“Oliver Twist” By Charles Dickens

About The Author:
 

Charles Dickens is born into a poor family with little understanding of fiances, and therefore everyone but Charles is sent to prison until debts are repaid. He becomes a very famous novelist, who is still known today for many of his novels.

Setting: The primary setting in this book is Victorian London in the late 1830s.

Themes:

-     One of the main themes in this book is poverty, Dickens really enlarges this theme throughout the book.

-       Another theme would be crime, Novels about crime were very popular at that time.

-       Also, the most important theme in this book would be mistaken identity.

Characters:

1)    Oliver: He was a cheerful boy that in search for a good family that loved him. He was victim of Fagin’s plan.

2)    Dodger: He was the boy who found Oliver at the street. He taught Oliver to steal.

3)    Fagin: He was a greedy person. He was the band’s chief, who planed all the plans for his children.

4)    Bill Sikes: He was really bad person that manipulated people to do all he wanted, for example Nancy.

5)    Nancy: She was a humble and protective woman with Olive. She doesn’t like the bad things that Fagin did to Oliver, etc..

In the novel Oliver Twist written by Charles Dickens, struggles of morality is exemplified throughout social classes, within themselves and their environment. The novel begins with Oliver’s birth and the death of his mother, Agnes Fleming, As an orphan, Oliver is continuously sent to different bad conditioned orphanages and is given a bad name because of his social rank. After continuous abuse, Oliver escapes the orphanage to go live off on his own. With no money, Oliver decides to stay with a friend he meets on the streets, Dadge Little does Oliver know that he has been put in a home full of thieves.

Due to Oliver’s good heart, he refuses to pickpocket from strangers. When Oliver tries to escape, the readers find out that on unknown, monks is paying Fagin, the gang leader, to force Oliver to commit a crime. One Night, Fagin wakes Oliver and forced him with a proposition, death or rob the home of Mrs. Maylie. Oliver thinks of a plan to escape and warn the family. In the middle of the robbery. Oliver gets shot and is left behind for dead by the gang. The next day, Oliver drags himself back to Mrs. Maylie’s house to ask for aid After showing his kindness, and sharing his story, Mrs Maylie and her adopted daughter Rose take him in as her own.

With the help of a previous gang member, Nancy, Mrs. Maylie, Rose and Oliver’s friend, Mr. Brownlow find out who Oliver’s parents are. It happens to be that Oliver’s mother is Rose’s sister and his father was Mr. Brownlow’s best friend. Next, they find out that the person paying Fagin to  force Oliver to commit crimes is his half brother, Monks realizes that Oliver was his half brother, in the beginning of the novel and knew that if Oliver were caught committing any crimes then he would not inherit his father’s inheritance. Since Oliver never commits any crimes, he earns his inheritance and Mr. Brownlow adopts him.