Charles Dickens : Oliver Twist

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States (1842). In 1842 his American Notes appeared, and there he advocated international copyright and the abolition of slavery. Martin Chuzzlewit, partially set in America, appeared in 1844, one year after the publication of A Christmas Carol. The protagonists of his autobiographical novels, Oliver Twist (1838), David Copperfield (1850) and Little Dorrit (1857), became the symbols of an exploited childhood because of the horrible reality where they live. ● Other works like Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854) and Great Expectations (1861), deal with the conditions of the poor and the working class in general. Dickens died in Kent in 1870, and before this time he became loved by his public, he had also met princes and presidents. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Characters. Dickens passed over the social barriers of the novel: the 18th-century upper-middle-class world was replaced by one of the lower orders. He created characters and caricatures who live immortally in the English imagination, like Mr Pickwick, Mr Gradgrind, Scrooge and others. His aim was to get the reader's interest by exaggerating his characters' habits and language of the London middle and lower classes, like tradesmen, whose social peculiarities, vanity and ambition are ridiculed freely without any sarcasm. He was always on the side of the poor, the outcast and also the working class. ● ● ● Children are the most important characters in Dickens's novels. Good and wise children are opposed to worthless parents and other adults →→ with the application of the reverse of the natural order of things where children become the moral teachers. They are examples instead of imitators. The novelist's ability lay both in making his readers love his children and putting them forward as models of the way people ought to behave to one another. A didactic aim. Dickens' works were very effective because thanks to them he created a more educated and wealthier classes that acquired knowledge about poor people. Dickens's task was never to encourage discontent, but to make the ruling classes aware of the social problems without offending his middle-class readers. Style and reputation. Dickens used the most effective language with graphic and powerful descriptions of life and characters. He did that with a careful choice of adjectives, repetitions of words and structures, juxtapositions of images and ideas, hyperbole and irony. He is considered as the greatest novelist in the English language. Dickens's narrative. Dickens's novels were influenced by the Bible, fairy tales, fables and by the 18th-century novelists and Gothic novels. His plots are well-planned even if they appear a bit artificial, sentimental and episodic. Certainly the conditions of publication in monthly or weekly instalments created pressure on Dickens that had to conform to the public taste. London was his usual setting: he always seemed to have something new to say about it and showed an intimate knowledge of it. He developed a more radical social view by writing but we know that he did not become a revolutionary thinker: he was aware of the spiritual and material corruption on earth under the impact of industrialism, so he became critical towards his society, in fact, in his mature works, Dickens drew public abuses, evils describing London's misery and crime. OLIVER TWIST. Oliver Twist first appeared in instalments in 1837 and was later published as a book. The novel describes the economic problems and humiliation that Dickens experienced as a child. The name 'Twist' is given to the protagonist by accident: it represents the horrible reverse of fortune that he will experience. Oliver Twist is a poor boy of unknown parents, born in a workhouse in a small town near London in the early 1800s. His mother dies after his birth and he is brought up in a workhouse. One day, the boy commits an unpardonable offence: asking for more food, so the parish official offers five pounds to anyone willing to take Oliver away. He is sold to an undertaker but the violence and unhappiness make him run away to London. There he falls into the hands of a gang of young pickpockets, trained by Fagin that owns a school for would-be thieves. Unfortunately, Oliver is not a successful student : on his first attempt at theft. Mr Brownlow, the victim, is shocked in front of the unhealthy appearance of Oliver so he takes him home and takes care of him. Oliver is later kidnapped by Fagin's gang and forced to commit burglary where he is shot and wounded. Oliver is adopted by Mr Brownlow and receives kindness and affection. Investition are made about who Oliver is and it is discovered that he has noble origins. The novel ends with the arrest of the gang of pickpockets and Oliver's brothers, who paid the thieves to kill Oliver and have their father's property all for himself. Setting and characters. The most important setting of the novel is London, seen from three different social levels: 1. the parochial world of the workhouse. They are calculators and insensible to the feelings of the poor. the criminal world with pickpockets and murderers. Poverty drives them to crime and their most used weapon is violence. They live dirty with fear and die a miserable death. 3. the Victorian middle class. In this world live respectable people who show a regard for moral values and believe in the principle of human dignity. The world of the workhouses. Dickens attacked the social evils of his times, such as poor houses and the underworld. With the high level of poverty, workhouses were built all over England by parishes, to give relief to the poor. However, the conditions were hanuman and no one could make social or economic advances. Dickens points out the fact that, instead of alleviating the sufferings, the officials abused their rights as individuals and cause them further misery. T1: The workhouse. In this extract we can see that Dickens was aware of the bad social conditions linked to the life in the workhouses. Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse and then his mother died when he was still young. The attendants announced his arrival in the workhouse by putting a bandage and a ticket on him. Then he was presented to the parish authorities by an orphan. Oliver is moved from his birthplace to a branch-workhouse because the management become aware of the inadequacy of the women, in that institution, to take care of the boy. The conditions in this workhouse are terrible. Oliver is looked after by an elderly woman called Mrs Mann, who pockets the greater part of the weekly money that the parish gives to the children. The children under her care are malnourished. Oliver spends nine years in this workhouse. On his ninth birthday the sacristan arrives at the place. T2: Oliver wants some more. Setting workhouse. In thi extract Dickens denounces the boys' greatest problem: hunger. One day one of the boys decide that one of them (Oliver) should ask for more food. When he starts to insist, the master hits Oliver and calls Mr Bumble, the man who controls the workhouse. Every member of the parish board is shocked and considers Oliver as a criminal of nature. After this the boy is locked in his room and is sold for 5 pounds.