Analysis of The Novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is an English writer whose fame started in the Victorian age. It is important to note that this age was an age of democracy, in which all the writers, including Dickens, vigorously attack materialism. In other words, they criticize the age through their writings, just as Dickens, who wrote the famous novel Oliver Twist. This essay will analyze this novel of the brilliant writer, Charles Dickens.

Oliver Twist was written in the years 1837-1838. During this time, the Parliament passed a new Poor Law, which was based on the idea that there was work for everybody and that if a person had no work and no money, it was because he or she was lazy and did not want to work. From this perspective, the government provided a workhouse for such poor people. The story begins at the workhouse, where the poor boy Oliver Twist was born.

The workhouses were unfriendly and inhuman places because sometimes they were controlled by unfeeling men such as Mr. Bumble in the novel. Unfortunately, such cruel people were taking important positions in society, as Mr. Bumble, who has been unmerciful in treating Oliver and even he encouraged another evil character in the story, whose name was Mrs. Sowerberry, to be harsh on Oliver. After Oliver was beaten up by Mr. Bumble, who said: 'I can hardly believe it. That boy will live to be hanged', just because he asked for more soup, he offered five pounds to anyone who would take Oliver. So he got rid of him by taking him to live in Mr. & Mrs. Sowerberry's house.

Mrs. Sowerberry showed many dark sides in treating Oliver. First, she called him 'a little bag of bones' because he was very thin. She was such a cruel and harsh woman, as she told him for dinner: 'you can have some of those bits of cold meat which we have saved for the dog' Later, she helped Noah Claypole, who was a boy used to work in the Sowerberry's house, in beating Oliver. These monsters made Oliver's life unpleasant, so he made up his mind to run away. He decided to go to London, where nobody, not even Mr. Bumble, could find him there. So he took the road taken by the carts and moved toward London. In his journey, he met a boy named Jack Dawkins, who told him that he would take him to an old gentleman who would give bed for nothing. This old gentleman, whose name was Fagin, turned out to be an expert in the thievery work who trained young little boys to be thieves. Later he came to know another man called Bill Sikes, who was a thief trained by Fagin but more young and evil than him. There he began a series of suffering because of this bad gang.

Dickens wraps up the story in a genius way as he revealed how bad characters got what they deserved. Bill Sikes got a horrible death where he hung and swung against the wall dead. Fagin was caught by the police, and at the court, the judge said to him: 'to be hanged by the neck'. Dickens gave other characters the chance to change their attitude at the end of the story, just as Charley Bates, one of Fagin's boy pickpockets, who turned his back on the dark days of the past and started a new life. However, Dickens did not give this chance of changing to the character of Mr. Bumble, for the simple reason that Dickens does not want evil to be rewarded.

To sum up, we can conclude that the Victorian age was a time when national and local governments did little to help those people who were old, ill, or badly treated by employers and others. But meanwhile, other kind people were ready to help those who were less fortunate than themselves. It is obvious that Charles Dickens had suffered a lot in his life and mainly because of the ruling power at that time, but it seems that one's hardships and sufferings' are the source of his strength and the influence which he is about to deliver to the world through his great works.