FREE ESSAY ON OLIVER TWIST

OLIVER TWIST

Oliver Twist provides insight into the experience of the poor in 1830s England. Beneath
the novel's humor and dramatic plot runs an undertone of bitter criticism of the
Victorian middle class's attitudes toward the poor. Dickens's Oliver Twist very vividly
critisizes the legal system, workhouses, and middle class moral values and marriage
practices of 1830s England.
Basic Situation:
Oliver Twist is born a sickly infant in a workhouse. His birth is attended by the parish
surgeon and a drunken nurse. His mother kisses his forehead and dies, and the nurse
announces that Oliver's mother was found lying in the streets the night before. The
surgeon notices that she is not wearing a wedding ring. Oliver is then placed into a very
undesirable situation as a poor, homeless, helpless, motherless orphan. The first few
years of his life offer nothing more than a life of many trails and little to no triumph.
The entire story of Oliver Twist revolves around his mysterious identity. Who is Oliver
Twist?
Complication:
The complication Of Oliver's life was that he didn't know who he was and he had no place
in society. From birth he was thrown from one bad situation into another. He worked in a
workhouse where he was treated badly and barely feed. After working there for a while,
still a child, he started work with and undertaker who also treated him badly and beat
him spiractically. When Oliver ran away from the undertaker, he fell into the hands of
some low life thieves, who tired to persuade him into a life of crime. "Fagin assures him
that he has won Oliver over in spirit, but he wants Oliver to take part in a serious
crime in order to firmly seal the boy in his power". (Dickens, Chp. 18)
Climax:
Although temptation is all around him, Oliver does not want to participate in a life of
crime. On his first day as a thief Oliver is arrested but not charged The person who
accused him of stealing, Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver into his home and nurses him back to
health because Oliver had fallen ill during the trail. While living with Mr. Brownlow,
Oliver sees a picture of a young woman who has a very dramatic affect on him. "A portrait
of a young woman catches Oliver's eye. It seems to affect him so much; that Mrs. Bedwin
fears the emotion will wear him out". (Dickens; chp.10) 
Shortly after this incident Oliver is kidnapped by Nancy, a girl who works for Fagin, and
forced to rob a house where he is shot by the owners of the house and left to die in a
ditch by the men forcing him to rob the house. The day after he is shot he is taken in by
the people who shot him and lives there safely until Fagin finds him again. As it turns
out Fagin wasn't the only person looking for Oliver, a man by the name of Monks is also
looking for him. Monks is also Oliver's brother but does not want his identity to be
revealed in order to receive his father's inheritance.
Nancy then tells Ms. Maylie a caretaker of the family where Oliver was staying his true
identity. That very same night Nancy was beaten to death by Sites, the man she stayed
with. 
Resolution:
Meanwhile, Mr. Brownlow has captured Monks, whose real name is Edward Leeford. Brownlow
was a good friend of his father, Mr. Leeford, who was a young man when his family forced
him to marry a woman ten years older than he. The couple eventually separated, and Monks
and his mother went to Paris. Leeford fell in love with a military man's daughter who
became pregnant with Oliver. Leeford left a portrait of his beloved in Brownlow's care
while he went to take possession of his inheritance. His wife, hearing of his good
fortune, traveled with Monks to meet him there. However, Leeford took ill and died
without a will, so his newfound fortune fell to his wife and son. Brownlow reports that
he knows that Monks's mother Leeford had no will because his wife had actually burned.
Leeford's wife and son then lived in the West Indies on their ill-gotten fortune--which
is where Brownlow went to find Monks after Oliver was kidnapped, Oliver's startling
resemblance to the woman in the portrait, his mother, having bothered his conscience too
much. Meanwhile, the search for Sikes continued. When an angry mob found Sikes he tried
to escape and while doing so he hung himself.
Fagin is sentenced to death by hanging for being an accomplice to murder. Brownlow
arranges for the remains of Monks' property to be sold and the proceeds divided between
Monks and Oliver. Monks travels to the New World where he squanders his share and turns
to a life of vice for which he is arrested. He dies in a prison. Brownlow adopts Oliver
as his son. And the story of Oliver Twist ends happily ever after.