Oliver Twist depicts a destitute London and how poor living conditions may cause criminal behavior in children. The novel centers around Oliver Twist, an orphan who lives in horrid places where innocent children are subjected to forced servitude and arduous child labor. Despite this, Oliver’s purity and innocence shine through, allowing him to triumph in the ultimate battle for survival. Oliver spends his early years in a town whose name is never stated by the author. It is noted that the farm workhouse is about seventy-five miles north of London as Oliver runs away from the undertaker and walks toward the city. When Oliver travels to London, he unwittingly joins a gang of young thieves and pickpockets led by Fagin, a despicable criminal. Dickens paints a vivid and largely accurate picture of this criminal underworld, complete with all its evil.
The main action of Oliver Twist alternates between two worlds, the slums of London and the Maylies’ happy home. The first world is both real and terrifying, while the other world is romanticized, almost dreamy in its safety and beauty. The city of London is depicted as crime-ridden. Because criminals are supposed to be nocturnal creatures, a significant proportion of the action in the story occurs after dark. Sunlight rarely enters their bleak existence, and when it does, it is often simply to mock, such as the morning when Nancy was murdered.
Dickens placed Oliver Twist in early nineteenth-century England, at a time when long-held beliefs and ideas were being questioned. It was the disregard for human values that fueled the spiritual degradation depicted so vividly in the surroundings.
The novel’s socioeconomic setting is portrayed on separate levels. The parochial world is revealed first. The inhabitants of this world, who are members of society’s lower-middle-class, are cold and insensitive to the feelings of the impoverished. In addition, the criminal underworld is revealed, and pickpockets and assassins have a place in this universe. Poverty pushes individuals to commit crimes, and violence is their tool to attain their goals.
Dickens also contrasts the filth and harshness of the workhouse and city slums with the tranquility and affection Oliver discovers at the Maylies’ home in the country. The city has been described as a labyrinth or a maze, and once someone is inside it, it is not easy to get out. Oliver’s country village, where he is so happy with Rose and Mrs. Maylie, is the polar opposite of the city.
In the book, Dickens claims that the countryside can “cure” some of the city’s negative consequences. Even in the country, though, Oliver remains vulnerable to Fagin’s criminal network. Further, the most immaculate and serene country house can be overrun by opportunistic city dwellers, who vanish like ghosts without leaving a trace. Dickens may be implying that the city is more powerful after all, and that its wicked representatives can permeate the countryside. At the same time, parts of country life appear to exist only on the city’s outskirts.
Many farmworkers were displaced by industrialization during this era, and most of them ended up in poverty due to poor working conditions and inadequate housing. In the vast slums inhabited by destitute workers, the extraordinary expansion in the urban population spawned overwhelming sanitation problems, overcrowding, poverty, and crime. In addition, Oliver Twist, the drama, is set against the 1834 New Poor Law, which created a series of workhouses for those unable to sustain themselves due to poverty or mental illness.
Richard Belott 