Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens/ Author Introduction / Historical Context / About the Work / Themes / Characters/ Summary & Analysis

 Oliver Twist

by Charles Dickens

Brief Biography of Charles Dickens

Born to an English Navy clerk and a mother of seven other children, Charles Dickens lived a life of some middle-class comfort until, abruptly, changes in the family's financial situation forced his family into a poorhouse and him, at age ten, to work for some time at a boot-blacking factory. Although Charles eventually went to school and began a career as a law clerk, journalist, and writer, he never forgot this period of economic privation and social despair, and he included depictions of poverty in many of the fifteen novels and other stories and pieces of prose he wrote over the course of his life.

Historical Context of Oliver Twist

The Victorian Period coincides with a series of political, economic, and social changes in England that are inseparable from the nature of the fiction produced. The high-point of the Industrial Revolution took place, more or less, at the time of Oliver Twist's writing; the production of goods had transitioned from "cottage industries" in the countryside to centralized factories in London and in the newer cities of Manchester and Birmingham. A whole host of other industries sprang up to support these new modes of production (including coal energy and railroad infrastructure development), and cities grew to include vast tenements of workers recently relocated from the country. England was also the crown jewel of an Empire "on which the sun never set," meaning it extended across much of the known world, including Australia and New Zealand, the Indian subcontinent, and interests in Africa. London was not just a hub for English workers, writers, artists, and thinkers—it was a multinational cosmopolis, the like of which the world had never seen (or had not since the far different Roman Empire, 1800 years previous). Dickens fiction reflects London both as a center of international power, as a city consisting of small neighborhoods, and of a city made up of the rich and those clinging to new and tenuous economic circumstances.

Other Books Related to Oliver Twist

Dickens was, in essence, a genre unto himself: his novels have come to seem synonymous with the "Victorian" period in English literature (extending roughly from the 1830s until 1900, and coinciding with the cultural effects of the reign of Queen Victoria in England and the English Empire). But the Victorian period was a high time for the novel in general. Many magazines serialized works of prose fiction for public consumption, and increased education levels (derived from many factors, including the movement of workers to cities as part of the Industrial Revolution) caused many more in the middle classes to read as a pastime.

Key Facts about Oliver Twist

Full Title: Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress

When Written: Written serially, February 1837 to April 1839

Where Written: London, England

When Published: February 1837 to April 1839; revised 1847

Literary Period: Victorian

Genre: Victorian social novel; Bildungsroman (novel of education); novel of morality

Setting: London, England, and the countryside surrounding, 1830s

Climax: Oliver is shot by a servant of the Maylies; he recovers under their care, and begins the process of learning his true parentage

Antagonist: Monks and Fagin

Point of View: third-person omniscient

Extra Credit for Oliver Twist

Musical adaptation. Many have come to know the general story of Oliver Twist via the musical Oliver!, which premiered in 1960 in London, and which was made into a successful motion picture in 1968. The musical retains many of the characters made most famous in the novel, including Fagin and the Artful Dodger.

Social Commentary

1. Poverty and Social Injustice: Exposes the harsh realities of poverty, child labor, and social inequality in Victorian England.

2. Class Division: Highlights the stark contrast between the wealthy and the impoverished.

Moral and Psychological Insights

1. Good vs. Evil: Contrasts characters like Oliver, Brownlow, and Nancy with Fagin, Bill Sikes, and Monks.

2. Redemption and Personal Growth: Oliver's journey showcases resilience and moral development.

Societal Issues

1. Crime and Criminality: Explores the criminal underworld, illustrating the consequences of poverty and lack of opportunities.

Emotional and Psychological Themes

1. Identity: Oliver's search for belonging and self-discovery.

Other Key Themes

1. Empathy and Compassion: Highlights importance of kindness and understanding.

Main Characters

1. Oliver Twist: Protagonist, an orphan born in a workhouse, known for his innocence and resilience.

2. Fagin: Leader of a gang of pickpockets, manipulative and ruthless.

Supporting Characters

1. Artful Dodger (Jack Dawkins): Charismatic pickpocket, introduces Oliver to Fagin's gang.

2. Nancy: Complex, tragic figure, torn between loyalty to Sikes and compassion for Oliver.

3. Bill Sikes: Violent, abusive criminal, Nancy's partner.

4. Mr. Brownlow: Kind, wealthy old man, takes Oliver in.

Antagonists

1. Monks (Edward Leeford): Oliver's half-brother, seeks to destroy his reputation.

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

Oliver Twist begins in a workhouse in 1830s England, in an unnamed village, where a young woman, revealed to be Oliver's mother, gives birth to her son and promptly dies. The boy, lucky to survive, is raised until the age of nine in a "farm" for young orphaned children, and then is sent to the local workhouse again, where he labors for a time, until his innocent request for more food so angers the house's board and beadle, Mr. Bumble, that the workhouse attempts to foist Oliver off as an apprentice to some worker in the villager. Oliver is eventually given over to a coffin-maker named Sowerberry. Oliver works as a "mute" mourner for Sowerberry, and must sleep at night among the coffins. After a fight with Noah, another of Sowerberry's apprentices, over Oliver's unwed mother (whom Noah insults), Oliver runs away to London, to make his fortune.

