Her treatment of Oliver and the other children is that she gives them no kindness, as she doesn’t look after them properly. Her philosophy about how to rear children was to feed them the smallest amount of food, ”when a child had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food”. The conditions were dirty and cramped. The majority of the money given to the children she spent on herself, “the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use”. She is reluctant when Oliver has to leave, as there would be less money for her to spend on herself.
Dickens’s makes use of irony in his description of Mrs. Mann by making her nice in front of Mr. Bumble, “ is so fond of you, that it was you coming” and horrible behind his back, “take Oliver and them two brats upstairs”. Dickens’s makes use of the narrator to convey his feelings about the treatment of children by describing the conditions as harsh and unlivable. The narrator also addresses the reader directly. Dickens’s uses dialogue to show character by class, personality, prejudices and education.
The reader responds to Oliver as a sweet, naïve, and little boy who lives in a “baby-farm” with no one to take care of him. Dickens creates sympathy for Oliver by describing him as “little”, “underfed” etc.
A “workhouse” was a place were poor people were sent as they didn’t work and could not provide for their families. Oliver attend the workhouse when he turned nine years old, as by this age he was to old to be living in a baby-farm, and should be making a living and not “leeching” off the government. The philosophy behind Victorian workhouses is to make them unpleasant so people wouldn’t stay there. The rules of the workhouse included having separate gender workhouses, even if it meant splitting up families.
Mr. Bumble is a fat man who is the beadle. He feels he is much more important than he actually is, “to keep the parish officer a waiting at your garden gate”, although he really isn’t as you can tell through the way that he speaks, “ is nine year old today”. Although compared to Mrs. Mann he is higher up than she is. He is also prone to flattery, “the beadle drew himself up with great pride”. Mr. Bumble is also known as a “Beadle”. They are known to be corrupt.
The “Board” was a group of men who made the decisions about the workhouse. There were representatives form relevant groups, for example money, education, law, religion. The preconceived impression of paupers by the authorities was that because they were poor they were below the upper classes. They also believed it was their fault as they were in the workhouse because they couldn’t provide for their families. This quotation is after Oliver asks for more gruel, “That boy will be hung”, what this quotation tells us of the gentlemen in the white coat is that his attitude to the poor is that they should be thankful for what they have got.
The treatment of Oliver and the other boys was particularly harsh. For example the meals provided for them included a bowl of gruel and if they were lucky “two ounces and a quarter of bread besides”. At the workhouse they were there to “be educated and learn a useful trade” and to pick “oakum” daily. Oakum is a loose fibre obtained by unraveling old rope, used for filling cracks in wooden ships. There is also an element of peer pressure at the workhouse as Oliver is forced by his fellow peers to as “Please sir, I want some more”, he is punished by, the board putting up a for sale sign for him to be brought for “ any trade, business or calling”. He is then put towards the board to have his position at the workhouse reconsidered.
Dickens’s uses contrasting irony to give the reader an idea of the real conditions experienced by Oliver in the workhouse. For example, “the system” gives the impression that workhouse children are not denied exercise, social interaction or religious support. Whereas Dickens’s ironic description is probably in fact a more accurate account of the actual situation. There was exercise, but only in bitterly cold weather and with the frequent use of a cane to keep them on the move, and all under the watchful eye of Mr. Bumble, “Mr. Bumble, prevented him from catching cold, and caused a tingling sensation to pervade his frame”. Social interaction consisted of regular public floggings before the boys having their meal in the hall, “and there socially flogged as a public warning and example”. Finally, religious support was provided each evening by being forced to listen to the boys saying a prayer in which they asked “….. to be made good, virtuous, contented, and obedient”, but also “ …. to be guarded from the sins and vices of Oliver Twist”.
