Oliver Twist
(Charles Dickens)

Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, was first released in serial form in 1837. It was published in monthly installments before being novelized in 1938. It's themes of social reform and sweeping storyline made it Dickens's most well-known work and solidified his career as a writer.

The book was inspired, in part, but Charles Dickens's own history. Although he grew up middle-class, their family became poor, and at the age of twelve he quit school to work in a factory. His family eventually went to prison for debt, and Dickens's was left on his own. The terrible conditions at the factory and his temporary orphan status left him with a newfound perspective on the conditions of the poor that undoubtedly went into the writing of Oliver Twist.

Fortunately for Dickens, however, his father escaped debt and Dickens was able to go back to school. He became a journalist, where he was forced into contact with the numerous social problems of the legal system and treatment of the poor.

Oliver Twist specifically critiques the 1834 Poor Laws, which required all public charity to go through the workhouses. The Poor Laws came as a result of Britain's beliefs about the poor. Because of their rigid social structure, the middle-class wanted to distinguish themselves from the lower classes as much as possible, and the poor became stereotyped as lazy and born of bad blood. This viewpoint is seen often in Oliver Twist as Oliver is automatically assumed throughout the novel to be evil for no other reason than he is a poor orphan. Dickens experienced this same sort of prejudice when he was an orphan temporarily, and wrote Oliver Twist with such a passion it is obvious he continued to sympathize with orphans.

Christianity played a part in the degradation of the poor, as well. Although the religion preaches tolerance and charity, the middle-class of Britain believed that God rewarded the virtuous with wealth and worldly goods. The rich and prosperous, then, were inherently virtuous, while the poor were inherently evil. In Oliver Twist, Dickens attempts to dispel this by creating characters, such as Monks, who were born wealthy but are in actuality incurable villains. Several poorer characters, by contrast, such as Dick, are inherently good and innocent. Dickens does suggest that some people are inherently good or bad, but their nature is not affected by their class.

Through Oliver Twist, Dickens made a colossal statement about the social misconceptions and treatment of the poorer classes of London. He used his autobiographical material as well as his knowledge gained from journalism to reveal how badly the poor were treated in society at the time, and how they were--by the views of the people and laws set in place--forced to stay in poverty and misery.