What Do We Learn About the Treatment of Children in Dickens’ Novel?
“Oliver Twist” was written in 1837, in the wake of the great change in society, brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Factories were introduced to Britain, which created lots of jobs for many working class citizens. This in turn created vast overcrowding in many cities and towns; most people wanted to be closer to their jobs. The huge numbers of people living closely together resulted in the standards in which people were living in dropping. The little they were paid wasn’t enough to support, in most cases, a family, or to make up for these terrible conditions, and many ended up faced with living on the streets. The only choice for them was to enter the workhouse.
The workhouse was a feared institution; families were split up and in most cases, were never reunited. Their time was mainly spent working, doing jobs such as picking oakum, smashing rocks or working on the treadmill. They were fed little to nothing, and many people died from either exhaustion or starvation.
Charles Dickens wrote “Oliver Twist” to show people that, even with completely different backgrounds, and irregardless of class, children were being mistreated. He also gives insight into the brutal reality of the workhouse.
Comparing the time in which Dickens lived to that of which we live in today, we can see how noticeable the change in society is. From the way we treat children, how we treat the poor, our view on social hierarchy, to our perception of the way we live. People in Dickens’ time were happy with their way of live, and didn’t see that anything should be changed. Their treatment of children was not deemed as wrong; it was the general view that children did not deserve the s...
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...o properly put the issues raised into perspective. І didn’t know much about Dickens’ time, and so reading around the main plot of Oliver’ѕ story into the issues surrounding it was quite difficult, and it is quite hard to relate to. І didn’t like the writing style, and felt there wasn’t enough of a story, or it at least took a while to get a grip of the story. The detail in description does, however, allow the reader to vividly see the story played out in their heads. Whether readers actually like the story or not isn’t really the point, and at least wasn’t what Dickens was aiming for. The treatment of children, poverty, and society have all been written in a way that shows the general views of many people at the time, not what Dickens necessarily agreed with. In my opinion, this is a good thing, as you can see all viewpoints, and still have your own take on the story.
Charles Dickens is a famous novelist who was born on February 7TH 1812, Portsmouth England. His novel ‘Oliver Twist’ had been serialized and to also show Dickens purposes, which was to show the powerful links between poverty and crime. The novel is based on a young boy called Oliver Twist; the plot is about how the underprivileged misunderstood orphan, Oliver the son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming, he is generally quiet and shy rather than being aggressive, after his parents past away he is forced to work in a workhouse and then forced to work with criminals. The novel reveals a lot of different aspects of poverty, crime and cruelty which Dickens had experienced himself as a young boy in his disturbing and unsupportive childhood, due to his parents sent to prison so therefore Charles, who was already filled with misery, melancholy and deprivation had started working at the age of twelve at a factory to repay their debt.
Charles Dickens' literary works are comparable to one another in many ways; plot, setting, and even experiences. His novels remain captivating to his audiences and he draws them in to teach the readers lessons of life. Although each work exists separate from all of the rest, many similarities remain. Throughout the novels, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, the process of growing up, described by the author, includes the themes of the character's ability to alienate themselves, charity given to the characters and what the money does to their lives, and the differences of good and evil individuals and the effects of their influences.
Oliver Twist mainly revolves around the mistreatment of orphans and how they were ranked low in society. The story teaches us a lot about how growing up in poverty and being ranked lowly in society makes people do things to harm others when they grow up by becoming thieves, pick-pocketers, or murderers. Oliver Twist takes us to England and while telling us the story of the fictional character Oliver Twist, who was an orphan, Charles Dickens also shows us the hard life for the people who faced poverty in old England. England,...
A significant English novelist, Charles Dickens was born during the Victorian-English era on February 7, 1812 in Landport, now part of Portsmouth, England. He was the second child and the eldest son of eight children to John Dickens and Elizabeth Dickens. Theatrical and brilliant, his mother, Elizabeth Dickens, was a storyteller and an impersonator. On the other hand, Dickens’s father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. John Dickens was an unselfish, welcoming, and loved to live a high quality life, even though he could not often afford it. He put his family through continuous insatiability because of financial debt. This eventually resulted in him being sent to prison, “His wife and children, with the exception of Charles, who was put to work at Warren's Blacking Factory significant novelist, joined him in the Marshalsea Prison” (Victorian Web). Later after his release form prison, he retired form the Navy Pay Office and worked as a reporter. One can conclude that these problematical events in his early childhood made his life arduous because he had to pay of his father’s financial debt, but also he had to maintain a well education to become who he wanted to be.
The novel ‘Oliver Twist’, written by Charles Dickens explores eighteenth century Britain and how the divide between classes affected society.
