Oliver Twist: Dickens and Social Commentary

• In Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, a nine-year-old orphan shocks a workhouse master by asking for more food.
• The scene of Oliver asking for more food has been repeated in various forms and become part of British national culture.
• The story was filmed six times before the 1948 version directed by David Lean.
• A stage musical called Oliver! by Lionel Bart was successful in the 1960s.
• The 1968 film version of Oliver! saw even greater success.
• Dickens wrote the novel to expose the terrible conditions in state workhouses, including cruelty, beatings, and starvation of orphans.

Charles Dickens' Background

• Born in 1812 in Portsmouth.
• His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office.
• The family lived in Chatham for his first ten years, and his mother encouraged him to read.
• His father mismanaged money, leading the family to move to a poor area of London when Charles was ten.
• His father was imprisoned for debt, and Charles had to leave school to work in a factory for six months.
• He walked the streets of London and worked in lawyers' offices after leaving school.
• He wrote articles under the name 'Boz' and became a reporter at twenty.

Dickens' Early Writing Career

• At twenty-four, Sketches by Boz, his first collection of short pieces, was published.
• At twenty-five, he edited Bentley's Miscellany and wrote The Parish Boy's Progress (later Oliver Twist).
• He wrote short stories about Mr Pickwick under the pen name 'Boz' and continued writing The Pickwick Papers until 1837.

Dickens' Writing Style and Themes

• Oliver Twist's success increased his reputation and income, and he later wrote about twenty novels, published in magazines.
• Later novels like Hard Times, Little Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend show a darker view of the world, focusing on the inhuman consequences of law, industry, and trade.
• He worked for organizations that helped the poor and spoke against slavery in the US in 1841.
• He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836 and had ten children, but they separated in 1858 after he fell in love with Ellen Ternan.

Dickens' Later Life and Death

• Towards the end of his life, Dickens gave dramatic readings from his books.
• One of his favorite pieces was the murder of Nancy from Oliver Twist.
• He died in 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Oliver Twist's Setting and Social Context

• Oliver Twist was written when Dickens was successful and busy.
• The opening chapters are based on his childhood experiences.
• A new Poor Law in 1834 established workhouses for the poor, ill, and unemployed, run by local groups.
• Life in workhouses was deliberately harsh to discourage idleness.

Oliver's Early Life in the Workhouse

• Oliver is born in a workhouse and is an orphan.
• He is raised without care, given little food, and beaten regularly.
• At nine, he is moved to a larger workhouse with extreme conditions.
• Punished for showing spirit, he is sold to a coffin maker.

Oliver's Escape to London and Criminal Underworld

• Oliver runs away to London, is taken in by thieves who train him to steal, led by Fagin, the Artful Dodger, Charley Bates, and Bill Sikes.
• Dickens' description of criminals and their environment caused protests but aimed to show reality.
• London was a lawless place with widespread crime.
• Sir Robert Peel created the first police force in 1829, but they were unpopular.

Characters in Oliver Twist

• Characters are either purely good (Rose Maylie, Mr Brownlow) or purely evil (Fagin, Bill Sikes).
• Some are foolish, greedy or weak.
• Oliver is innocent, grateful for affection, and evokes sympathy.

Chapter 1: Oliver Twist Is Born

• Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse under doubtful conditions.
• A young woman asks to see him before she dies, having been found in the street with torn shoes.
• The doctor notes her lack of a wedding ring.

Chapter 2: Early Years

• Oliver is bottle-fed and sent to a smaller workhouse run by Mrs Mann, who keeps most of the government allowance for herself.
• On his ninth birthday, Oliver is pale, weak, and thin.
• He is locked in the coal cellar for being hungry when Mr Bumble arrives to take Oliver back to the large workhouse.
• Mrs Mann makes threatening gestures to Oliver when he's asked if he will go along.
• Oliver pretends to be sad and gets a piece of bread and butter from Mrs Mann.

