Oliver-Twist.doc

The Analysis of the Background of Oliver Twist

Abstract: Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) is one of the most distinguished representatives of English critical realism. Oliver Twist is one of Dicken’s most famous novel of critical realism. The novel is set in victorian age, which mainly reflects the terrible life of citizens at the bottom of society in England where the Poor Law had just passed.
The paper mainly looks into the social background of Oliver Twist and the individual experience of Charles Dickens, so as to understand the society at that time and the close realitionship between Dickens’ life and his works better.

Key words: Charles Dickens; Oliver Twist; social background; relationship

1. Introduction
Oliver Twist, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. In this novel, Dickens significantly described the terrible life of citizens at the bottom of society in England where the Poor Law had just passed. Oliver Twist is notable for Dickens's unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives.[1] It describes the effects of industrialism on 19th-century England and to criticize the hash Poor Law.
In order to understand the society at that time and the close realitionship between Dickens’ life and his works better, this paper will deep analyze the social reality in Victorian Age and Dickens’ individual experience.
Since the 21st century, scholars both at home and abroad study Dickens's life, ideas, writing technique and so on more deeply and widely. From 2004 to 2005, Yan Xingzhi published five papers to discuss the ideological content and the times and society of Dickens’s novels.“On Dickens’ Values of Middle Class” (“J.NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY FOR NATIONALITIES”, 2004, 2) described that Dickens had a mixed feeling of love and hatred to material prosperity and social changes brought by industrial development. Driven by humanist sympathy and sense of social justice, he disclosed and criticized the dark sides and maladies of the society at that time.[8] “Dickens’ Representation of Childhood Trauma” (Foreign Literature Studies,2006,3) of Shu Fanglai and “The Childhood Complex of Charles Dickens” (Shandong Foreign Language TeachingJournal, 2005, 4) of LI Yuan-yuan both expressed that there is a close relationship between the childhood of Dickens and his later writing works.
At the begining, the paper deeply analyses the social background of the Victorian Age and uncoves the social reality. Then through the individual experiance of Dickens, the paper will indicate the close realitionship between Dickens’ life and novel. Finally, a conclusion is drawn that the society at that time is dark and there is a close a relationship between Dickens’ life and his works.

2. Discussion
2.1 The social background of the Oliver Twist
The Victorian Age of the Britain was the period of Queen Victorian’s reign from June 1937 until her death on the 22nd of January 1907. It was the most prosperous age in the British history. But, under the shelter of development and wealth, there was many social problems. There is a great gap between the rich and the poor. And during the process of the Chartist Movement, the poor workers were oppressed severely.
In 1834, a New Poor Law was passed by the government. “ It was considered to be one of the most ‘ far -reaching pieces of legislation of the entire nineteenth century’. The New Poor Law Stated that no able-bodied person was to receive money or other help from the Poor Law authorities except in a workhouse.” [2] In fact, the Poor Law could not improve the living conditions of these poor people. It was just a punishment for the denfenseless and helpless members of the lower class.[8]
Oliver Twist describes the conditions in the workhouse to which the orphan Oliver has just been sent. In this passage, and through the previous chapters of the novel, Dickens depicts the conditions in a sarcastic tone. All of the conditions he describes are exactly the real social reality at that time. Rather than exaggerate to describe the reality, Dickens expresses the way English society treats the poor through real and vivid description. Oliver Twist is an extreme criticism of Victorian society’s treatment to the poor.[3] The workhouse was supposed to rescue the poor from the moral condition of filth. However, in the novel, the workhouse is a place full of filth.

2.2 The close relationship between Dickens’ life and his works.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at Landport in Portsea Island, the second child and the first son to John Dickens (1785–1851), who was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily on duty in the district. But his father had apend too much money in entertaining, and at the same time the household expenses was rising. In 1824, he was imprisoned for debt when Dickens was young. And his family joined in the Marshal Sea Prison, except Dickens, who was forced to work ten-hour days at blacking warehouse when he was just twelve. He earned six shillings a week. Thus, he had a sense of having been abandoned by his family. After his father was released, he was further wounded by his mother’s insistence that he would continue to work at that factory.
The wound and scar were perpetual, and it is clear that he never fulli got over the pain and shame. [6] The strenuous and often harsh working conditions made a lasting impression on Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays, becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigours of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor.
Oliver Twist was his first novel that completely described the Childhood. Little Oliver's understanding of life and responding to the environment constitute the basic content of the novel. At every turning point of fate, little oliver will encounter grimness and evil from the adult world, especially the helpless in the workhouse and the terrible experience in the haunt of theives. But little Oliver was a brave boy. Although Dickens is not an orphan, but he can understand children's pain and confusion about domestic misfortune. Dickens said later, if not timely back to school, he will also be a little thief or on the streets of the little tramp.[5]

3.Conclusion
Oliver twist is one of dicken’s most famous novel of critical realism. In this novel, Dickens significantly described the terrible life of citizens at the bottom of society in England where the Poor Law had just passed. It describes the effects of industrialism on 19th-century England and to criticize the hash Poor Law. we understand the indivisual experiance of dickens better and know that deeply affected his later works.
In this paper, through the deep analisis of the social background and the sacial reality of Oliver Twist, most people can become more aware the social problems of the that time and even the modern society, especially the living condition of the poor people and those children who are homeless. All of them are in dire need of physical or emotional help, and then the society will develop.

References:
[1] Donovan, Frank. The Children of Charles Dickens. London: Leslie Frewin, 1968, pp. 61–62.
[2] 郭家宏，唐艳，19 世纪英国济贫院制度评析 [J]，史学月刊，2007（2）：81-89
[3] 郝露，2010，狄更斯《雾都孤儿》中的批判资本主义[J]，湖北成人教育学院学报 第16卷第三期
[4] 查尔斯 狄更斯 雾都孤儿[M].荣如德译,中国对外翻译出版有限公司，2012年
[5] 李媛媛，2005，狄更斯的童年情结[J]，《山东外语教学》2005年第4期
[6] 赖淑芳，2006，狄更斯童年创伤的再现[M]，《外国文学研究》2006.第三期
[7] 严幸智.，2004，狄更斯中产阶级价值观论析[J]，西北民族大学学报(哲学社会科学版)2004年第2期
[8] 章晓云，试论19世纪30年代英国济贫院改革[D]，硕士学位论文，吉林大学，2011