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    Oliver Twist Essay

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    al_786
    The document provides a summary of key events in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. It describes Oliver's unfortunate birth and orphaning. He is initially cared for by the selfish Mrs. Mann and later sent to a workhouse at age 8. The workhouse children lead a miserable life, always hungry and poorly treated. Dickens uses descriptive language to elicit sympathy for Oliver and outrage at the cruel treatment of poor children in 1800s England, who endured neglect, physical abuse, and starvation with no one to help them.

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    Oliver Twist Essay

    Uploaded by

    al_786
    1K views2 pages
    The document provides a summary of key events in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. It describes Oliver's unfortunate birth and orphaning. He is initially cared for by the selfish Mrs. Mann and later sent to a workhouse at age 8. The workhouse children lead a miserable life, always hungry and poorly treated. Dickens uses descriptive language to elicit sympathy for Oliver and outrage at the cruel treatment of poor children in 1800s England, who endured neglect, physical abuse, and starvation with no one to help them.

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    Coursework for English - Oliver Twist

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    The document provides a summary of key events in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. It describes Oliver's unfortunate birth and orphaning. He is initially cared for by the selfish Mrs. Mann and later sent to a workhouse at age 8. The workhouse children lead a miserable life, always hungry and poorly treated. Dickens uses descriptive language to elicit sympathy for Oliver and outrage at the cruel treatment of poor children in 1800s England, who endured neglect, physical abuse, and starvation with no one to help them.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views2 pages

    Oliver Twist Essay

    Uploaded by

    al_786
    The document provides a summary of key events in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. It describes Oliver's unfortunate birth and orphaning. He is initially cared for by the selfish Mrs. Mann and later sent to a workhouse at age 8. The workhouse children lead a miserable life, always hungry and poorly treated. Dickens uses descriptive language to elicit sympathy for Oliver and outrage at the cruel treatment of poor children in 1800s England, who endured neglect, physical abuse, and starvation with no one to help them.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Aleena Aamir

    1

    Oliver Twist Essay
    Oliver Twist is a novel which was written in the 1800s by Charles Dickens.
    It is about a boy who is born in a workhouse and is orphaned from his first
    breath by his mother dying in labour and his fathers absence. Oliver
    spends his first eight years with Mrs Mann; a selfish woman in a baby farm
    but then is taken by Mr Bumble who worked for the Board to a workhouse
    as he is old enough. The life of poor children in the workhouses were
    dreadful and they never had enough food to eat to be satisfied, they were
    always hungry and where only given small portions of food.
    Olivers birth happened in a very unfortunate way, he was surrounded by
    people who didnt really care, and the nurse was drunk, an old woman
    who was rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer. His
    mother died after holding him for even less than a minute, she imprinted
    her cold white lips passionately on its forehead; passed her hands over her
    face; gazed wildly round; shuddered; fell back and died. This shows that
    she did love Oliver which makes the reader feel sorry for the newborn child
    and what will become of it.
    Oliver is then looked after by Mrs Mann who is a very selfish woman and
    didnt care about the childrens needs but only hers, she knew what was
    good for children: and she had a very accurate perception of what was good
    for herself. This tells the reader that Oliver was going to be put into
    careless hands, which was very unfair for a child of his age. Dickens uses
    emotive language to make the reader feel sympathetic towards Oliver,
    ...either that it sickened from want and cold, or fell into the fire from
    neglect. This creates an image for the reader of how terrible the lifestyle
    was for these children.
    On Olivers ninth birthday he is locked up in a coal cellar for atrociously
    presuming to be hungry Dickens uses sarcasm to make the reader feel
    apologetic towards Oliver and tries to lighten the mood. When Mrs Mann
    sees Mr Bumble she quickly calls to Susan to take Oliver and get him
    washed because Mr Bumble cannot see Oliver in such a mess otherwise he
    would realise that Mrs Mann is not correct for the job. When Oliver is asked
    by Mr Bumble Will you go along with me Oliver? Oliver sees that Mrs
    Mann is standing behind Mr Bumble and shakes her fist at him; Dickens
    Aleena Aamir

    2

    uses emotive language, He took the hint at once, for the fist had been too
    often impressed upon his body not to be deeply impressed upon his
    recollection. This tells the reader that Oliver was physically beaten by Mrs
    Mann which makes the reader feel heartbroken because of the way that
    Oliver is treated.
    Oliver is then taken to the men of the board by Mr Bumble and they are
    described as fat gentlemen which tells the reader that they had a good
    amount of food to eat and they must have been quite rich. When Oliver
    starts to cry the men have no sympathy for him and the man with the white
    waistcoat on, calls Oliver a fool for not knowing what an orphan was and
    they just sit there and watch Oliver cry and criticise him.
    When Oliver is taken to the workhouse, Dickens shows the reader that
    there is a lack of food here also, each boy had one porringer...the boys
    polished them with their spoons till they shone again this shows how
    hungry all the poor children were and this makes the reader feel apologetic
    towards all of the children and that they would never dare to ask for more.
    One boy couldnt take the hunger anymore and one day he secretly said to
    some of the other boys, ...he was afraid he might some night happen to eat
    the boy who slept next to him. Dickens uses exaggeration to show the
    reader that a boy was willing to eat a human being because he couldnt take
    his hunger anymore and this gives the reader an idea of how the boy must
    be feeling. When Oliver asks for more food, the master is completely
    shocked and acts as if Oliver has just committed a crime, Dickens uses
    exaggeration to show the reader that children were punished for asking for
    more food by saying that it was a impious and profane offence.
    The treatment of children in the 1800s was horrifying. They were never
    given enough food or clothed properly and had to work like slaves. This
    makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the children and makes the
    reader want to help them. Dickens uses techniques such as exaggeration,
    emotive language and sarcasm to make the reader want to read on and
    creates an image for the reader of how they were treated. I feel extremely
    sympathetic towards Oliver and the children and as a modern reader I feel
    that this is against their human rights.

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