It is ironic that the boys at the workhouse have to act like good Christians when the board is not. The Bible says you should treat people, as you would want to be treated yourself, but they treat the poor as animals and criminals. Dickens includes this to show his disgust at the workhouses, the hierarchy of society and the hypocrisy of the men. When put forward towards the board, they do not call Oliver by his name, but as “boy”. This leads me to believe that they think that Oliver is of no great worth to be known, as by his own name, and also that it may be an inconvenience and a nuisance to them.
Oliver become apprenticed to the Sowerberries due to the fact that after he ask for more gruel he is immediately punished by being put up for sale as an apprentice.
Mr. Gamfield firstly approaches the board. He is a chimney sweep and wishes to employ Oliver as an apprentice. The board knew that chimney sweeping is a dangerous business, they have a strong hesitation to sell Oliver to him, “it’s a nasty trade”, “Young boys have been smothered in chimneys before now”. The description of how Mr. Gamfield treats his apprentices is atrocious, “there’s nothink like a good hot blaze to make ‘em come down vith a run”. This shows that employers had no consideration for their workers in Victorian England.
Mr. Sowerberry is a tall, gaunt, large-jointed man, “his features were not naturally intended to wear a smiling aspect”. He is employed as an undertaker, his name is so appropriate as he works in a mournful job and has to be quite somber. Mrs. Sowerberry is “a short, thin, squeezed-up woman”. You get the impression that she does not like poor people, even though she is pretty poor herself, as she complains about the fact that they are under-fed and a waste of space, “I see no saving in parish children”, “more to keep than they’re worth”. She also complains straight away about Oliver being to small, “Dear me! He’s very small”, and sends him down to the cellar.
They treat Oliver with the same amount of respect that he received from Mrs. Mann at the workhouse. When he arrives he is given the dog’s leftovers. This shows that Mrs. Sowerberry thinks of him as an animal and has no have a high regard for him. He also does not have a proper bed, and has to sleep among the coffins. This creates an eerie atmosphere it makes Oliver more scared and weary of his new surroundings, “he was all alone in a strange place”. He is treated badly by Mr. Sowerberries other apprentice, charity boy, Noah Claypole. He is introduced as “Mister Noah Claypole”, this makes you think he is upper class although really he is low in society but is superior in relation to Oliver. Mr. Sowerberry daughter, Charlotte also picks on Oliver because Noah does. Oliver comes to leave the Sowerberries as he gets into a fight with Noah Claypole in which they turn against him, he then feels that he is not welcome and decides to leave, “one moments pause of hesitation, - he had closed it behind him, and was in the open street”.
At the end of the novel, Oliver receives the respect he deserves from Mrs. Maylie and Mr. Brownlow. They are both from upper class backgrounds. Mr. Brownlow is the man that got his wallet stolen and accused Oliver. He later turns out to be Oliver’s grandfather. Mrs. Maylie is a lady who helps Oliver later when Bill Sikes makes him rob the house. They both show him kindness even though they know that he is poor, this gives Oliver hope that even though he may not have any money there are still people out there that are willing to look out for him.
I think Dickens made Oliver an orphan of middle class background as throughout the novel he comes across as quite well spoken. This undercuts his message, as you would expect that because he is an orphan and is in a workhouse he would be rougher and not speak “Standard English”, but local dialect. This makes me think that Oliver was born to lie in a middle class background.
In comparison to today, children’s lifestyles are much more privileged. For example, employment has changed as in Victorian England, children were sent to work from as young as nine. Whereas today the rough age is 14 and they have to work limited hours. The education is also very different as you can legally leave school at 16. There is equality also, as girls have as much right as boys to attend school. Now you do not have to pay to go to school as there are ones provided by the state for free. In Victorian England, parents were expected to pay if they wanted their child/children to attend school. This meant that poorer children did not receive an education, as their parents could not afford the fees. Boys and girls were taught separately so as they could not interact with each other. Toys and entertainment has changed dramatically because technology has developed. Yo-yo’s and skipping ropes were more popular in the 1880’s but today’s entertainment revolves around computers and television.
By Deanne Sandiford 11S