when every meal is gruel and in only small amounts the people in the workhouse became weak, every week they would be given two small onions and half a bread roll. Even on this poor diet the people where expected to work day in day out. Many people had died on this diet and some others would be sold off as if they where cattle. Dickens used irony when feeding the children, all of the staff where overweight.
Oliver is sent over to a section of the workhouse run by Mrs. Mann. She is a cruel and uncaring woman who beat the orphans both physically and mentally. Mrs. Mann received a sum of money for the children’s living expenses; she cut many corners when looking after the orphans such as, altered old clothes to fit the orphans and cut down food rations. Therefore she could keep the money for herself. Mrs. Mann sometimes neglected the children’s basic needs so much several orphans died under her care. In all Mrs. Mann played a significant roll in the childhood of Oliver Twist.
Oliver once again is not helped by the introduction of another workhouse employee Mr. Bumble. His first impression shows him as a violent, cruel and sadistic man when he kicks down the gate leading to the workhouse. He is shown as a extremely selfish man who is full of own importance and cares for only himself and his money. Mr. Bumble’s evil personality is revealed when he makes a cruel joke the number of infant deaths in the workhouse. He is a large, well fed plump person who in comparison to the small and fragile Oliver is enormous. Mr. Bumble is a bully, this is demonstrated by the way he grasps his cane and uses firm words with Mrs. Mann. When speaking eloquently he makes obvious mistakes, when speaking with Mrs. Mann he pronounces aware as “aweer”.
Oliver is eventually offered accompanied by five pounds to the first half decent person to walk into the workhouse. Mr. Gamfield the local chimney sweep went for Oliver and the five pounds. The board refused to give Oliver to him as Mr. Gamfield had a negative track record, he had taken orphans before and they had died under his care. Dickens made it obvious that Mr. Gamfield wanted Oliver for all of the wrong reasons. He only wanted Oliver as a personal slave and to labour for him as he small enough to get up the chimneys, the five pounds also helped to convince him to enter the workhouse Mr. Gamfield like many other adults in his life was cruel and violent We can see this with his donkey “he catches hold of the bridal and gives the jay a sharp wrench”.
The gentleman in the white waistcoat also had no sympathy or care for the orphans. This is demonstrated when jokes, “his board needn't come very expensive, for he hasn't been overfed since he was born. Ha! Ha! Ha!” He also doesn’t want to part with his money, when Mr. Gamfield wants to take on Oliver as an apprentice he tries to give as little money as possible for taking the child.
After Mr. Gamfield was denied Oliver as his apprentice Mr. Sowerberry, the parish undertaker, takes Oliver on as his apprentice to dig graves. Oliver has absolutely no say in the matter he is actually told that if he complains about the situation he will suffer dire consequences. Mrs. Sowerberry is concerned that Oliver is only small and his appetite is large, she complains that to make the boy grow strong by eating their food. Mrs. Sowerberry abuses Oliver by feeding him the leftovers, not her leftovers but the leftovers that even the dog wouldn’t eat. After eating his food Oliver is shown to where he will be sleeping, Mrs. Sowerberry shows him to bed which is under the counter in the undertakers shop. He is told that he has no option but to sleep with the coffins.
Dickens creates sympathy for Oliver and the other orphans throughout the first four chapters of the book. He does this by describing in depth the neglect, mistreatment and emotions of the children. There is a strong example of this at the end of the first chapter when Dickens writes “Oliver cried lustily. If he could have known that he was an orphan, left to the tender mercies of church-wardens and overseers, perhaps he would have cried the louder.” Oliver suffers dearly while living in the workhouse; he is quite regularly made an example of. One of the occasions he is made an example of is when he is forced to ask for more gruel by the other orphans. For doing this he is harshly beaten by cane in front of the other children and is then imprisoned. Oliver and the other orphans were beaten both mentally and physically, neglected and starved from birth, until either leaving the workhouse as slave laborers or dieing. Oliver is terrified of Mr. Gamfield he openly shows his emotion to the whole board of the workhouse when in chapter three he falls to his knees, praying that they would order him back the room, that they would starve him, beat him, kill him. He prays for all of this rather than them send him away with Mr. Gamfield
In the time of workhouses the standard of living was near to none. The unwealthy basically had no choice to but to enter a workhouse. They would work for a roof and little food. All of the people in the workhouse had to sleep on the hard floor and receive poor medical attention. Overall the living condition were appalling, Charles Dickens uses irony to create a feeling of how bad the conditions where, a good example of this is that nearly every member of staff is overweight even them giving out the tiny amount of gruel to the orphans. Dickens attempts to create a feeling of pity for the orphans, by doing this we can see that he is trying to relive poverty, stop other people from going through what he went through. Dickens somehow manages to take a subject as important as poverty and put it across by using humor, and at the same time still manages to keep that feeling of seriousness.
