Summary:
With the novel "Oliver Twist", Charles Dickens has successfully bring the public's attention to various contemporary social illness, including the underworld life, child labor, and the recruitment of children as criminals.
Poor Social System that Generates Criminals
With the novel "Oliver Twist", Charles Dickens has successfully bring the public's attention to various contemporary social illness, including the underworld life, child labor, and the recruitment of children as criminals. "Oliver Twist" is notable for its presentation of the poor and criminals as real people who has to struggle to survive. This novel also emphasizes the importance of money and the justice system that is not working for the society. One of the most interesting parts for the reader is Charles Dickens's style in presenting the criminals as human being. The author compares good and evil in this novel. It turns out that the good always win, but at the same time, the author doesn't treat the bad people as loser but rather as people who deserve sympathy.
The underworld in this novel, which is the thieves and other criminals, plays a significant role in "Oliver Twist." The author opposes these criminals with the good folks without making the readers judging them as bad people, but rather making the readers treat the criminals with sympathy as they observe how the criminals have to struggle and how they become the victim of circumstances in this novel. Fagin and Sikes, the criminals, are shown more exciting and more intelligent than the good people such as Dr. Losberne and Mr. Brownlow.
K.J. Fielding brings out the theory that "Fagin and Sikes were victims of circumstances" (19). He also states that the tendency of "Oliver Twist" is to link fictional crime with radical views of the society. The society as presented in Oliver Twist has the assumption that the lower classes are naturally base, criminal, and filthy while the middle and upper classes are clean and morally upright social group. They treat the lower class with lack of respect. Dickens also shows that the justice system doesn't help the lower class at all. The state chooses to recognize poor people's existence only when they commit crimes, die, or enter the workhouses. Fielding states that "From the opening in the workhouse every institution is shown as contemptible, chiefly because they are all used to keep the lower classes from bothering those above them" (19). The workhouses are institutions that the Victorian middle class established to raise poor children. The state takes away poor children from their parents in order to allow them to raise the children in the most appropriate manner for them. However, the workhouses do not provide economic improvement. The officials who run the workhouses are arrogant and ignorant to the poor. They treat the residents almost like slaves. In other words, the poor people have the choice to starve gradually in the workhouse or starve directly out of the workhouse.
Another unfair treatment on the poor is when a police officer accuses Oliver for stealing from a gentleman and drags him into the court. Oliver is unable to speak at his trial because of his exhaustion and sickness, which metaphorically shows the lower class's lack of political power and ability to speak up their concerns in a public forum. The upper classes project their own conceptions of the poor upon them to the point of redefining poor people's identities with no regard for the truth. In the court, Oliver is unable to say his name because of the terror he experiences, so the court officer gives him the random name of Tom White. This inaccurate renaming occurs throughout the hearing until he is eventually declared guilty. This instance demonstrates that other people who are more powerful determine Oliver's identity, just like the middle class determines lower class' characteristic.
The society's prejudice on poor people makes it hard for them to stay clean and honest. Some people like Sikes, Fagin, and Nancy cannot find other way to survive but doing illegal actions such as robbery. Oliver Twist too, the principal character who is virtuous, good, and innocent, has no choice other that join the band of thieves in order to survive. In his trip to London, Oliver is starving and exhausted as the result of the laws forbidding begging. His condition makes him vulnerable enough to accept the questionable charity of Fagin and his gang of thieves. Because begging is a punishable offense, those who stay outside the workhouses are often forced to turn to criminals in order to survive. In this part, Dickens shows his reader that blames the crimes committed by the poor on the people who create the Poor Laws.
According to Fielding, "It is fundamentally optimistic in arguing that crime is caused by circumstance," (21). Oliver's experiences in Fagin's house shows how environment can be a powerful influence for someone's life. As Oliver begins to enjoy the thieves' companionship, it becomes evident how easy it is for Fagin to corrupt Oliver. It is Fagin's plan to isolate Oliver until he really needs to socialize and he will do whatever Fagin asks so that he can have more time in the other boys' company. By this scene, Dickens suggests that the need for companionship drives people to accept whichever community accepts them in return. The environment in which one is raised is a more powerful determining factor on one's character than his or her biological nature.
One character who best illustrates the environment influence on a person's life is Nancy. She grows as a child of the streets. She becomes a thief and prostitute in order to survive. Her relationship with Sikes leads her into criminal acts for his sake. However, she commits the noblest act in the novel when she sacrifices her own life in order to protect Oliver. Her noble act results in her own death. From this case one's can see that poor people can still choose to be good no matter how many environmental obstacles they may face. However, the choice to be good has consequences, and in Nancy's case, the cost is her life. Not many people are as brave as Nancy. When it comes to the choice of live and death, most people naturally will choose to stay alive even though it means that they have to ignore law and morality.
Dickens then show how the society is only care about more obvious acts of theft, but ignores theft that occurs in more subtle ways. He contrasts two kinds of theft, which are the burglary committed by Sikes and the corruption committed by Mrs. Corney. Mrs. Corney is the middle-class matron of the workhouse who has luxurious facilities from the benefit she gets from the workhouse slavery. The amenities of her apartment represent money that can be otherwise spent on the paupers under her care. The dialogue between Mrs. Corney and Mr. Bumble show how extreme the differences between her lifestyle and the paupers' condition. Mr. Bumble points out that Mrs. Corney's cats that sleep in front of warm fireplace have better treatment than the workhouse paupers who freeze in inadequately heated small rooms. This can be considered as theft, but because she is robbing those who have nothing, her theft will never be acknowledged. Mrs. Corney calls Mr. Bumble a cruel man for saying that he will drown a cat, yet ignores her own cruelty to the paupers. The description of Mrs. Corney implies that the middle class, which includes church officials, intellectuals, and public officers, controls the conceptions of what is right or wrong. It's the middle class who have the authority to declare what is right and what is wrong. With this power, they are able to ignore their own version of thievery.
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