Creating Sympathy for Oliver Twist

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English Coursework

Oliver Twist- How does Charles Dickens create sympathy for Oliver

Twist in the first four chapters?

Charles Dickens the author of the much acclaimed book, Oliver Twist.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 at Portsmouth the eldest of eight

children two of whom died in childhood. Growing up, he saw his father

go to the Marshalsea Prison with his mom and five other siblings

because he did not manage his money well. He was put into a workhouse

since his family had to sell all of their possessions. In the

workhouse he had to stick labels on boot-black. However he later

returned to school for a short while, teaching himself shorthand and

was working as a court reporter by the age of sixteen. This gave him

the chance to see how harsh the England justice judged; later on he

got the job of a newspaper reporter commenting on parliament giving

him more first hand knowledge of London and how the poor and rich

lived. Charles Dickens begun writing sketches and stories about life

in London in 1832. Sketches by Boz is the first sketch of his that was

published in 1833 and the put together in 1883 which sold very well.

Most of his publications appeared as a monthly serial. He gained

recognition in Great Britain and America. As well as publishing he

also gave public readings from his books. From the fruits of his

labour he purchased a large house out of London, Gad’s Hill where he

later died in 1870 because his workload was putting a strain on his

health. With such a background we can say Charles Dickens is the best

candidate to write a story like Oliver Twist to draw attention to how

the poor lived.

Picture two eight-year-old boys at night sleeping. The first going to

bed with great excitement awai...

... middle of paper ...

...w of what the

characters are really like. In the case of Mrs. Mann he uses the story

of the experimental philosopher who starves his horse to death (Page

8). Dickens is quite clever naming his character to express his views.

Oliver’s surname tells us of someone being twisted in the neck to

death in other words he tells us through this name how he detest

capital punishment. Also Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker’s name

pronounced ‘sour berry’ goes to say he is not a very pleasant man.

This is another way of Dickens irony.

In short the first four chapters of the book gives us an in depth

knowledge of how it felt to be poor living in a workhouse in the

Victorian age. We see Oliver representing all underage poor children

living in the Victorian age, working and despised by all. Dickens

gives us a clear insight on how life was like for them in the 19th

century.

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