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Through the Eyes of a Child: Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
by
Marilyn Green Faulkner
In 1837 two figures whose
influence would change the world rose to power in England. The
diminutive Queen Victoria was crowned, and Charles Dickens published
Oliver Twist, his second novel and the first to be serialized
in his own publication. Its immediate popularity catapulted Dickens
to fame. Along with The Christmas Carol it is still the most
familiar of his novels, because its melodramatic plot has been adapted
into numerous plays and musicals. The story of the little orphan
who is reunited, then separated from, then reunited with his benevolent
grandfather caught the imagination of Victorian society and has
remained a favorite ever since.
Oliver Twist was
the first English novel to take a child as its protagonist. Up until
Dickens’s day, novels were written about people with money, education,
and usually good breeding. Dickens chose to view the world through
a lens that was unfamiliar to those who bought books; he looked
through the eyes of a bright, though helpless child, trapped in
a terrible situation. It was a viewpoint he remembered well. Dickens
himself was sent by his parents at the age of twelve to work in
a blacking factory in the middle of London, when his father became
so mired in debt he was forced to take the child out of school.
Charles lived alone in a rented room and nearly starved on the meager
wages he earned for standing in the window of the factory, pasting
labels on bottles of shoe polish. Though within a year his father
was able to bring him home again, the terror and humiliation of
that experience was so great that Dickens kept it a secret from
everyone (even his wife and children) all
of his life. He dealt with it instead through his fictional children,
particularly Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, and through them
awakened a generation to the plight of the dispossessed.
Filled with restless
energy, Dickens walked the streets of London by night, sometimes
covering fifteen to twenty miles in one walk. He peered into the
back streets and was intimately familiar with the primitive living
conditions of the poor. What he saw was heartbreaking. The London
that Dickens perambulated had no social services, no public sanitation,
and was rife with crime and social unrest. It is estimated that
over 40,000 prostitutes walked the streets. Graveyards, unregulated
and overfilled by their greedy proprieters, literally overflowed,
causing a noxious stench to fill the surrounding streets. Children,
unprotected by law, were forced to work long hours in factories,
clamber up blackened chimneys as sweeps, or risk their lives in
the mines. Unwanted and illegitimate children were sent north to
schools where they were abused and underfed. Though his remarkable
talent brought Dickens early and lasting success, his humble beginnings
caused him to relate with these, the lowest classes of society.
He was their champion and their voice, through characters like the
plucky, innocent Oliver.
Still in his
twenties and largely self-educated, we can see Dickens teaching
himself to write in this second novel, finding his voice and unique
style. After the light comic tone of The Pickwick Papers, Oliver
Twist is surprising for its dark irony. (Dickens was actually
writing the end of one as he began the other, and would follow a
similar pattern for decades, overlapping and interweaving the comic
and the serious, the sardonic and the sentimental.) Writing in a
distanced, often comical tone, Dickens introduces us to the newborn
Oliver, who is the emblem of everything good and innocent cast into
everything that is wicked and selfish. Abandoned and abused, he
survives the first few years out of sheer determination. The most
famous scene in the book illustrates the way in which a Dickens
character can become an emblem for an entire class. Oliver, new
to the workhouse, is nudged and encouraged by his fellow boys to
do the unthinkable: he asks for more food. The Poor Law of 1834
actually mandated the pitiful amounts of food allowed to indigent
children, and as Oliver struggles to his feet and holds out his
empty bowl, Dickens puts a nation on alert that society has gone
awry:
Child
as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery.
He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon
in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: ‘Please, Sir,
I want some more.’
Of
course, Oliver’s simple plea is treated as a criminal act, and he
is branded as a troublemaker. His ejection from lawful society,
where he has been neglected and abused, is followed by his introduction
to the underworld of London, where he is fed, welcomed and even
loved. Dickens’s point is clear: if society does not care for its
own, it will pay the price in increased crime and social unrest.
