Open Prompt II Revised: March 6th--Social Critique in Oliver Twist (the Sequel)

2009, Form B. Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Choose a novel or play that focuses on a political or social issue. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses literary elements to explore this issue and explain how the issue contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

During England’s industrial revolution, there was a prevailing theory that the poor were inherently immoral and to blame for their own situation. Charles Dickens’ famous novel Oliver Twist explores this idea through several key characters: Oliver, Mr. Bumble, Monks, and Nancy.  Dickens encourages his readers to be more benevolent toward the poor.  He reinforces this through the motif of eyes watching, suggesting that our treatment of our fellow man is being being seenand judged by God.

Dickens uses his innocent protagonist, Oliver Twist, as a demonstration of the moral purity which can exist despite poverty. Oliver begins life hopelessly doomed.  This shows the reader that he himself was not to blame for his own misfortune, and is not born inherently evil or weak. Indeed, far from portraying Oliver as weak in any way, the narrator notes that had Oliver been born into a wealthy home, he would have died at birth, and that it was the necessity of a struggle which caused him to gain the strength to live. From that point on, Oliver is hit with misfortune, and yet never wavers from his saint-like disposition. Despite thievery seeming the only way to survive, Oliver is appalled at Fagin’s pickpockets and refuses to steal. Through this, Dickens presents a society in which the poor are pressured to turn to evil as a means to survive, and where the poor can be virtuous despite this pressure. At the same time, Dickens critiques the solutions presented for poverty, especially the workhouse.  Demonstrating his biting humor, Dickens wrote that the lower classes choose between “being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it.” In this environment, Dickens argues, it is extremely difficult for the poor to remain virtuous—if they cannot, like Oliver, they will meet their demise as victims of society.

Dickens juxtaposes Oliver’s purity with an array of evil characters of upper or middle class, showing the reader that bad can exist in the rich as easily as in the poor. One example of this is Mr. Bumble, the cruel owner of the parish-house in which Oliver spends his early childhood. Mr. Bumble embodies the type of human who is supposed to be helping the poor and is instead using his power for personal gain. Mr. Bumble ends his life in the very workhouse he once presided over, representing the ultimate downfall of those who act immorally. Another “evil” and wealthy character is Oliver’s half-brother, Monks. Monks is Oliver’s rich brother, but he is both unhappy and horrible, and likewise meets his demise. Dickens shows us that the rich and poor alike can be horrible people. Indeed, the only “good” people in the novel who are wealthy, like Rose, are the ones who assist the poor.

Though the novel contains mostly characters morally “black and white,” there is one morally ambiguous character: Nancy. This ambiguity serves to demonstrate the good which can exist in everyone, no matter their social status. By all of society’s standards, Nancy is evil: she is a thief, a drunk, and a prostitute.   However, she commits a clearly good action in sacrificing herself to save Oliver’s life. This surfacing of Nancy’s conscience shows there is good in everyone and that by changing the flawed system which forces the poor into a life of crime, we may eliminate evil brought on by poverty, and the evil the upper class commits by oppressing the poor.

As the reader is presented with these characters, they are confronted with recurring themes of being judged and watched by God. Oliver and Mrs. Mann watch Mr. Bumble approach the workhouse in the very beginning of the novel . Noah watches Nancy, and has to form a conjecture about her actions—a judgment which will ultimately decide her fate.   Later, Sikes is afraid that Nancy’s ghost is watching him—when he finally sees “her”, he sees only her eyes, loses his balance, and plummets to his death.  The reader can see that these “eyes” are the eyes of God, or God acting through Nancy’s soul, pushing Sikes to his death so he can be punished. Indeed, all of the characters in the novel are watched and judged by God, and only those characters who are good and help others have a happy conclusion to their tales. Those who do not, like Sikes, or Nancy—still an ultimately “fallen” woman—are punished.

The tales of Oliver, Mr. Bumble, Monks, and Sikes show the reader that the relationship between class and morality is more complicated than some thought: morality and vice can occur in poor and rich alike.  Dickens encourages his upper class readers to genuinely help the lower class, showing many positive upper class characters helping the poor and being rewarded, and negative upper class characters ignoring or exploiting them and being punished. Dickens shows the reader that God is always watching them, and if they do not help the poor, they will pay.  Handed a second chance to be good, Monks throws it away and end his life in suffering. Dickens’ readers are handed the same chance as they read Oliver Twist, a chance Dickens hopes they will take.