论文Oliver-Twist-The-Indelible-Nature-of-Goodness-A-Study-of-Oliver-Twist.doc

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1. Introduction
Goodness is one of the most essential characters for a person and it will never be out of date. It is to humans what water is to fish. People who own the quality of goodness are supposed to own happiness in a sense. Goodness can help us overcome every difficulty we may meet or at least remain us in a positive mind. The person who owns the character of goodness undoubtedly will be happier than the one who is evil-minded, for goodness is such a thing that will benefit others as well as us. We should keep goodness in our mind no matter how hard the condition we are in.
But to my disappointment, more and more people seem to ignore the importance of goodness. They look down people who are honest and kind-hearted, thinking that they are really silly animals. They show little sympathy to those who are in trouble and never offer to help others. On the contrary, they do harm to those who prevent them from the way to money and power. What’s more, they pick up “goodness” when it can profit them a lot. What a nerve! In their eyes, nothing is more important than themselves. It is obvious that such kind of people will never reach their satisfying goal. They never get real happiness in their whole life because of the countless desire.
Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. Oliver Twist is probably the best known of all Dickens’ novels. It strongly exposes the workhouse functions as a sign of the moral hypocrisy of the working class. Oliver is Charles’ first child hero, who is an orphan living in a workhouse from his birth. Because he can’t stand the terrible conditions in the workhouse, he escapes to London where he is trapped by Fagin and the cruel Bill Sikes who try and teach him to become a thief. Though treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life, he is a piteous, innocent child and his charms draw the attention of several wealthy benefactors. He lives a happy life at last. By the experience of Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens emphasizes belief of goodness again.
In Oliver Twist Nancy is Bill Sake’s mistress; Dickens first depicts her as a willing helper of Fagin who she helps to recapture Oliver. But later Nancy overheard Monks telling Fagin his plans to destroy Oliver; she reports their intention to Rose, which ultimately leads to her death. In this novel, her final decision to protect Oliver at a great personal cost expresses fully the incorruptibility of basic goodness, no matter how many difficulties it may face.
In order to discuss one of themes—the incorruptibility of natural goodness, this paper analyses the character of Oliver and Nancy and environment’s impact. Oliver and Nancy are two main representatives of basic goodness. On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised in corruptible surroundings, his purity and virtue are absolute. Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Oliver’s character to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corruptible environment is the source of vice. Oliver talks little and his courage to escape shoes an inner struggle to protect himself. He remains unaffected in spite of the surrounding evil forces. The bad environment harms Nancy’s character and soul as well, but in the end she sacrifices her own life with the purpose to protect Oliver.
In a word, the difference between Oliver and Nancy is whether the environment destroys their characters or not.
2. The virtue of Oliver and Nancy
In his early period, Dickens insists that life is a combat between vice and virtue, and vice is certain to be defeated by virtue. So virtue is one of the most important aspects in Oliver Twist. Dickens wants to give voice to those who served for this purpose. Oliver and Nancy are two typical heroes. This chapter discusses the only junction of Oliver and Nancy—Natural goodness.
2.1 The virtue of Oliver
Oliver is Dickens’ first child hero. He is possessed with natural charm, innocence, and benefits of character. In fact, Dickens gives readers and exact depiction of Oliver at the beginning of the novel. “Oliver Twist’s ninth birthday found him a pale thin child, somewhat diminutive in stature, and decidedly small in circumstance. But nature or inheritance had implanted a good sturdy spirit in Oliver’s breast.” (Dickens 8)
From his birth, Oliver is living in workhouse, which is closed circumstance and creates his innocence. When Oliver puts up “the old calico robes which had grown yellow” and “falls into his place at once—a parish child” (Dickens 4), he even does not know the fact—he is an orphan.
“Boy,” said the gentleman the high chair, “listen to me, you know you’re an orphan, I suppose?”
“What’s that, sir?” Inquired poor Oliver.
