In the novel “Oliver Twist” Charles Dickens described many different settings using many different methods, and in many various settings. One of the settings that Charles Dickens described successfully was the poor house setting; he used many different methods in his description of this setting. The techniques that I found particularly effective were “assonance”, an example of this technique is "Eager eyes as if they could have devoured the very bricks of which it was composed” the alliteration of a vowel is very effective in describing the child’s needs and what they are thinking about the most. Another technique used in this extract of the novel are active and passive verbs; examples of these in the extract are: “shrieked”, “gazed” and “clang”. All these verbs are negative, harsh and nasty and all are used to describe aspects of the poorhouse. They are successful in describing the setting because they do not include any positive meanings this shows that the poorhouse is a undesirable place in which to stay.
Another of the settings that I found to be described particularly well was London. One of the techniques used to describe this setting was imaginative adjectives, examples of these in the extract are, “sombre shadows”, “so hungry”, “cold and stiff”. All these adjectives explain how that London was not a nice place; it shows how people live by halves this means they would not have all that they wanted and maybe live on half of what they needed and was hard for them to live. Another methods used to describe London were verbs, an example of a verb is “Oliver stopped and pepped into the garden”, the verbs in this are stopped and pepped this show how cautious Oliver was being because he knew how bad a place London was. Whilst in London Charles uses aspects such as sounds to describe the settings for example, “Silence and stillness”, this shows that there was no noise in and everything was quiet, it was an undesirable place of London that not many people dared to go.
The next setting in the novel ‘Oliver Twist’ which I think Dickens showed effectively is ‘Fagin’s house’. In the extract the house is described as dark, gloomy & living in a shadowy environment. This is because Fagin was a Jew and he stole everything and therefore couldn’t go public, he had to live in a life of hiding and sneaking about. The house itself is described as dirty, small and greasy. The first language technique the author uses is image of space, an example of this is “the walls and ceilings of the room were perfectly black with age and dirt”. This shows that Fagin’s house wasn’t very clean and everything was old and dirty. The second language technique used in this extract is metaphor, an example of this is “stealing its way through round holes at the top”. This shows that light is stealing its way through meaning that everything associated with Fagin is stolen, also light can’t really steal therefore is a good metaphor. The third language technique used is smells, the example of this is “some sausages were cooking”, this shows that at this time the house felt welcome, and Oliver felt comfortable with the environment, because he smelt sausages this made him more hungry but Fagin the nice old Jew let him have some.
The fourth and final language technique for this extract is verbs, a example of this is “groping” “grasped” “empty” “lifted”. This shows a very negative mood and atmosphere because all the words are very harsh.
Charles Dickens explains a number of the setting in a successful way but one the settings that was done exceptionally well was “Mr Brownlows House” In this setting all the methods are positive to show the contrast from the lower class parts of London. A very good method used to describe this setting was Pathetic fallacy, an example of pathetic fallacy is “The sun rose and sank and rose and sank and sank again.” This show something o the weather to be acting in a way that human would and using human’s characteristics. In this extract Charles describes and used furniture and objects in his descriptions an example of is “ from an armchair near by” this show furniture that would not be expected to be seen in anywhere except an upper class house.
Another scene that Charles Dickens described imaginatively was the “Death cell” this scene used a lot of different language techniques which helped to give out an all round negative atmosphere. He used techniques such as similes and metaphors such as “the death like stillness came again…” this is showing how the stillness in the atmosphere and movement of people was death like so this gives out a all round negative atmosphere. Another technique dickens used was image of space the evidence of that was “the crowded place was very hot…” this show that there was a lot of people there and this gave a hot, cramped atmosphere. There was another technique used in the extract this was image of light. The evidence to show this being used was “through a gloomy passage lighted by a few dim lamps, into the interior of a prison.” This show that prison are not suppose to be bright positive atmosphere, the dew dim lamps dhow the negative and dull attitude in the scene.
In the novel ‘Oliver Twist’ I think that Charles Dickens was successful at describing all settings but he was especially succesful at describing the settings of the poorhouse, London, Fagin’s House and The Death Cell, but the most effective setting in my opinion was the Death Cell. This was because of how realistic the text made the setting feel. He used techniques such as similes and metaphors such as “the death like stillness came again…” this is showing how the stillness in the atmosphere and movement of people was death like. All the descriptions of the Death cell gave an all round negative feel. He described these settings accurately and precise. The setting of Mr Brownlows House was most disappointing because I think that Charles Dickens was not as experienced in describing, or did not have first hand experience, with the upper class setting.
I think that Charles Dickens wrote the novel ‘Oliver Twist’ because he was to be described as a socialist; this means that Charles Dickens listened to the opinions of people that were not listened to by the average man and publish their opinions and stories in the newspaper.
Charles Dickens shows this in the novel by using characters such as Fagin, Oliver and all the children that worked for Fagin. The novel ‘Oliver Twist’ could be described as a piece of Social commentary.
The different settings that appear in the novel reflect on the characters that live in them. Such as Mr Brownlows house reflects on the class of Mr Brownlow it show that he is a middle class gentleman, this is shown by the bright, vibrant colours used in the setting and the furniture that is visible. The setting of Fagin’s house shows that Fagin is a lower class than Mr Brownlow and can not afford expensive furnishings, it shows that Fagin is more likely to be a shady and unlawful character.
Dickens is trying to say there is a big class divide in the renaissance period and it is easy to tell the divide. In the Novel the majority of the characters are either wealthy or poor and this gives a big juxtaposition of the whole novel.
Overall I think that in the novel ‘Oliver twist’ Charles Dickens an excellent image of the settings, he was able to so this because of the experience he had had in lower class poorer areas. He has been to prisons which would have been a great help when describing ‘Fagin’s Death cell.’ All the vivid descriptions that he made helps to tell the truths about Victorian society.
