Likely Charles Dickens’s best-known novel, Oliver Twist, or the Parish Boy’s Progress, first appeared in serial form in Bentley’s Miscellany between February 1837 and April 1839. The author’s third novel, it would later become the most dramatized of any fictional work, appearing as movie, television, and stage productions, both in musical form and as straight drama.
The appeal of the story lies in the characterization of the victimized protagonist, Oliver Twist. As his surname indicates, the young boy will experience many turns of fate during childhood as he seeks the security of a family. An appealing orphan who survives as part of the London underworld, although not very successfully, Oliver interacts with one of fiction’s most famous “light” villains, Fagin, as well as one of its most evil, Bill Sikes. The first English novel with a child as main character, Oliver Twist offered a view of the lower depths of Victorian society through a child’s innocent viewpoint. Dickens based the setting, the underbelly of London, on his observations. His disgust and anger over the conditions of the poor supports an outrage present in many of his later novels.
Oliver’s mother dies in the poorhouse after giving birth, and he grows until age nine in the care of Mrs. Mann at a branch workhouse. He moves from there to a true workhouse, run by the hypocritical Mr. Bumble, a parish beadle. In one famous scene, Oliver dares to demand a second helping of food under feeding regulations of the New Poor Law, an 1834 edict that, among other things, resulted in family members being separated according to gender. Dickens joined enlightened society in opposing that law, which resulted in inhumane treatment of those who most needed aid. Even so, Dickens’s liberal use of humor and irony lightened what could have resulted in a too tragic tone. The novel’s melodrama remains tolerable in view of its skillful satire and rich dialogue.
Oliver moves on to work with an undertaker, then runs away and meets the Artful Dodger, a fellow orphan named Jack Dawkins. Dodger is part of a children’s gang trained by Fagin in petty theft and burglary. While readers may have tolerated Fagin, even while recognizing themselves in the boys’ victims, they could not tolerate the dastardly Bill Sikes, to whom Fagin must account. Fagin became a more positive character in later dramatic presentations of the novel, benefiting by comparison to Sikes. Sikes’s villainy is heightened through his cruel treatment of the children and his brutalizing of Nancy, a sympathetic prostitute who becomes attached to Oliver, the child she never had. Dickens succeeds in retaining the humanity of all the characters. Even Sikes proves interesting, as details regarding the orphans and their poor treatment must be assumed as a story of Sikes’s own background, adding to reader understanding of his lack of humanity. Sikes is not one-dimensional, like Dickens’s other villains.
Also involved in Oliver’s life is the kindly Mr. Brownlow. He rescues Oliver from street life, but the gang kidnaps him, hoping to use him in barter after learning something of his origin from the outlaw Monks. Oliver accompanies Sikes on a burglary that goes wrong and is shot, horrifying the owner of the house, Mrs. Maylie. Her adopted daughter Rose joins her in nursing Oliver through his illness. They help balance the cruelty previously inflicted upon the child but also foreshadow the coincidence so common to Dickens’s stories.
While Oliver remains with the Maylies, Nancy prods Monks for information. She visits the Maylie house to warn Rose that Fagin will corrupt Oliver and to alert Rose that she may be related to the boy. Mr. Brownlow helps trace Oliver’s background, and Nancy is seen as a traitor, leading Sikes to murder her. Sikes later accidentally hangs himself, while members of the gang and Fagin are arrested. Fagin is tried and hanged, although critics have pointed out that he would not actually have suffered death under the laws of Dickens’s times. Dickens may have destroyed both criminals to counteract the glamorization of outlaws in the popular Newgate Fiction of the day.
When Brownlow investigates Monks, he discovers Monks is Oliver’s half-brother; had Oliver died, Monks would have been alone to enjoy an inheritance. Facts reveal that Rose is the boy’s aunt, and Oliver gains a family at last when he is adopted by Mr. Brownlow.
As with other of Dickens’s thesis novels, Oliver Twist presents a cast of exaggerated characters, representing good, evil, and additional aspects such as hypocrisy, greed, benevolence, cunning, and charity. While some critics cite a lack of realism in the novel, it remains a favorite among readers. It satisfyingly validates the power of society’s good elements to overcome the bad and encourages its readers to take part in reforms necessary to redeem the lives of innocent victims of social class structure.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Paroissien, David. The Companion to Oliver Twist. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992.
Smiley, Jane. Charles Dickens. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2002.
Thompson, Corey Evan. “Dickens’s Oliver Twist.” The Explicator 61, no. 3 (Spring 2003): 147–149.
Categories: British Literature, Children's Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis
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