Dickens never stops criticising the workhouse and the way they treated orphans in the first chapter. The first chapter closes with
‘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 cried the louder.’
This last statement leaves us feeling sympathetic towards Oliver.
Oliver after eight to ten months was sent off to a baby farm. This is yet another aspect of society, which was not a pleasant experience, another institution where children were malnourished and brought up by hand, similar to the parish workhouse but the actual purpose of the baby farm, was different.
‘Where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of to much food or clothing,’
When Dickens says that the children are offenders against the poor laws he is was once again using sarcasm. He uses sarcasm here to make the children sound like criminals which is what the higher class people saw the children as, as they have no parents and no money. Under the parental superintendence of an elderly woman implies that the children are neglected and left to his of her own company with no particular care or affection.
However it was very unlikely that a woman of Mrs Mann’s age, the elderly woman watching over the children, was going to actually give the children what money they were given. Mrs Mann never gave the children all the money they were given to be able to lead a health life. She only gave the children enough money to buy what she thought was a suitable diet. She deprives the children of their rights and uses the money for her own luxuries.
It was of no surprise that this system of farming would leave no child fit and healthy, and Dickens outlines this by Oliver’s physical appearance.
‘Oliver Twists ninth birthday found him a pale thin child, somewhat diminutive in stature and decidedly small in circumference.’
Nourishment wasn’t the only thing that Mrs Mann’s system lacked. Responsibility and awareness wasn’t some of her strongest qualities along with many of the other women who worked in baby farms in Dickens day. Many deaths occurred in farms and they were down to sheer carelessness.
‘It did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of ten, either that sickened from want and cold, or fell into the fire from neglect, or got half smothered by accident; in any one of which cases, the miserable little being was usually summoned into another world, and there gathered to the fathers it had never known in this.’
There were an unusual high number of suspicious deaths in the baby farms. However Mr Bumble and the board regularly covered for up these deaths to keep the Parish Officials in the dark to what really went on. Mrs Mann said she gave the children gin when they were ill so they didn’t moan from the pain and disturb her peace.
‘Why, its what I’m obliged to keep a little in the house, to put into the blessed infants’ Daffy, when they aint well, Mr Bumble’
At least this is what she says, I personally think that she kept the gin in the house so when the children were ill and were crying with pain she could drink the gin and drown out the noise the children made.
Oliver stayed with Mrs Mann until he was nine years old. After Mr Bumble had arrived Oliver was already upstairs being washed and made presentable enough and then brought down to the Beadle.
‘Having by this time as much of the outer coat of dirt, which encrusted his face and hands, removed, as could be scrubbed off in one washing was led into the room by his benevolent protectress.’
Notice in the quotation how Oliver was led this further demonstrates that Oliver is a passive character. He does not lead himself but is led by others. This consistently proceeds to happen throughout the novel as he led by Mr Bumble and many other characters of the story.
Oliver is always referred to as being little, small, poor little Oliver Twist. This is to try and gain the readers sympathy. In the 1830’s, Victorian times, the Victorians would engross themselves in stories and novels which involved sad and sympathetic characters. They enjoyed reading ‘tear jerking’ novels and Dickens tries to capture and involve the reader in the novel by always referring Oliver as small, little and poor.
Oliver was now nine years old and was scheduled to stand before the board, which was made up of eight to ten men. They were going to decide where to send Oliver as he was too old to still live in the farm with Mrs Mann. The board were stern and strict. One of the men in a white waistcoat called Oliver a fool.
‘Which was a capital way raising his spirits and putting him quite at ease’
Dickens here is being facetious in the way that the man which called Oliver a fool did not help him relax in front of the board. The board started interrogating little Oliver asking him questions to what he did not know the answers. They asked if he was aware he was an orphan, if he prayed at night for those who fed him and cared for him and yet he did not know what praying was. He had not been educated in such things by anyone and by which means was he suppose to know he had to. The board told Oliver that he was to learn a new and useful trade. This was to pick oakum.
‘So you’ll begin to pick oakum tomorrow morning at six o’clock’ added the surely one in the white waistcoat’
Oliver was not involved in the decisions made only told and this was no way to treat someone, especially not a child just because he was an orphan.
