The writer Charles Dickens is one of the most famous English novelists of the Victorian era. He began his writing career with being a journalist. When being a journalist he drew sketches of characters which seemed real. They were related to the people he saw and talked with in his society. He was fond of reading picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding as a child. The novel he wrote about Oliver Twist was first a sketch of an orphan who was abandoned by the state in a magazine. His novels were often based on the society and the people he had met.
He was a harsh critic of the poverty and social stratification of the Victorian society. Oliver Twist had many purposes that are brought up through Oliver’s journey. This novel brought forward the issue of poverty, selfishness, capitalism, social welfare and child labour. One other very important reason why this novel was written was because he wanted to criticize the poor laws during the Victorian time. This is as the middle class people believed that people were poor because they were sinful and corrupt. Charles Dickens tried to show the middle class people through his novel that this was not true.
Charles Dickens literacy techniques in the novel ‘Oliver Twist’ provided the readers with a portrait of a young boy so good that his values are never changed. Even by cruel orphanages. This technique he used in his books created an image for the reader of the characters in his book. In this case it created sympathy by the readers towards Oliver Twist. He also employs lots of coincidences in his books. For example in the book ‘Oliver Twist’ Oliver turns out to be the lost nephew of the upper class family which rescues him from the dangers of the pickpocket group. Charles Dickens always tries to show that good will always wins.
Charles Dickens creates lots of tension throughout the book. The chapter I’m going to look at is chapter 47. In this chapter he creates tension through the language he uses. His style of writing created tension. This is as he would leave the reader with a description of something or a situation without writing what it is. The novel ‘Oliver Twist’ was Charles Dickens second novel. Oliver Twist was born into a life of poverty and misfortune. Oliver was an orphan nearly from birth as his mother died as soon as he was born and his father left with an unexplained absence.
Oliver spent the first nine years of his life at a baby farm in the care of a woman named Mrs. Mann along with other juvenile offenders. So Oliver is brought up in the poor-laws of the society and with little food and few comforts. The desperate hungry group of boys decided later on to draw lots and the loser must ask for another portion of gruel. The task that had to be done went to Oliver. At the next meal he then makes his famous request of ‘Please, sir, I want some more. ‘ In chapter 47 we learn more about Fagin, Nancy and Sikes. Fagin is a leader of a group of children.
He is a crusty old man who teaches children how to make a living by pick pocketing and other criminal activities. Nancy is a helpless admirer of Bill Sikes and she is seen as the heroin as she tries to save Oliver. Although she still was a heartless criminal as she was influenced by Fagin at the age of six. Nancy is a confused character as she sometimes is taking the side of evil (Bill Sikes and Fagin) and sometimes the good side (Oliver). Bill Sikes is a brutal man and has a strong role to play in the novel. He is an aggressive criminal who has control over some of the characters actions in the novel.
He is a man that people should not trust as he trusts no one himself. To show how brutal he is in this novel he has a bull terrier which he calls ‘Bull’s eye’ and beats the dog until it needs stitches. In chapter 47 we see that Nancy is suspicious of Fagin. This is as Fagin has interest in Oliver. The mysterious monk’s involvement with him has also made Fagin suspicious of her. He becomes so suspicious that he begins to have a person follow him to see what he does. The first four paragraphs are roughly the same length. The only thing that differs in the sentence structure is the length of the sentences.
