How Does Dickens Portray Authority in ‘Oliver Twist’?

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The novel ‘Oliver Twist’ was written in the 19th century, the book was written by Charles Dickens. This book was written during the Victorian time. During this period their were bad working condition and child labour started at the age of eight. That is why this novel deals with the criticism of the cruelty that children and

poor people suffered at the hands of 19th century society and the writer uses different techniques to pass this across.

During the novel, Dickens portrays authority as violence and cruel in the society. He intentionally set the book in a workhouse to criticise the poor law and the way they get treated. In the beginning of the novel, Dickens has started to show the kind of attitude they have in the workhouse ‘The old strory,’ … shaking his head… No wedding wing, I see’ this shows how cynical the surgeon was and also how mean the society was back then, instead of respecting the dead he still had the gut to snub it. It gives the reader the idea of how doomed and gloomed the atmosphere is in the workhouse.

Oliver Twist was the name of the child born, he was ...

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