‘The members of the board were very sage, deep, philosophical man, and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have discovered – the poor people liked it’
Once again Dickens uses sarcasm and irony to mock the board and criticise their intelligence. Rules and regulations were put into order, to try and make the workhouses run smoothly. Separating the men and women and children, having routines for breakfast, dinner, tea and super. Having small meals of thin gruel that barely filled an inch of the workers stomach; and yet the board thought this was decent of them, decent of them to have given the poor an option to starve slowly and painfully or to starve them quickly.
Oliver throughout the novel is a passive character, at this point in the novel Oliver acts for the first time. After a little encouragement from his friends sat having the little bit of gruel for dinner he gets up and asks the master for some more.
‘Please, sir, I want some more.’
Now the master was a fat and healthy man. Oliver in the novel is always seen alongside with fat, well fed, healthy men and women. This produces a lot of imagery for the reader. Oliver is continually described as little, thin, small and we because Dickens always puts Oliver alongside people in a contrasting body appearance it makes the audience feel even more sympathy towards Oliver because Dickens reiterates how small Oliver is and adds to this effect by putting him with people who are of a healthy manner.
The master’s reaction to Oliver asking for more leaves a lot to be desired for Oliver Twist. The master did not just go along with Oliver and place more food into Oliver’s bowl, like he should have done as Oliver worked very hard and deserved the food that he needed to keep him on his feet but was shocked and hesitated in dismay before hitting him over the head with the ladle he had in hand. He then grabbed the young Oliver twist and shrieked for the Beadle, Mr Bumble.
Dickens exaggerates the way in which the Beadle, the master and board would have reacted at an event such as a young boy, in a workhouse, asking for more food, but it does draw attention to Dickens strong opinion about, how the food was distributed.
When Mr Bumble ran into the room where the men of the board sat he was in a rather excitable state. When Mr bumble tells the board of what Oliver Twist had ‘offended’ there was a great deal of horror amongst the board.
‘There was a general start. Horror depicted on every countenance.’
Then the man in the white waistcoat who had been so cold towards Oliver’s at his and the boards first meeting made a statement that was blown out of all proportions but was an accurate as the poor used to be hung for being of a poor status.
‘I know that boy will be hung’
No one in the room challenged this statement made by the man in the waistcoat, which would imply that the room to some sort of degree agreed with him. What seems like a harmless action for a child to do in our day, it was prominently frowned upon in Dickens day. Oliver was sent into immediate isolation and confinement and the next morning a bill was put up offering a reward of five pounds to anyone who would take Oliver Twist
off the hands of the Parish. So the one thing that Oliver decides to do for himself and the consequences were fatal. Oliver was locked in a cold, dark room, all alone until the opportunity aroused where he would be taken away to start an apprentice with a stranger.
‘Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board.’
Oliver was being closely watched whilst he was kept prisoner with only himself to keep him company. Oliver being so little and frightened makes the reader once again feel extreme sympathy for the child as he is left with only the cold and damp floor to offer him protection.
‘In the gloom and loneliness which surrounded him’
Oliver was then used and abused by the master of the workhouse and the beadle to show the other children of the workhouse that Oliver’s stupidity of asking for more was not going to happen again. He was whipped and beaten in front of the children every other day as the children dined.
‘And there sociably flogged as a public warning and example’
It wasn’t long before a tradesman notices the bill on the workhouse gates. A chimney sweep merchant, Mr Gamfield was obliged to do nothing more than to take the Oliver off the hands of the Parish.
‘Young boys have been smothered in chimneys before now’
This was the reply of a gentleman of the board when Mr Gamfield, the chimney sweep made his proposal to them. Not one man of the board thought it a good idea to enter Oliver into the chimney business. However with a little persuasion of Mr Gamfield and a fair amount of deliberation amongst the men, they had come to the agreement that a reward of five pounds was to high a premium and so the reward was lowered to just three pound ten and Mr Gamfield with a little hesitation accepted.
Mr Gamfield was by no means a nice or kind-hearted man who would have treated Oliver right. Mr Gamfield had been known to physically abuse children in his care.
‘Of having bruised three or four boys to death already’
Mr Gamfield treated children with no respect and beat them if they did not do as he said. After a little negotiation the money reward was reduced but the board accepted Mr Gamfield’s offer. That afternoon Oliver was scheduled to appear in front of the magistrates.
Mr Bumble didn’t wait to tell Oliver what was going to happen to him. He repeatedly told Oliver how much the Parish had had to pay to get rid of an unloved orphan.
