Victorian society Essay Example for Free

Victorian society Essay Dickens concentrates on using emotive language throughout this chapter. He does this to encourage the reader to empathise and sympathise with Oliver. For example, wretched. little companions in misery. the only friends he had ever known. And also reckless with misery these quotations emphasise just how wretched and awful Olivers childhood must have been. Throughout this chapter, Dickens challenges the charitable organisations run by the church and government. The people who ran these institutions believed that poverty is the consequence of laziness and that the dreadful conditions in which they were forced to live would inspire them to better themselves. Through this novel, Dickens tries to get across that that is not true and that poor people are real people, with real feeling and real aspirations to better themselves. Dickens concentrates on criticising Mrs. Mann, Mr. Bumble and the Board members to emphasise exactly how cruel, neglectful and hypocritical they are. He is showing Oliver to be half-starved and exploited, yet still pure at heart, to get across the point that poor people arent born with the will to be criminals, but the environments, and adverse situations, are what cause criminal behaviour. He is continually criticising these characters because he has very strong views about the neglect and exploitation of children in the society of the Victorian period. The second extract which I am going to explore, with reference to the question, is Chapter Four, entitled Chapter IV. Oliver, being offered another place, makes his first entry into public life. This chapter tells us of how Oliver is dispatched to Mr. Sowerberry, the undertaker, and how he is greeted there. The arrangements made to dispose of Oliver were that, if a tradesman, approved by the Board, was to request Oliver as an apprentice, then he should receive the boy and a sum of five pounds. At the onset of the chapter, when the Board are discussing whether or not to send Oliver to sea or not, they make a very interesting conclusion -The probability being, that the skipper would flog him to death, in a playful mood or would knock his brains out with an iron bar; both pastimes being as is pretty generally known, very favourite and common recreations among gentlemen of that class. This shows us their ignorance and misunderstanding of human nature. Also, it reveals how unfeeling and malicious those gentlemen are, because they decide that sending Oliver to sea would be a very advantageous way of providing for Oliver effectually. However, when Mr.Bumble brings Mr. Sowerberry in front of the Board, Olivers fate was changed. He was to be dispatched to Mr. Sowerberrys upon liking. This means that if the boys master can get enough work out of him without giving him too much food, then he shall have the boy for a term of years to do what he likes with. That evening Oliver was taken before the Board and informed of his fate. He was also told that if he complained or was sent back to the parish, then he was to be sent to sea, there to be drowned, or knocked on the head. This is a cruel way to threaten a young boy and just goes to show how malicious and heartless these characters are. Dickens is continuing to develop a feeling of detestation towards the Board and he criticises its members relentlessly throughout this section of the chapter. He clearly displays his dislike of this aspect of Victorian society, which allows such acts of cruelty to go unchecked Dickenss character descriptions are renowned for their effectiveness and accuracy. In this chapter, he describes Mrs. Sowerberry as a short, thin squeezed up woman with a vixenish countenance. This gives the impression of slyness and unpleasantness, which is further enforced by her pettish behaviour and also by her telling Oliver You dont mind sleeping among the coffins, I suppose you cant sleep anywhere else. It is well known that children have very active imaginations; so sleeping among coffins wouldnt inspire many pleasant thoughts into a childs mind. Yet Mrs. Sowerberry show no understanding of this and just leaves Oliver alone in a room full of coffins. This highlights the fact that the Victorians had no concept or knowledge of child development and psychology. For instance, there was no awareness of adolescence. They thought that people changed directly from children to adults. There was no understanding of the teenage years, so people were either treated as children or as adults, never teenagers. A small, quite discreet bit of Dickensian irony in this chapter is the matter of the parochial seal. It is Mr. Bumble who sheds light upon this matter. He say . the parochial seal the Good Samaritan healing the sick and bruised man. The irony meant here is very clear. Oliver symbolises the sick and bruised man yet the parish did nothing for him but make his situation worse. They didnt do anything to heal him after his traumatic childhood at the hands of Mrs. Mann. If anything they treated him even more appallingly. Dickenss use of emotive language in this chapter is for much the same purpose as in the last chapter. He aims to create an even greater feeling of sympathy towards Oliver. Quotations such as with tears of real agony and Oliver piteous and helpless look increase the readers sympathetic feeling towards him. In this extract I think Dickens was concentrating on making the reader see how badly Oliver is neglected and mistreated by adults. He also uses this chapter to further criticise the behaviour of the Board members and also the behaviour of Mrs. Sowerberry. Dickens is again demonstrating how he detests the ways in which the adults inflict cruelty and neglect upon their young charges, and are allowed to get away with it because of the state of society at that time. Charles Dickens was only twenty-four years old when he wrote Oliver Twist. Yet in it, he effectively and comprehensively criticises Victorian society for its hypocrisy and the way in which it allowed poverty-stricken children, like Oliver, to be the victims of adult cruelty, neglect and exploitation. To do this, he uses his skilful character descriptions throughout the novel. For example, in Chapter Two, the Board members are described as the fat gentlemen and Oliver and his companions are described as suffering the slow tortures of slow starvation. This is implicitly emphasises to show the greed of the gentlemen, to the point where they have twice as much food as they need and their workers have less than half of what they need. He also uses ironic authorial comments throughout the novel, which are an effective way of emphasising his own views on Victorian society. Examples of this can be found throughout the book and Dickens has made his views perfectly clear to his readers. Another way in which he criticises Victorian society is in his direct, open criticisms of the unpleasant ways in which the adult characters treat Oliver. In Chapter Two, Oliver is asked if he said his prayers every night -like a Christian. And Dickens says, at length, that it would have been marvellously good if he had done so but he hadnt, because nobody had taught him. Other more discreet techniques of communicating his criticisms can be found throughout the novel. Firstly, the titles of the chapters display ironic tendencies. For example, Chapter two is entitled Treats of Oliver Twists growth, education and board. Yet from reading the chapter, anyone can tell that his childhood was far from a treat, unless being locked in a cupboard on your ninth birthday for being hungry could be considered a treat. Thus it can be assumed that Dickens was being ironic when naming the chapter.