oliver twist

Oliver twist September 30, 2010

Charles Dickens, an author during the Victorian Era who was also a political and social reformer, he believed in pointing out the wrong attitudes and idealisations of the Victorian society towards the poor. He manages to highlight the flaws of the Victorian government in a satirical manner (often using irony) by acting as a social commentator through his book Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens opens the first chapter in a mode of indifference; he states that Oliver was born “on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat” and says Oliver is an “Item of mortality”; Immediately Dickens points out the neglect in which Oliver is shown by the workhouse authorities by describing Oliver as an item, this objectifies Oliver and degrades him, it shows he was viewed as a thing and unimportant. He goes on to say Oliver was “ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble” he manages to create sympathy for Oliver here by using Pathos to draw out sympathy from the audience, implying that as a workhouse child Oliver will never have a happy life. He uses the pronoun “it” to describe Oliver which displays and condemns the insensitive attitude which society showed towards the poor, and of which Oliver, as a pauper, was stigmatised from birth; as “it” is commonly used to describe objects, Dickens exhibits that Oliver has no rights and is dehumanised, he has no status in the society which he was born into, and isn’t even a recognised member of the society. Dickens persists to criticise the attitude towards the poor by his portrayal of the poignant moment young Oliver starts to breathe. Dickens lets us know that Oliver had trouble breathing and was laying on a “little flock mattress”, the use of this adverb either points out how small Oliver was or shows that that’s how much Oliver was thought to be worth, he mentions that if Oliver was surrounded by experienced nurses and doctors, he would’ve died. Instead all Oliver had was a “pauper old woman” as a midwife; who clearly was drunk and a parish surgeon “who did such matters by contract”; meaning he was obligated to be there. Using humour Dickens is able to mock social attitudes towards the poor by agreeing with their logic, he says Oliver was “a new burden imposed upon the parish” Dickens uses “imposed” which is a powerful verb, not only to try and tell us that Oliver is seen as a burden to the parish ,the hidden meaning is to call attention to the attitude of society that the birth of another pauper like Oliver twist wasn’t fair to society; that society was being so generous and helpful by putting up with something worthless that was forced upon them. Sarcasm is evidently used to describe the events surrounding Oliver’s birth to point out to the audience how thoughtless this method of thinking was. Moreover Dickens highlights the problems the poor faced such as high mortality rates, we see the pauper woman saying “thirteen children of her own, and all on’em dead but two”. At this time there wasn’t really a grand epidemic causing high mortality rates till 1848 which was for cholera but the novel was published in 1838, it was more to do with class. As Britain was one of the first countries to be industrialised, the poor found it hard to find good living conditions so had to opt for slums or cramped living conditions which made it easy for diseases to spread. Whilst the poor suffered, the revolution saw the rise of the middle class, so high mortality rates amongst the poor wouldn’t have been uncommon. Dickens also displays the stigma put on the poor as deviants, when the surgeon addresses the nurse and says “it will be troublesome”, already the surgeon is prophesising Oliver’s life due to status and the expectations put upon Oliver as a workhouse child, yet again Oliver is objectified. Dickens mentions that as soon as Oliver was “enveloped in old calico robes” he was “badged and ticketed and fell into his place”. Dickens suggest that as Oliver is wrapped in cheap material, this lets us know that society in those days was quite superficial when it came to class at it implies that his clothes determined his social status, because of his attire and label as a parish child, Dickens suggests that Oliver’s status in society is unalterable; leading Oliver to be “despised by all” and “pitied by none”, Dickens demonstrates the use of pathos here to create sympathy for Oliver twist,