‘Although the expense of the parish is three pounds ten! – Three pounds ten, Oliver! – Seventy shillins – one hundred and forty sixpences!’
On the way to the magistrates Mr Bumble told Oliver the only thing that he would have to do is look happy and to say to the magistrates that he would very much indeed like to be a an apprentice.
Once again the whole scene is fake. They clean and feed Oliver so that he doesn’t look starved to bone for only one day, they scare Oliver into pretending he is happy, just so they can cover up the torturous ways that Oliver is made to live every day by them.
The meeting with the magistrates was going well, Mr Bumble spoke for the boy answering all the magistrates’ questions, making it quite clear that Oliver wanted to be a chimney sweep. Mr Gamfield had been interpreted as a kind and generous man, and as the magistrates were old and frail men pretty much everything got passed them. When Oliver first entered the room the old men were not formal and professional, as you would have imagined. One was falling asleep over the piece of parchment he had been reading about the proposal he was about to approve. The magistrates did not have a great deal of concern for what they were doing and so after a short time they approved the proposal of Oliver becoming an apprentice with Mr Gamfield.
If it hadn’t of been for the Gentleman, approving this apprentice not being able to locate his inkstand to sign the final papers, he wouldn’t have seen a tear role down Oliver’s cheek and ask what the matter was.
This here is the second time that Oliver is not passive. He speaks up for himself and for the first time the true life of Oliver emerges.
‘Oliver fell to his knees, and clasping his hands together prayed that they would order him back to the dark room – that they would starve him – beat him – kill him if they pleased – rather than send him away with that dreadful man.’
The magistrate took pity on poor little Oliver changing his decision not to send Oliver to work with Mr Gamfield and ordered Mr Bumble and the board to take him back to the workhouse and treat him kindly.
Mr Limbkins, a gentleman of the board, Mr Bumble and the man in the white waistcoat tried to convince the magistrates otherwise but it was of no succession. The final decision had been made.
Oliver doesn’t end up becoming an apprentice with Mr Gamfield but Dickens puts him into the story. The chimney sweep business was another aspect of society that Dickens regarded the business as corrupt because of the exploitation of young children and the terrible conditions they were forced to work in. By adding Mr Gamfield to the story he could show another institution and apply his opinions. He could also show how ‘laid back’ the magistrates were and the fact that with such a confession of what they did to Oliver e.g. locking him in a room and starving him they did nothing to prevent this from happening again or reform it.
Oliver was taken back to the workhouse and again locked in the dark room. Mr Sowerberry, the parochial undertaker was stood at the gates of the workhouse when Mr Bumble approached him and enquired weather or not he knew of anyone looking for an apprentice. The Beadle and Sowerberry were talking for some time when a button, pinned onto the beadle’s coat caught the eye of Mr Sowerberry.
The button had a picture of the Good Samaritan healing the sick and bruised man. This is a well-known Christian story. Dickens uses irony very strongly here. The reader knows at this point in the story that the Beadle, Mr Bumble is by far a Christian figure yet the higher class of people in the novel believe him to be a saint. The board presented it to him for attending the inquest of a reduced tradesman who had died in a doorway on a cold winters night at midnight. However the readers know that he wouldn’t of cared less about that poor tradesman, we know this from the way he has treated Oliver and other inmates of the workhouse. This is a very strong use of irony that works exceedingly well. Arousing more hatred in the readers for the beadle.
‘Yes I think it is rather pretty, said the beadle glancing proudly downwards at the large brass buttons which embellished his coat. The die is the same as the parochial seal – the Good Samaritan healing the sick and bruised man.’
After an inconsiderate conversation about the poor, Mr Sowerberry decided that he would take the boy for himself. Oliver was informed that night that he was to be taken to Mr Sowerberry that very day to become an apprentice as a coffin maker, Oliver was overcome with fear. He was warned that if he had to be returned to the workhouse for any reason at all then he was to be sent to sea to become a cabin boy.
At sea it would be inevitable for Oliver to return back to shore alive.
‘The probability being, that the skipper would flog him to death, in a playful mood some day after dinner, or knock his brains out with an iron bar’ both pastimes’
What Dickens means by this is that Oliver was likely to be killed for fun and a joke for the crew, or he would be killed because of a drunken outburst, either way the crew at sea are very violent. This is another aspect of society and an institution that Dickens is trying to show in different light in the novel.