“The boy is a fool...” (Dickens 15)
In addition, Oliver is so pure that he can scarcely comprehend evil. As soon as entering into the society, Oliver gets into the hand of Fagin. The domestic relationship between Fagin and his gang of criminals makes Oliver warm, he is easily changed by Fagin and begins to find tumor and joy in the companionship of the thieves. “Oliver saw that she was very pale, and gently inquire if she were ill.” (Dickens 114) This description indicates Oliver’s virtue—goodness in nature. It was Nancy that recaptured him and sent him to the thief’s den again. But he still tries to help her rather than hate her.
Cockney slang, in this novel, other pauper children use rough Cockney slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper King’s English. Oliver’s careful speech is a symptom of his innate moral goodness. Even Sikes forces him to participate in a robbery, Oliver merely begs to be allowed to “run away and die in the field.” Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between good and evil—instead, he is goodness incarnate.
In short, “Oliver is aboriginal ‘something’ with no vice, and no right to speak.” (Dickens 20) He shows his helpless when he is unjustly punished and denied his rights. However, when evil force surrounds him, he remains unaffected and displays an inner strength to protect him. It is his natural goodness and instinct for survival that help him to overcome the difficulties of life, and live a happy life at last.
That fact that Oliver speaks and carries himself with a demeanor that is much more sophisticated than that of the rest of Fagin’s boy suggests that Dickens is using Oliver to show that even when people are born into squalid conditions, they can appreciate goodness and morality. When the Dodger and Charley pick Brownlow’s pocket, and again when Sikes and Crackit order Oliver into the house, Oliver reacts with shock and horror at the idea of stealing. It is unclear where he has acquired such moral value. He could not have learned it amid the life or death struggles of the workhouse. It is his innate goodness that makes him resist vice instinctively.
Yet the suggestion that Olive is innately good complicates Dickens’ argument that corruption is formed by the horrible living conditions of the lower classes, rather than inherently born into their characters. Descriptions of Oliver’s face, in fact, seem to suggest that morality on account of the “expression of melancholy in his face.” The usually unperceptive Toby Crackit notes that Oliver’s “mug is a fortune” to him, meaning that his innocence–looking face is worth money to the thieves. Mr. Brownlow sees clearly the resemblance between Oliver and the women in the portrait, thus providing both him and us with the first hint that the workhouse-born Oliver has an identity that is worth discovering. Dickens clearly protests against the idea stated by Mr. Bumble, that the poor born with an affinity for vice and crime. Yet it sometimes seems as if Oliver has been born with and affinity for virtue and love, just as he was born with his angelic face.
2.2 The virtue of Nancy
After Nancy kidnaps Oliver, she regrets returning Oliver to Fagin. She does not want Oliver to be treated as her and decides to help him as possible as she can. So when she is ordered to deliver Oliver to Mr. Sakes, she promises:
“I have saved you form being ill wed once, and I will again, and I do now, continued the girl aloud, for those who would have fetched you, I have promised for you being quiet and silent. If you are not you will only do harm to yourself and me too, and perhaps be my death.” (Dickens 120)
Nancy’s outburst demonstrates her deep and passionate sense of morality. Nancy hopes that Oliver cannot follow in her steps, but she is incapable of changing Oliver’ fate. The only she can do is to protect Oliver from being beaten. Her character is a focus for the novel to express whether an individual can be redeemed from the effects of a bad environment.
“I can not leave him now; I could not be his death. If I told others what I have told you, he would be sure to die. I must go back. I must go him in spite of all my suffering and his cruelty and ill–treatment.” (Dickens 162)
Nancy’s sorrowful words display her deep love for Sakes and that she wants to stay with him regardless of all of sufferings. This fully express her faithfulness to sakes, but her cost is lost her life, Even though Nancy has many character’s defeats, her virtue defects her vice ultimately.
2.3 The corrupted characters of Nancy
In his preface to the third edition of the novel (April, 1841), Dickens wrote that “it is useless to discuss whether the conduct and character of the girl seem natural or unnatural, probable or improbable, right or wrong, it is true” (Dickens 314).
Nancy truly reflects the paupers in Victorian Age. A prostitute, embodies for Dickens all the degradation into which poverty can force otherwise good people.
“They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; and looked quite shout and hearty. Being remarkable free and agreeable in their manners...” (Westbury 4)
The narrator’s reference suggests that Nancy is a prostitute. At London’s dirty street, poor, women’s profession is thieves and prostitutes.
