Oliver Twist is a novel full of contrasts, it brings the readers to the world of greatest good as well as wicked rottenness . It shows criminals on the one side, and people upholding the law and having the power to punish on the other side . It depicts godless outcasts and virtuous believers, incorrigible sinners and people looking for redemption . British society hoped to restrain a growing impoverished people by establishing workhouses. These workhouses forced those who had been ill-educated, and unable to provide a stable income, to work under inhumane circumstances.
To what extent does Dickens explore the triumph of good over evil in Oliver Twist? Introduction Charles Dickens has been called a mastermind in the melodramatic structures of his novels, and it is distinctly evident in his novel, Oliver Twist. He raises social issues through fictional representation, rather than the promotion of an idealistic world. The content of the novel highlights the abuses and harsh reality in the workhouses after the New Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834. Dickens establishes pathos and irony in the opening of the novel to highlight the idea of life and death, where Oliver Twist is born, and his mother passes away.
I have read the novel, “The Giver”, written by the famous American writer Lois Lowry. This book was written under author’s impression after visiting her aging father in the hospital, who had lost his long term memory. The idea of the book is the importance of memory. The novel is set in a society which seems like utopian, in this society there is no hunger, sadness, or misery. However this utopian society is held from experiencing true emotions.
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, was written and takes place in the Victorian Era, giving an insight to some of the crimes that occurred in Victorian England. The United Kingdom under Queen Victoria had all kinds of crime along with unfair punishments to the criminals. There were all types
Historical Context of Oliver Twist 1.2. Victorian Literature 1.2.1 Victorian Prose/ Novel 2. Dickens’Profile 2.1. Charles Dickens’ Style Charles Dickens is known for his fondness of the happy endings although all his works are satiric for the British bourgeoisie, social and the city of London. Add to that, he criticize some institutions such as the workhouses in Oliver Twist, the schools in Nickleby and factories system in hard times giving the most touched scenes of poverty and crime mixing between reality and fantasy (Edward 391).
This is most noticeable in Dickens’ Great Expectations (1860) and Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848). Dickens depicts, in his work, his vision of a world where there are evident class distinctions and a strong desire for reaching higher classes, that is, class mobility. All of those features focus on Pip, the protagonist, an orphan who lives with his sister and her husband Joe, a blacksmith. Pip’s dream is to become a gentleman in order to win the love of a high-class lady, Estella, who lives with Mrs Havishan, a rich woman. The first visions that the author has of reality and the symbolism implied from it, we can find them at the beginning of the novel, when we are set in the middle of the marshes and Pip is in the graveyard: Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea.
Oliver Twist is poor and has to work at different workhouses. The labor he endured was hard. He ran away and chose to live on the streets of London. Charles also wrote a book called A Christmas Carol which is a story about a man named Scrooge who was very cold hearted. One night after Scrooge fell asleep, he met three ghosts and they all teach him various lessons.
He mainly highlights the problems in the society during industrial revolution like , living condition of the poor and the violation of the poor law, deprivation of child education due to child labour,criminal world in England and finally about the discrimination of women. The novel “Oliver Twist” is about a pathetic heart melting story about boy who is a victim of unjust cruel world and how he maintain his honesty even in midst of the criminal and the story ends with he joins his family and lives in happy. The first part of the novel presents
Tom gives his interpretation about how sad he was about being sold and sweeping chimney’s, all he wanted to do was cry but he was too tired. Tom describes a dream he had while sleeping; to me it tells a story that all four of Tom’s friend had died and were locked up in coffins of black and an angel appeared took them to heaven. The movie “Oliver Twist”, tells the story of Oliver’s life, who is born in a workhouse in England in the 1830s. Oliver’s mother was found on the street and dies just after giving birth to Oliver. Oliver spends his first nine years in a poorly run home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse for adults.
This view disregards the fact that Dickens’ often hides his criticisms in his caricature-like characterisations (Arneson 60), which serve to distort the initial interpretation of the reader. Dickens uses Stephen as a medium to criticise his passivity in the face of the utilitarianism by which industrial society functions. In contrast, the novel’s union representative Slackbridge, portrayed as a cruel and unlikable man, acts in the best interest of the Workers’ Union. Therefore, Slackbridge, and not Stephen, is Dickens’ advocate for change in the novel. Charles Dickens wrote Hard Times as a critique on industrial utilitarianism.