At age twelve, Charles Dickens worked in a shoe blacking factory apart from his family for reasons beyond his or their control. In the process, he met a working-class boy, an orphan named Bob Fagin, whose name Dickens would use for the villain in Oliver Twist. As a boy, Dickens dreamed of growing up to be an educated and distinguished man, but his dreams were troubled by fears that he might become permanently stationed among the poor, where he might be reduced to a life as a desperate robber or vagabond. These fears are reflected in the novel, for such a fate almost befalls young Oliver Twist.
The New Poor Law of 1834. Since the 1600s, England had worked to relieve the burdens faced by the poorest segment of its population through a system known as the Poor Laws. These laws provided small supplements of food and money to men who worked in seasonal occupations such as agriculture and assisted the lowest ranks of the working classes when food prices rose. For members of society who could not earn any kind of a living, such as children, young women, the elderly, the handicapped, or the insane, the Poor Laws provided them with food and a place to live.