Life in the Workhouse

• Oliver is led away from a loveless home.
• Children in the workhouse work for their living, receiving three meals of thin soup a day, with an onion twice a week and a half a cake on Sundays.
• The boys polish their bowls until they shine and stare at the soup pot.
• Oliver and his companions suffer hunger for three months.
• A council decides Oliver should ask for more soup.

Oliver's Request and Its Consequences

• Oliver asks for more soup, shocking the master, who strikes him and calls for Mr Bumble.
• Mr Bumble informs the board, and they express alarm.
• Oliver is locked up, and a notice offers five pounds to anyone who will take him from the workhouse.

Chapter 3: A Chimney Sweep Offers to Take Oliver

• Oliver is punished for asking for more.
• He is washed under the pump by Mr Bumble and beaten in the hall as a warning.
• Mr Gamfield, a chimney sweep, seeks an apprentice, and arrangements are made for him to take Oliver.

Oliver's Appearance Before the Magistrate

• Mr Bumble instructs Oliver to look happy and express eagerness to be apprenticed.
• The magistrate questions Oliver about his fondness for sweeping chimneys and asks Mr Gamfield about treating Oliver well.
• The magistrate notices the look of horror on Twist's face and refuses to sign the papers so that Sowerberry could no longer be Oliver's master.

Chapter 4: Oliver Is Apprenticed to an Undertaker

• Oliver begs not to be sent with the chimney sweep.
• The magistrate refuses to sign and orders Oliver to be treated kindly.
• The public is informed that five pounds will be paid to anyone who takes Oliver.
• Mr Bumble meets Mr Sowerberry, an undertaker, who mentions needing a boy.
• Mr Sowerberry states how since the new system of coffin feeding was introduced, the coffins have been somewhat narrower, but he needs profit to be made, as wood is expensive.
• Noah Claypole is introduced as a character who mocks and abuses Oliver.

Further Developments in Oliver's Apprenticeship

• Mr Sowerberry decides to take Oliver himself, and arrangements are made quickly so that Oliver would go to him in the evening.
• Oliver is led away by Mr Bumble in silence to a new scene of suffering carrying only a brown-paper parcel as luggage.
• As they drew near to Mr. Sowerberry's shop, Mr. Bumble assured the boy was clean and neat enough to be seen by his new master.
• In fear of the stick, Oliver promised Bumble that he would be good and cried of loneliness as the master took him into Sowerberry's.

Life in the Sowerberrys' Household

• The undertaker was writing details of the day's business when Bumble brought Oliver to him.
• At his first inspection Sowerberry's wife and her rude manner are a concern to Oliver, as is the undertaker's instruction to sleep under the counter alongside the coffins.
• Charlotte gives him the dog's dinner without consultation with Mrs Sowerberry.

Chapter 5: Noah Claypole

• Oliver begins his time at the funeral parlour with a coffin in the middle of the room.
• Noah Claypole and Charlotte see an opportunity to take advantage of the young orphan.
• Noah bullies Oliver but one day he goes too far - he speaks ill of Oliver's dead mother.
• Oliver attacked Noah. Charlotte screams, Mrs Sowerberry joins in; they beat Oliver up and lock him in the cellar.

Intervention of Mr Bumble and Mrs Sowerberry

• Mr Bumble and Mrs Sowerberry visit Oliver in the cellar and resolve to keep him on a strict diet.
• Oliver is beaten again.
• Oliver, in the undertaker's dark workshop, has a cry as insults with contempt were cast upon him, then in the morning makes a decision to leave town.

Chapter 6: The Artful Dodger

• Oliver sets out on a journey.
• On his way he reaches over 70 miles from London.
• He meets the Artful Dodger in the town of Barnet.
• The boys eat together and set off to journey on to London.
• They arrive in London.
• Oliver is unsure but is led by the Artful Dodger.
• They enter a dark house.

Chapter 7: Fagin and his Band

• A man is at the door shading light and calls for Fagin.
• The man appears and the 2 boys join him where Fagin is sorting through handkerchiefs with children.
• Fagin greets Oliver, and his associates smoke clay pipes.
• The next day Oliver is alone with Fagin who is whistling to himself.
• Fagin examines jewels and replace them and the chapter comes to a close.