Charles Dickens Exposes the Dangers and Horrors of Victorian London in Oliver Twist
All of Charles Dickens novels are set in the period he wrote them in
and contain certain points of social and political beliefs that he
highlighted with the desire to change his audience's views, on mainly
the poor, but also all those that were treated unjustly because of
laws and stereotypes. 'Oliver Twist' is the story of a young orphan
who is the illegitimate son of two good people. It shows the attempts
of a collection of villainous characters to break his hereditary
kind-heartedness and innocence. This is to benefit them through his
considerable, unknown inheritance that they have found out about.
However, behind the story Dickens hides messages raising the issues of
the terrible conditions of the workhouses and the Poor Law Amendment
Act of 1834, the abuse and exploitation of children, poverty, crime,
inequality, prejudice towards different religions and nationalities
and ignorance to the existence of some physical disabilities and
mental illnesses.
The poor law act was a typical example of a whig-benthamite
reformation legislation of the Victorian period. That is to say it
follows Bentham's theory of segregation. It gained general
parliamentary support and was passed with considerably less
consideration and discussions as was normal when new laws are
proposed. It ensured that conditions in the workhouses were as vile
and uncomfortable as possible so that only the truly destitute would
even consider submitting. It also implied that the poor were only in
that state because they were lethargic and were therefore named the
'undeserving poor' w...
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...angry
as he is enraged by his crime. As his terror leads him to his rage he
strikes out on the disfigured body. That description tells us that his
emotions are out of his control. His temper is unrestrained and he is
liable to act in a way that relieves his anxiety. With people like
Sykes in London it is worrying to think what may happen.
After studying 'Oliver Twist' the reader gains understanding of the
true horrors that exist in Victorian London. They discover key facts
about the behaviour of the underworld inhabitants through Dickens
techniques such as similes, pathos, adjectives, and choice of words.
These techniques helped in showing the reader why life was so horrific
in that time by building up images so the reader can almost see and
smell and use other sense to understand the world that Dickens lived
in.
revengeand one of secrecy. He was not driven by an anger at his ownsin, but
It strengthens this belief even more when he nearly chokes the woman from the city, who believed that he had successfully drowned his wife. The love that he has for his wife has him filled with the desire of murdering the woman from the city; which proves that love is strong enough for some people to have a rageful feeling to those with evil
Rage and vengeance are very familiar emotions that are expressed by the creature. Because these feelings are human flaws in character, the creature allows these hurtful emotions to hurt his character of “kindness and gentleness”. Deeply hurt by such an attack for his good deed, his ire is provoked and like a human would, he reacts impulsively. A spectrum of
While being taunted he takes his role as prisoner and breaks down from that with the taunting. His role as the prisoner continues as his cries and taunts from the other inmates bring the attention of the guards for being noisy. He is then reprimanded by the guards for causing noise with his crying. The prisoner is being disciplined by the guard, it is the case where the both the inmate and guard are assuming their roles in
How Charles Dickens Portrays the Murder of Nancy in Oliver Twist "Oliver Twist" was written by Charles Dickens. He was born on February 7th 1812in Landport which is situated in Portsmouth, England. He worked in a blacking factory where shoe polish is produced and Dickens job was to paste labels to the bottles of polish. The working conditions then were dreadfully poor, He was doing this job when he was 12 years old which meant that in those days children had little childhood where they can have fun like nowadays. This was the same age when Oliver worked in the workhouse and because Dickens had experienced working in poor conditions when he was young he made the book more dramatic and more real life and also expresses Oliver's feeling well.
Dickens' Criticism of the 1834 Poor Law in Oliver Twist Dickens criticised the 1834 poor law in many different ways within the first five chapters. He does this firstly by cleverly portraying the Victorians attitudes towards the poor. He does this in chapter 1 by referring to Oliver as 'the item of mortality' suggesting how lowly his position in society is. Also the difficulty of Oliver's birth and the fact his mother dies, gives us some idea of the dangers of child birth in Victorian society and the amount of negligence his mother receives from the surgeon.
How Does Dickens present the theme of childhood in Oliver Twist. This essay shows the theme of childhood in Charles Dickens in the book Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist's story begins with his birth in a workhouse. His mother dies shortly after giving birth to him, though long enough to kiss him on the forehead. As an illegitimate workhouse orphan
As he delves deeper into trying to find the meaning of his life he is driven to be more insane. When thinking of his revenge and how it is driving him he says, “How all occasions do inform against me and spur my dull revenge. What is a man if his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and
Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist, centers itself around the life of the young, orphan Oliver, but he is not a deeply developed character. He stays the same throughout the entire novel. He has a desire to be protected, he wants to be in a safe and secure environment, and he shows unconditional love and acceptance to the people around him. These are the only character traits that the reader knows of Oliver. He is an archetype of goodness and innocence. His innocence draws many people close to him. Each character is attracted to his innocence for different reasons, some to destroy it and others to build it. Their relationships with Oliver reveal nothing more about his personality. They reveal more about their own personalities. Therefore, Oliver is used not as the protagonist of the story, but as the anchor for the development of the other characters.
"I must entreat you to pause for an instant, and go back to what you know of my childish days, and to ask yourself whether it is natural that something of the character formed in me then" - Charles Dickens
Great Expectations and Oliver Twist are representative of the works produced by Charles Dickens over his lifetime. These novels exhibit many similarities - perhaps because they both reflect painful experiences that occurred in Dickens' past.
his own anguish when he is driven by his own sense of guilt. This causes him to become
The death of God for many in the Victorian era due to scientific discoveries carried with it the implication that life is nothing more than a kind of utilitarian existence that should be lived according to logic and facts, not intuition or feeling – that without God to impose meaning on life, life is meaningless. Charles Dickens, in Hard Times, parodies this way of thought by pushing its ideologies and implications to the extreme in his depiction of the McChoakumchild School.
Charles Dickens shows notable amounts of originality and morality in his novels, making him one of the most renowned novelists of the Victorian Era and immortalizing him through his great novels and short stories. One of the reasons his work has been so popular is because his novels reflect the issues of the Victorian era, such as the great indifference of many Victorians to the plight of the poor. The reformation of the Poor Law 1834 brings even more unavoidable problems to the poor. The Poor Law of 1834 allows the poor to receive public assistance only through established workhouses, causing those in debt to be sent to prison. Unable to pay debts, new levels of poverty are created. Because of personal childhood experiences with debt, poverty, and child labor, Dickens recognizes these issues with a sympathetic yet critical eye. Dickens notices that England's politicians and people of the upper class try to solve the growing problem of poverty through the Poor Laws and what they presume to be charitable causes, but Dickens knows that these things will not be successful; in fact they are often inhumane. Dickens' view of poverty and the abuse of the poor
Oliver and his friend journey to his birth town, along with Monks. They find that a letter was written that said as long as Oliver committed no illegal acts, he shall inherit the estate, otherwise the estate should belong to Monks. They also found that Rose was actually Agnes' sister, and upon hearing that her parents were not disgraced, she agreed to marry Harry.