Oliver Twist: Critique of Victorian Society

Criticism of Victorian Society

• Oliver Twist is an extreme criticism of Victorian society's treatment of the poor.
• The workhouses in the novel were institutions established by the Victorian middle class to raise poor children.

Treatment of the Poor

• The poor were believed to be inherently flawed, with certain vices inherent to their class.
• Poor families were thought to foster rather than discourage these vices.
• As a result, poor husbands and wives were separated in workhouses to prevent them from having children and expanding the lower class.

Treatment of Children

• Poor children were taken away from their parents in workhouses.
• The state and church raised these children in the manner they believed most appropriate.

Social Class and Relationships in Victorian England

• Noah Claypole's relationship with Oliver Twist highlights the class distinctions in Victorian England, where social hierarchy was deeply ingrained.
• Noah, the son of destitute parents, is accustomed to being disdained by those better off, and finds comfort in Oliver's company, as an orphan, being even more disadvantaged.
• Dickens portrays Noah's cowardice and bullying as the same qualities found in the aristocracy, implying that class snobbery is a universal trait, present in both the highest and lowest social strata.

Social Insecurity and Snobbery

• The poor often taunt those who are even more disadvantaged, as a desperate attempt to distinguish themselves from those in an even more precarious position.
• This behavior stems from anxious desire to dissociate themselves from those worse off, demonstrating the pervasive nature of social insecurity.

Dickens' Critique of Victorian Values

• Dickens critiques the prevalent Victorian notion that the poor are inherently immoral, criminal, and filthy, by presenting Oliver Twist as a virtuous, good, and innocent character.
• He also avoids simplistic portrayals of the lower classes, instead showing complexity through characters like Noah, who exhibits stereotypical traits often associated with the poor.

Explore the social commentary in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, exposing the harsh treatment of the poor in Victorian England's workhouses.