That night Oliver was led (once again Oliver is being passive, by being led by someone and not leading himself) to Mr Sowerberry’s shop. With all his belongings in one little brown bag he cried and sobbed as he walked down the street holding onto Mr Bumble’s cuff. Oliver explains here why he is so upset
‘So lonely, sir! So very lonely!’
Oliver feels like he is alone and has no one who loves him, everyone around him hates him and only sees him as a burden. This is the first time in the novel where Bumble shows a little affection for Oliver and acts like he may have a heart after all.
‘Mr Bumble regarded Oliver’s piteous and helpless look with some astonishment for a few seconds’
Bumble then tells the boy to wipe his eyes and carries on walking with Oliver’s hand in his.
Dickens once again makes us feel sorry for Oliver here, a boy of such a young age shouldn’t feel lonely and hated by everyone, and it captures the reader attention again. The emotive language used is good because Oliver always uses his manners and sounds genuinely lonely. He repeats that he is lonely twice which adds to the effect. This implies that Oliver cant get across how lonely he is by saying it once so says it twice to make us feel like his extremely lonely.
When Oliver arrives at the coffin makers, he is not welcomed with open arms but is almost immediately criticised for his size by Mr Sowerberry’s wife.
‘Dear me said the undertakers wife, he is very small’
Oliver’s first night with the Sowerberry’s didn’t go well. Even though Oliver was being fed, it was merely enough to fill his appetite and it was the dog’s dinner to who had failed to return home in time to consume the food itself. Oliver was given a small area under the till in the shop for a bed, uncomfortable and surrounded by coffins. Oliver followed his new mistress up into the shop where he was to sleep and there she left him to familiarise with his new surroundings.
This was no place for a young boy to be sleeping. Not surrounded by coffins and shapes that in the dark transported Oliver to a cemetery.
‘Oliver being left to himself in the undertakers shop, set the lamp down on a workman’s bench, and gazed timidly about him with a feeling of awe and dread.’
Words like timidly, awe and dread are words of fear and it makes the reader empathise with Oliver that little bit more. Everyone can remember a time when they have been scared and frightened of something, so the reader can understand more what Oliver is going through.
Oliver creeps into his narrow bed and wishes that it were his coffin. Oliver is depressed and dismal because he has no happy or cheerful memory, no soothing face to think of while he slips into a sleep, no one to Love and no one to love him.
Dickens forces the reader to connect with Oliver emotionally. To imagine a child, so young to feel so unhappy, he wishes himself dead makes the reader want to leap into the book and hug Oliver and tell him everything is ok.
Also Dickens by adding this into the novel is making his contemporary society seem maybe worse than it actually was. Because of the way that society treated the poorest of the poor, no matter the age, old or young they were treated so badly that they wished upon themselves death, which makes the society seem despicable.
‘And he wished, as he crept to his narrow bed, that that were his coffin, and that he could be lain in a calm and last sleep in the churchyard ground, and with the tall grass waving gently above his head, and the sound of the old deep bell to soothe him in his sleep.’
This was the thought that got Oliver to sleep and through another night, cold and alone.
The next morning another character is introduced to the story, as well as charlotte, a young girl who works for the Sowerberrys in the kitchen, there is Noah Claypole, a charity boy. Although a charity boy was low in the rankings of sociable class a workhouse boy was still ranked lower. As some may think you may have suspected that Noah being ill treated by most because of his class would have been nice to Oliver understanding that it would have been appreciated by Oliver as no one had ever thought themselves equal to him (apart from fellow workhouse inmates), but he didn’t. Noah is cruel and horrid to Oliver showing him who was in charge.
In the eight chapter Oliver meets Fagin, Dickens here explores yet another aspect of society. Fagin is a large man with hidden agendas. Fagin is seen by the young group of children who work for him as a protector and hero, however Fagin is in actual fact using the young children to do his ‘dirty work’ for him. Fagin teaches the young children to steal money, jewellery and other valuables. If the children return to Fagin after a days work with valuables, then in return Fagin gives the children food and a roof over their heads. This is another aspect of society shown by Dickens in the novel. Even though this group of children and Fagin are thieves, Dickens presents them as an unofficial family, who care and look after one another.
I think Dickens wrote this book to show different aspects of society in Victorian times. Through writing this book not only does Dickens entertain the reader he educates the reader to.