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he implies that as a pauper Oliver will always be condemned all his life, not because of anything he’s done but simply because of the stereotypical views that were abundant in society concerning his social class, because of these views no-one will ever sympathise with Oliver which is why perhaps Dickens tries to get the reader to sympathise with young Oliver. Dickens extends our sympathy for Oliver in the second chapter by informing us about the brutality surrounding Oliver’s development. Dickens lets known that Oliver was the “victim of a systematic course of treachery and deception” and that Oliver was in a “hungry and destitute situation” by using pathos here Dickens is able to display the exploitation that Oliver faced. As a powerless infant he was taken advantage of and was victimised simply because he was poor, defenceless and helpless. This was the case for all poor people in the Victorian era with the introduction of the poor law making the workhouse the worst form of victimisation. Dickens uses powerful nouns and adjectives to describe Oliver’s situation, especially the use of the adjective “destitute” this doesn’t tell us that Oliver just lacks subsistence, but that he severely lacked it, which was also the case for all poor people in the Victorian era, the industrial revolution brought a move from manual labour to factory work which had an affect on the poor as it meant they were put out of jobs, which for them meant living in absolute poverty; lacking the income to afford the basic necessities of life (food, clothes and shelter) .This creates sympathy for Oliver because for a growing infant of only 10 month old to severely lack food and clothes is truly shocking, cruel and immoral; this is the point Dickens is trying to make thus appealing to the readers morality. Dickens also lets the reader know that the maltreatment of Oliver was a “systematic” one, in other terms regular, this displays that the workhouse authorities had no sympathy for Oliver, which correlates with the earlier prophecy of “pitied by none”. Dickens manages to apply irony in this chapter to point out the hypocrisy of the workhouse-parish authorities, an example of this is when he says “the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be farmed” the use of the word farmed and humane highly contradict themselves; it isn’t humane to “farm” someone, yet again Dickens manages to focus on the attitude towards the poor, which is that they had as much rights as animals. Dickens also describes Oliver as a “Juvenile offender against the poor laws” Dickens uses some sharp irony here, the poor laws were meant to care for people but at the same time treat those who could support themselves so harshly that they wouldn’t have to rely on the help of the parish, as Oliver was an infant he obviously isn’t able to support himself ,making the workhouse ruthless for him wouldn’t discourage him from accepting help from the parish as he doesn’t have a choice but to accept the help. Dickens also goes on to say “the culprit” once more the type of language Dickens uses to describe these orphaned orphans is “culprits” Dickens is trying to point out that because they were paupers society has already criminalised them even though these were just infants that haven’t done anything wrong, the established views of the poor manages to overshadow the innocence of these babies. Once more dickens talks about the high mortality rates in the workhouse that orphans were taken to be looked after by a woman paid by the parish. He describes this woman as an “experimental philosopher” although she was given “seven pence- halfpenny” per child the children still managed to “roll on the floor all day without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing” Dickens mentions in “eight and a half cases out of ten” when the children had managed to “exist on the smallest possible portion of the weakest food” they would die. Using sharp irony Charles Dickens manages to once again point out the hypocrisy and stupidity of the government which is why he mentions the board would make “periodical pilgrimages” and “sent the beadle the day before”. The point that Dickens is trying to make is that it was the stupidity of the government that led all these babies in the baby farm to be killed and the government was hypocritical in their actions as they only cared about saving money and not the welfare of these vulnerable children. Dickens also



uses logos here to point out hypocrisy as he tells he reader that the money coming in was sufficient enough to look after these babies but yet 8 and a half out of ten babies died. By using logos Charles Dickens manages to persuade the audience that he is well qualified to talk about this subject as using facts shows he is well informed, thus enhancing ethos. Dickens jumps to Oliver’s ninth birthday where he describes Oliver as a “pale thin...diminutive in stature….small in circumference” and blames his stature on the “spare diet of the establishment” that he also thinks “it was his ninth birthday” and he was “keeping it in a cellar” Dickens indicates that Oliver living to his ninth birthday is of great importance as earlier he mentions that 8 and a half out of 10 children die in the baby farm but Dickens describing Oliver to the audience promotes the image of a small and weak child and the thought of a small weak child being locked in a cellar is unattractive, which is how Dickens creates sympathy for Oliver. Other ways that Dickens manages to describe the character is through the use of charactonym, Dickens uses this because it is a way of conveying the characters’ personality without going in-depth as it is easier to make the character live up to their name. Examples are Mrs Mann whose exterior is that of a motherly, kind woman but has no maternal instincts and in fact tortures Oliver through his young life. Using Charactonym also makes Dickens use of Irony more effective and dramatic as we see Mr Bumble commending Mrs Mann on how “humane” she is and how she is a “mother” but the audience know differently as she starves the children and possesses no nurturing instincts whatsoever. Later on in this chapter we find out that the assigning of Oliver’s name was an illogical one as Mr Bumble says “we name our findings in alphabetical order” as Mr Bumble represents the government we could denote from this that this is what he thinks of the way the system the Victorian government uses to make decisions and of the decisions the government makes, which in this case would be senseless. When Oliver makes an appearance in that chapter he “made a bow…divided between the beadle…and the cocked hat on the table” at this point Oliver is unsure whether to bow to the figure of authority (the beadle) or the symbol of authority (the cocked hat) which shows that Oliver clearly recognises the power of the symbol as it is probably one that he has been used to all his life as a parish child. Dickens also point out the hypocrisy of the government in various ways, he lets us know that the members of the board were “fat gentlemen” the fattest had the most power whilst timid Oliver is said to have “completed the demolition of a second slice of bread” by using “demolition” instead of simply eating, Dickens stresses how hungry the poor always were, due to the fact that food in the workhouses was always inadequate but these rich men are being greedy, whilst this fragile child looks forward to bread they looked forward to good food. Dickens also points out hypocrisy when a gentleman says “pray for the people who feed you and take care of you like a Christian” but Dickens lets us know “nobody had taught him”. This exposes the entire religious institution as hypocritical, under a religious institution is where Oliver suffered most, they speak of promoting good Christian values whereas they let the poor suffer, the fact that Oliver had not even been taught to pray shows that religion in those times was just an institution and not something private. Dickens succeeds in describing workhouse conditions using irony, he calls the regulations “wise and humane” letting us know that the middle class bureaucrats made the conditions in the workhouse so bad and were unsympathetic as to wanting poor people dead, they thought those that were poor were wicked and malevolent and were poor because god made them poor. We hear of families been separated, three plates of thin gruel a day, divorcing married couples as to not making more poor babies and many more “wise and humane” regulations. Dickens uses hyperbole to highlight that because of these inhumane workhouse conditions that “Oliver and his companions suffered the tortures of slow starvation” and was “wild with hunger”, he uses hyperbole to emphasise how hungry these boys were but uses emotive language to