Near London, Oliver meets a well-dressed young boy who introduces himself as the Artful Dodger, a thief under the employ of a local crime boss named Fagin. The Dodger takes Oliver to Fagin, who promises to help Oliver but really holds him hostage, and forces him to go on a thieving mission with the Dodger and Bates, another young criminal. Bates and Dodger try to steal the handkerchief of an old man, who notices Oliver (an innocent onlooker), and believes him to be the thief. Oliver is caught and hauled to jail, only to be released into the old man Brownlow's company after Brownlow sees that Oliver had nothing to do with the crime. Brownlow nurses Oliver for a time and vows to educate him properly. But after sending Oliver out to return some books and money to a bookseller, Brownlow is shocked to find that Oliver does not return—Oliver has been picked up by Nancy, an associate of Fagin's, and taken back to the criminal gang.

The remainder of the novel comprises Brownlow's attempts to find Oliver, and Oliver's attempts to escape Fagin, his criminal associate Sikes, and the other boys. Fagin orders Oliver to accompany Sikes and another thief named Toby Crackit on a house-breaking, in a country village, that goes awry; Oliver is shot in the arm in the attempt, by a servant named Giles of the Maylie house (the house being broken into); Oliver nearly dies, but walks back to the house the next morning and is nursed back to health by Rose, Mrs. Maylie, and a local doctor named Lorsborne. Lorsborne later takes Oliver into London to find Brownlow, but they discover Brownlow has gone to visit the West Indies. Oliver is crestfallen, but is happy nonetheless with the Maylies, and is educated by an old man in the Maylies' village. Later, on a trip into London, Rose is visited by Nancy, who wishes to come clean about her involvement in Oliver's oppression, and Oliver finds that Brownlow is back in the city, having returned from the West Indies.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Corney, mistress of the workhouse, receives a package from a dying woman named Old Sally, which Sally in turn received from Oliver's mother upon her death. The package contains material indicating Oliver's family history, which is of interest to a friend and shadowy associate of Fagin's named Monks. Nancy meets with Rose and Brownlow in secret in London, to discuss what she has overheard, from Fagin and Monks, regarding Oliver's parentage; Noah, sent to spy on Nancy, overhears this conversation, and reports it to Fagin. Fagin tells Sikes, misleadingly, that Nancy has "peached" on the whole gang (even though Nancy refused to incriminate Fagin or Sikes to Brownlow), and Sikes, in a fit of rage, kills Nancy, then goes on the lam with his dog.

Brownlow realizes that he recognized Oliver as resembling the picture of a woman in his parlor, and also recognized a man he comes to realize is Monks. Brownlow pieces together the mystery of Oliver's parentage: Oliver's father is also Monks' father, and Monks' mother defrauded Oliver's mother, an unwed woman named Agnes, of the inheritance Oliver's father, Edwin, intended to leave to Oliver and Agnes. Monks wishes to destroy these facts of Oliver's parentage in order to keep all the inheritance for himself. But Brownlow confronts Monks with these facts, and Monks agrees, finally, to sign an affidavit admitting his part in the conspiracy to defraud Oliver.

Meanwhile, the members of Fagin's gang are all caught: Noah; Charlotte, his partner; the Dodger; and Fagin himself. Sikes dies, by accident, attempting to escape a mob that has come to kill him following Nancy's death. Brownlow manages to secure half of Oliver's inheritance for Oliver, and gives the other half to Monks, who spends it in the New World on criminal activity. Rose Maylie, long in love with her cousin Harry, eventually marries him, after Harry purposefully lowers his social station to correspond with Rose's; Rose was said to be of a blighted family, and in the novel's final surprise, this "blight" is revealed: Rose's sister was Agnes, meaning that Rose is Oliver's aunt.

At the novel's end, Oliver is restored to his rightful lineage and is adopted by Brownlow. The pair live in the country with Harry, who has become a parson, and Rose, along with Losborne and Mrs. Maylie. Oliver can, at last, be educated in the tranquility and manner he deserves, as the son of a gentleman.

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