Oliver Twist And Crime

Dickens's views of charity workhouses and the poor help have not varied and they cohere in 1865 with his views depicted twenty seven years earlier in Oliver Twist . In this novel he reflects the same dark vision of these places compared to which , death seems to be a blessing. Oliver Twist is a novel of mysterious and disturbing events and indicates a vision of aworld in which people appear out of mists and darkness , in which a boy is pursued by criminals . Oliver Twist is truly a tale of London , especially at the time of the Industrial Revolution . However , the action of the novel takes place in London as well . Here Dickens suggests his theme of the

Their horrible actions are the natural product of a neglectful system . Dickens prophetically reveals his attitude towards the miserable , the destitute and the oppressed who can turn into ruthless people .

Victorian london was a city of contrast : wealth on one side and dirt on the other .
As the city grew rich and expanded , the nineteenth century London was also a city of poverty, with thousands of people living in the overcrowded slums . In 1830’s, crime was a great problem in London. Dickens’s endeavour was not to idealize the London underworld, but to illustrate the real life of thieves and to discourage the poor from turning to crime. Dickens's Oliver was not to describe london but to reveal theives .

The macabre in Oliver Twist is also suggested by a horrible murder , a recurring topic that prevades the scene in Dickens's fiction . In the preface to the 1841 edition to Oliver Twist , Dickens admits that he chooses his characters " from the most criminal and degraded of London's population ," and that his purpose for presenting them has a socially corrective direction

The Poor Law (Amendment) Act of 1834, otherwise known as the 'New' Poor Law, established the workhouse system. Instead of providing shelter , food or clothing for the poor, workhouses were to become a sort of prison system.
Poor Law Act was a harsh law which on the surface appeared as if it provided for the poor, yet it subjected them to dehumanization . Although it may have seemed as if the poor were sufficiently accommodated at the workhouses, they were actually oppressed while those who were not living in the workhouses were forced to work and they could no longer be provided with any help . they were poor because of lack of employment and if they did find any work at all, it was always low paying petty work like sweeping or repairing roads. Even though the Poor Laws were enacted to assist the poor, they did nothing to change their plight or improve their situation. the poor were further exploited through physical and emotional