create sympathy for Oliver and his friends, highlighting the fact that these boys were in agony and were suffering. The reaction Oliver gets after asking for more just displays the hypocrisy of the middle class bureaucrats. For example “Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?” these men were all fat men who visibly wouldn’t suffice on the diet that Oliver and his friends had to live on whereas they’re free to eat as much as they like. Because he asks for more they prophesy that “that boy will be hung” keeping in mind the word twist was the slang for “hung” so by his name they assumed how he was going to die and the method of death was a punishment fit for a criminal which stresses the attitude of society towards the poor that they were all criminals. The first paragraph of chapter three is full of pathos; it describes how Oliver was treated after his “profane offence of asking for more”. He states that Oliver “cried bitterly” and uses words like “dismal”, “cold hard” and “gloom and loneliness” so the audience get an image in their head of a traumatised young boy, there’s also an element of darkness and fear around Dickens descriptions, employing this element creates sympathy for Oliver as it is not the sort of environment that a child should be surrounded by. Dickens utilises humour through irony when describing Oliver’s daily regime after his ‘offence’, he talks of how Oliver was beaten and used a scapegoat, he says Mr Bumble “caused a tingling sensation to pervade his frame” Dickens exercises the use of litotes here, understating the severity of Oliver’s beatings to create emphasis, by understating it he’s actually putting more emphasis on it, making it more effective. Later on in this chapter we see Mr Gamfield who is associated with words like “growled and fierce” so obviously a very violent man, barter with Mr Limbkins on Oliver’s life, with the price on his life decreasing. This exhibits the fact that the government institutions only cared about saving money and the ideology that they thought the poor were of insignificant value and worth even less than what they were initially thought to be worth. The authorities knew that Mr Gamfield was a violent man who Oliver would probably die under his care but because of Oliver’s apparent social illegitimacy and their antagonistic ways towards the poor they saw the death of the poor as a solution. When Oliver is brought before the magistrates to be sold to Mr Gamfield, Dickens uses dramatic irony as Gamfield is described as “honest and open hearted” whereas the audience know him to be a brute, the use of dramatic irony just points out to the audience how ignorant the law can be, the poor laws in this case. Dickens also describes the magistrate as “half blind and half childish” the magistrates represent the law so we could denote from this that this is exactly what Dickens thought of the law, blind, childish and ignorant. Another way Dickens creates sympathy for Oliver in this chapter is when Oliver goes on his knees and prayed that “they would starve him, beat him, and kill him if they pleased, rather than send him away with that dreadful man” once again this creates a pure image in the audiences head, of a determined little boy, who wasn’t thought how to pray but still tries to in the hope that he isn’t sent away, he even wishes to be starved and beaten in hope that he gets to stay, in Victorian times this was sometimes the attitude of the poor who would have rather gone into the workhouse than anywhere else because all other options seemed worse than the workhouse. The face that Mr Bumble sees an offence against a beadle to be “a moral revolution” shows how conceited, not self aware and full of his own importance he is. The beginning of chapter four sees Mr Bumble and Mr Sowerberry laughing at the high mortality rates which to them was because of the “new feeding system” as middle class men, it was a normal



thing for them to laugh about matters that they felt didn’t concern them and this was the attitude of most of the middle class. Yet again Dickens exposes hypocrisy through the use of irony, the two men talk about Mr bumble’s button which is has a religious reference to the good Samaritan in the Bible, unfortunately this isn’t the case as they go on to talk about an incident in which Mr Bumble could’ve helped save a man’s life but didn’t, this just shows how double-faced the government at that time was. The conversation ends up with Oliver been sold as an apprentice to Mr Sowerberry, who when we notice the use of charactonym suggests he isn’t a pleasant man. Upon entering Oliver is judged as a “parish child” this links to the earlier quote of the fact he “fell into his place” and yet again we are shown how worthless Oliver is thought to be when he is fed the dogs colds bits. Dickens response to this is to use a lot of words like “blood is ice”, “clutching”, “horrible” to express his anger at these “philosophers” who feel that it is right to place a stigma on poor people and mistreat them but at the same time pretending to help them. Oliver’s hunger and starvation comes as a result of the terrible welfare system.

Dickens manages to create sympathy for Oliver mainly through the use of Pathos, what he hoped to do was to expose the ignorance and stupidity of the law concerning the poor, he wanted to point out the flaws in the poor laws and highlight the wrong way in which children were treated during the Victorian era. The character of Oliver represents Goodness and innocence but yet evil surrounds him simply because of his social class. Dickens also manages to point out the hypocrisy of the middle class by using a lot of satire and irony. I feel that Dickens was successful in pointing all these things out because through his unique writing style the audience is able to get a true taste of reality; he never leaves us too comfortable with his humour because it is quickly replaced by the harshness of sharp irony.


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