Charles Dickens was a man who suffered from poverty, which led him to expose the cruelty, injustice, and disadvantages that the poor encounter on a daily basis. Dickens was born into a low class family as many other authors of his time were. Ironically enough the restrictions that he faced living a hard and cruel life with his family, encouraged him to think outside the box of social norms. He began his career by doing some journalistic work and then worked his way up to becoming a newspaper reporter. The main focus of his works were the ignorance of the poor and child labor, both topics seemed to effect him on a personal note. Dickens’ attitude toward child labor and the poverty of the masses was exposed through his writings, which awakened the s...
Dickens knew how hard-pressed life was for thousands of English families in mid-ninteenth century England, and he knew the legal side of such desperation--a jungle of suspicion and fear and hate. He was especially attentive [if] . . . hungry, jobless men, women, children with few if any prospects became reduced to a fate not only marginal with respect to its "socioeconomic" character but also with respect to its very humanity. (575)
Charles Dickens is one of the most popular and ingenious writers of the XIX century. He is the author of many novels. Due to reach personal experience Dickens managed to create vivid images of all kinds of people: kind and cruel ones, of the oppressed and the oppressors. Deep, wise psychoanalysis, irony, perhaps some of the sentimentalism place the reader not only in the position of spectator but also of the participant of situations that happen to Dickens’ heroes. Dickens makes the reader to think, to laugh and to cry together with his heroes throughout his books.
As the art of a language, literature is an integration of author’s thoughts and hard work that reflects one’s understanding about the humanity. A literary masterpiece not only reflects issues within a society through describing a fictitious one, but also stands the test of time. Oliver Twist, an epic novel written by 19th-century author Charles Dickens, is, without a doubt, a literary masterpiece. Using well-portrayed characters, Dickens unveil a corrupted society, which the noblemen oppress the paupers, by his pen. With effective use of satirical tone, Dickens emphasizes the issue while making the readers think rather than just letting the readers take in his words. Compares to other literature such as A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift,
“Oliver Twist” was written in 1838 by Charles Dickens and was originally published as a monthly magazine before being published as a novel that was subsequently read by many Victorians. It was written not only to entertain, but to raise awareness for the many issues in the society of the day related mainly to criminal activity. One of the main problems was based around the differentiation in the class of people in the Victorian era. People from the middle classes were widely known think very little of the lower classes and often considered them the evil of society. He also uses the novel to raise the issues related to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the way that it involved sending poor or orphaned people like Oliver to ghastly overpopulated workhouses where they were poorly looked after. Dickens also fights against the negative stereotypes of criminals and prostitutes such as Nancy who eventually shows the good in herself to protect Oliver from the hands of the deadly wrath of Bill Sikes.
Dickens had several real life experiences of poverty and abandonment in his life that influenced his work, Oliver Twist. The times of poverty and abandonment in Charles Dickens’ life instilled a political belief in Dickens’ mind against the new poor laws of Great Britain. Dickens’ felt the new poor laws victimized the poor, failed to give the poor a voice, and were in need of change. These points are shown in Oliver Twist through the characters, scenes, and narration Dickens’ uses throughout the book.
Oliver Twist, written in 1837, the second novel by British author Charles Dickens, is notable for its detailed portrayal of cruel treatments towards the many orphans in London during the Victorian era. Oliver Twist is the main character in this novel who endures a miserable life as an orphan. The adventures of Oliver are like an epitome of the pathetic lives of the lower class. In many ways Dickens criticizes the unsound social system and corrupted criminal justice in the Victorian era through Oliver’s life. To some extent, the life of young Oliver can be seen as a reflection of Dickens’ own childhood.
Oliver Twist is a novel about the adventures and the life of Oliver yet, his character is not as developed as some of the others. He is not the protagonist, which leads one to ask, what purpose does he serve? Oliver has the most important role in the novel, he links everyone together. He is the anchor, not the hero. He develops the characters. The characters whom he becomes the closest with are the characters that the reader comes to know and love. He might be deemed a symbol rather than a character. A symbol of innocence. Innocence reveals so much about a person because it is so pure. Does the character want to destroy his innocence or does he want to make it grow? The way that each character interacts with Oliver tells the reader about their nature. This is Dickens method for character development.
... to the many children who have gone through life unheard, opening society's eyes to the inhumane conditions that the poor children are forced to live through. Dickens does so by writing a "story of the routine cruelty exercised upon the nameless, almost faceless submerged of Victorian society" (Wilson 129). Dickens' work of social reform is not limited to Oliver Twist for "a great and universal pity for the poor and downtrodden has been awaken in him which is to provide the
In this novel, no one commits an entirely unselfish act. Even those characters that appear to be unselfish, help others only to fulfill their need to be seen as benevolent. For Dickens to rail against social inequality and not rail against the immoral and inherent selfishness of man, is an oversight that helped to embed the social caste system in England that pervades it to this day.