“I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as his!” pointing to Oliver.
Nancy’s words tell readers she has worked for Fagin when she is a child. Every child hopes to have a family. Fagin uses Nancy’s this psychology to induce her into the family of thieves. But such a thief’ den makes her become degenerated and compels Nancy to kidnap Oliver for Fagin. When Nancy is ordered to go to the station, she dresses in nice clothing and pretends to be Oliver’s distraught sister.” (Hawes 161) The perfect touch to her disguise is a plainly displayed door key, which marks her as a member of a property–owning class. Because she disguises herself as a middle-class woman, the police station recognizes her as an individual worth hearing. This indicates that Nancy gradually becomes corrupted and serves for Fagin.
In this novel, Nancy’s “laugh” give readers deep impression. For example, “laughing hysterically”, “the girl laughed again, even less composedly than before.” (Dickens 96) “Miss Nancy burst into aloud laugh.” (Dickens 139) In Victorian Age, cultured women have genital manners. They never “burst into laugh”, “drink to excess”, and speak rude words. Nancy, as an individual of low social status, is influenced without exception by the environment in which she is raised and the company that she keeps. Nancy’s “laugh” implicate her identity—a paragon of corruption.
In a word, the bad environment inevitably poisons Nancy’s characters, lets her become a thief in Fagin’s service. To some degree, the fact that she commits crime does not due to her free willing but to survival
3. Environment impact on the characters of Oliver and Nancy
Oliver Twist opens with a bitter Criticism directed at the nineteenth–century English Poor Laws. These laws were a manifestation of the Victorian middle class’ emphasis on the virtues of hard work. The middle class was compelled to work, and to alleviate the stigma attached to middle–class wealth, the middle class promoted work as a moral virtue. But the result is to lead English society to subject the poor to hatred and cruelty. Many members of the middle class were anxious to be different, from the lower classes, and one way to do this was to stigmatize the lower classes as lazy good–for–nothings, Victorian society interpreted economic success as a sign that God favored the honest, moral virtue of the successful individual’s efforts, and thus interpreted the condition of poverty as a sign of the weakness of the poor themselves. Workhouses were deliberately made to be as miserable as possible in order to prevent the poor from relying on public assistance. But the paupers suffered so much that most of them chose to die in the streets rather than seek public aid. Meanwhile, the residents in the workhouse wait for death in the terrible condition.
In Oliver Twist, environment plays a great part on someone’s character, especially on Oliver and Nancy.
3.1 The social environment
Oliver Twist opens with a bitter Criticism directed at the nineteenth–century English Poor Laws. These laws were a manifestation of the Victorian middle class’ emphasis on the virtues of hard work. The middle class was compelled to work, and to alleviate the stigma attached to middle-class wealth, the middle class promoted work as a moral virtue. But the result is to lead English society to subject the poor to hatred and cruelty. Many members of the middle class were anxious to be different, from the lower classes, and one way to do this was to stigmatize the lower classes as lazy good–for–nothings, Victorian society interpreted economic success as a sign that God favored the honest, moral virtue of the successful individual’s efforts, and thus interpreted the condition of poverty as a sign of the weakness of the poor themselves. Workhouses were deliberately made to be as miserable as possible in order to prevent the poor from relying on public assistance. But the paupers suffered so much that most of them chose to die in the streets rather than seek public aid. Meanwhile, the residents in the workhouse wait for death in the terrible condition.
In Oliver Twist, Dickens meant to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the petty middle–class bureaucrats, who treat a small child cruelly while voicing their belief in the Christian virtue of giving charity to the less fortunate.
3.2 Environment’s impact on Oliver’s character
Even though Oliver is endowed a perfect virtue, different environment still influence him more or less.
In the workhouse, every taunt him and this make Oliver feel that he is lower than others.
When Mr. Bumble said Oliver is one of “all the ungrateful lest, band worst–disposed boys as ever I see”, Oliver sobbed: “No, no, Sir, I will be good in deed; indeed, indeed I will...” (Dickens 179)
By those words, Oliver admits that he is a bad boy; In fact, Oliver is so little that