We can be assured that Fagin and his boys have relevance to us when
we view the proliferation of the gang culture in our inner cities,
where fatherless children find a family of sorts in criminal groups.
This morning my local paper reported on the terrorist organization
Hamas; they feed and care for the widows and fatherless among them,
and receive loyal support in return, underscoring again that
this is a fairy tale with a message for any age.
Oliver
Twist is a good introduction to the hilarious, sentimental,
dramatic, ironic, brilliant world of Charles Dickens. You might
want to follow it with David Copperfield, to see how his
genius reaches its height, then Great Expectations, to feel
how the wisdom and disappointments of age affect his writing. All
three are stories of boys who are cast upon a difficult social sea
and somehow make their way, illustrating above all Dickens’s faith
in the resilience and tenacity of the human spirit.
Though
I suppose he is not for everyone, if I were stranded on a desert
island I would ask for a Bible and the works of Dickens and I could
be content. I hoard his books, rationing myself to about one per
year. That way I can fully enjoy his genius and know that by the
time I get around to the second reading of each novel I will have
forgotten most of it and can enjoy it afresh! If you are interested
in learning more about Dickens, I recommend Jane Smiley’s remarkable
work, Charles Dickens, published through the Penguin Great
Writer’s series in 2002. She gives, in my opinion, the best overall
view of the mixture of the man and his work. Two other great resources
are Peter Ackroyd’s stupendous biography, Dickens (1500 pages
– beware!) and Norrie Epstein’s delightful The Friendly Dickens.
The latter is a great resource for teenagers encountering the great
man for the first time in school.
Oliver
Twist is the June selection for the Best Books Club, an informal
group of like-minded readers who enjoy the classics together and
discuss them via the internet. Our selection for June is the wonderful
Watership Down, by Richard Adams.
Readers
shared some interesting perspectives on our May selection, Cry,
the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton:
Having been
born & raised in South Africa, to me, this book has always symbolized
the sad & painful, yet hopeful soul of South Africa. I have
read it many times since English Lit. inhigh school (too many years
ago, and yes, in South Africa!), and each time, the sobs rise in
my throat & my heart contracts as I envision the people, the
places, and the tragedies that were the victims of apartheid.
I remember
well the people I knew and lost, as well as those in the pages of
the book that are symbolic of the nation that can be. I know I
will read this book many more times, it is one of my prized possessions.
Thank you for this moment of revisiting a literary treasure and
the memories of my beloved country. Your critique is poignant.
Coral Anna Foster
Thank you so much for
this review on a book I read many years ago.
While you never really
forget any book as marvelous as this one, the details do escape
you with age, and it is so good to be reminded. I wept in my thirties/forties
when reading this book, and I wept again reading your review.
The inhumanity of man
to his fellow man is bad enough - but the inhumanity to ourselves,
from ourselves is even worse.
Having now reached the
age of almost eighty, I see many things that were not visible to
me earlier in my life. I was so busy with so many things -
family, a business, teaching, all kinds
of things. Now I have time for intospection, meditating, and
pondering LIFE.
I weep over the
obvious - to me - mistakes of our children, grandchildren and others
I love. I recall my own stupidities and errors, and wonder
how in the world our Heavenly Father can bear all that goes on in
the world. I'm having a hard time bearing the tiny section
and people in it I feel somewhat responsible for.
Yet, through it all is
a transcendant joy for the beauty of the countryside in which we
live, the goodness of friends and neighbors. And most of all, the joys of the Gospel.
Thank you again for reminding
me of this book. Think I'll stoip at the libarary while I
am out today and get a copy to re-read. It is worth it!
Sincerly,
Ruth
Finally,
I received this delightful sonnet from a member. It made my day:
The
following is from the Washington Post Style Invitational contest
that asks readers to submit "instructions" for something
(anything), but written in the style of a famous person. The winning
entry was The Hokey Pokey (as written by W. Shakespeare)
Shakespeare's version of "Do the Hokey-Pokey"
by Nina Williams-Mbengue
O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heaven's
yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.
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