Oliver Twist: The Personification of Charles Dickens

During the Victorian era many children of the lower social class where forced to live very miserable lives. Charles Dickens who grew up in this era was placed to work at the age of twelve in a Blacking factory in order to survive. The jobs that Dickens and other children of his age and even younger were forced to work were jobs that required very intense labor and resulted in extremely low wages. Thinking about his past, Dickens wanted to see a change in society. In an approach to draw society’s attention to the hardships of orphaned children, Dickens decided to write the novel Oliver Twist. Dickens was inspired to write the novel in hopes that the story of an orphan boy would shed light on the issues of the time while also serving as a protest against the Poor Law of 1834 which stopped government payments to the poor unless they worked in the workhouse. Oliver Twist not only illustrates the issues of the poor and a search for belonging but also shows how orphaned children were never seen as innocence.

In the beginning of the novel Dickens shows how poor orphan children are affected while living and working in the workhouse. In this first chapter Dickens narrates the birth of Oliver and how once he was born his mother died and he was taken over by the authorities of the workhouse. Dickens purpose in showing Oliver’s mother dead once she gave birth is meant to demonstrate the lack of choice children had when it came to whether or not they wanted to work in the workhouse. The struggle poor orphan children face is prevalent throughout the entire novel. The workhouse can very well be called an orphanage. During the Victorian era when children were placed in theses workhouses they were deprived of food and were never taken care of. ...

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...e of the Victorian era that Dickens made sure the story of Oliver Twist portrayed was the belief that children, (especially those who were poor) were never seen as innocent. Dickens criticizes the negative assumptions placed on the behavior of poor children. When Oliver is on trial for robbery, his plea for his innocence is ignored. At this time in society poor children were believed to be mischievous even if in reality they were pure, and innocent. With the story of Oliver Twist, Dickens wants readers to understand that children were never able to define a character for themselves, instead forced upon them was a negative character. The legal system of the time was not accurate when it came to deciding whether or not a person is sent to prison. Imprisonment was often placed according to social standing as oppose to whether a person innocent or guilty. Oliver