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The
Reflection of the Victorian age in ''Oliver Twist''.
M. K.
BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Department
Of English
Pipavat
Gopi yogeshbhai
Roll
No :27
Pg
Enrollment No:15101031
Paper
Name : The Victorian Literature.
Topic:
The Reflection of the Victorian age in ''Oliver Twist''.
Introduction:
The Victorian period from the coronation of Queen Victoriain 1837 until her death
in 1901 was an era of numerous disturbing social developments. During this
period the writer were forced to write on the living issue of the society.
Thus, it’s of literature of the Victorian era was directed to issues such as
the growth of English democracy the education of the masses, the progress of
industrial enterprise and rise of materialistic philosophy, and the problem of
newly industrialized worked. Queen Victoria ruled England from 1837 to 1901. It
was time when a fresh generation in literature had arisen as the earlier
generation had nothing to add.
it was an era of material prosperity, political
consciousness, democratic reforms, industrial and mechanical process, and
progress, scientific advancement, social unrest, educational expansion empire
building and religious uncertainty. This Victorian age made progress in the
field of poetry, prose and fiction.
While in the preceding Romantic period poetry had
been the dominant genre, it was the novel that was most important in the Victorian
period
Major events in victorian period:
1 ) Huge growth in population :
The population of britain boomed during the 19th (in 1801 )i5t was
about 9 million and by 191 it had risen to about 41milion.
2)Improvments in technology:
3)poor condition for the working class :
Population increase made the larger numbers of
both skilled and unskilled people wereb
looking for work.
It made a lot of people especially artist like
writers felt obligated to speak out against what they believd to be societal
injustices
Literature of the Victorian Period:
Victoria’s reign lasted over 63 years, longer than
any other British monarch. The Victorian era lasted roughly twice as long
as the Romantic period. Keeping in mind that even the relatively short Romantic
period saw a wide variety of distinguishing characteristics, it is logical that
much longer Victorian period includes even more variety.
Below are a few of the noteworthy characteristics :
·
The
drive for social advancement frequently appears in literature
· The period saw the rise of a highly
idealized notion of what is “English” or what constitutes an “Englishman”
· Later Victorian writing saw the
seeds of rebellion against such idealized notions and stereotypical codes of
conduct.
Major themes of literature in the Victorian
era:
· the
battle between right or wrong
· morality
· portrayed
about the real life in society
Characteristics of Victorian novel:
Serialization:
It can be daunting tom pick up a Victorian novel.the
penguin edition of middlemarch
weighs in at 880pages and it’s
not an exception .but that’s not always
how you would have originally encountere…
Industrialization:
Industrialization might sound more like
economic development than literary
history .but Victorians were seeing major changes –from manufacturing booms to
the first railways to widespread…..
Class:
The Victorian were super status conscious.between
the working class and the upper crust there was the catchall middleclass and
with the middleclass growing in the nineteenth century .
Science vs religion:
The Victorians were the first to confront darwins
theory of evolution . yep we’re talking before the bumper stickers .when his
origin of species came out in 1859, it sparked a lot debate.
Progress:
Victorians loved them some progress whether it was
one person bootstrapping their way up in
to the middle class ,or the entire nation growing bigger and stronger.
novelists who wrote about working conditions
in Victorian England:
Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)
Emily Brontë (1818–1848)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
Robert Browning (1812–1889)
Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861)
Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
Charles Dickens:
Charles Dickens is the most famous Victorian
novelist. Extraordinarily popular in his day with his characters taking on a
life of their own beyond the page, Dickens is still one of the most popular and
read authors of that time period. His first novel, ‘The Pickwick Papers’
(1836), written when he was twenty-five, was an overnight success, and all his
subsequent works sold extremely well. The comedy of his first novel has a
satirical edge and this pervades his writing. Dickens worked diligently and
prolifically to produce the entertaining writing that the public wanted, but
also to offer commentary on social problems and the plight of the poor and
oppressed. His most important works include "Oliver Twist"
(1837–1838), "A Christmas Carol" (1843), "Dombey and Son"
(1846–1848), "David Copperfield" (1848 - 1850), "Bleak House"
(1852 - 1853), "Little Dorrit" (1855 - 1857), "A Tale of Two
Cities" (1858 - 1859), and "Great Expectations" (1860
-1861).There is a gradual trend in his fiction towards darker themes which
mirrors a tendency in much of the writing of the 19th century.
Olivertwist and victorian era:
Oliver Twist is an excellent statement on attitudes
toward the poor in Victorian England. Charles Dickens shows us how many people
of that era were so classist that they treated the poor like criminals. Poor
people could only get assistance from poor houses, which had much in common
with modern sweatshops. Families were separated. The poor were grossly
underfed, to the point of slow starvation, worked hard, and beaten. Even children
did not escape this treatment, and were often given away to abusive masters who
used them for sweeping chimneys and other menial labor. When Oliver Twist
escapes from an abusive master who beats him, he falls in with thieves and
prostitutes. Much of the remainder of the book shows his difficulty in escaping
that situation.
Oliver Twist Theme of Poverty:
Questions About Poverty
1.
In
the description of the Baytons, Dickens makes the poor people seem somehow
sub-human: "Oliver was afraid to look at either her or the man, – they
seemed so like the rats he had seen outside" (5.64). In a later
description of Folly Ditch, he describes the poverty as "loathsome"
(50.4). Is Dickens sympathetic to the plight of the poor in these moments, or
not?
2.
Are
the paupers always morally superior to the parochial authorities?
3.
Is
there a difference, in the world of Oliver Twist, between vagrancy
(i.e., homelessness) and poverty? Is one "worse" than the other?
According to whom?
4.
Is
it possible that the parish authorities actually want to keep the poorest class
poor?
Industrial Revolution:
For novel ‘‘Oliver Twist’’, we can say that it is
presented by Charles Dickens because of the effect of the industrial
revolution. Charles Dickens, who was a lifelong champion of the poor, addresses
these central issues in his early novel and timeless masterpiece Oliver Twist
(1838). Child labor played an important role in the industrial revolution. In
point of fact, the Victorian Era was characterized by the use of children to
help develop the economy. Child laborers received less than the essentials
needed at home, school, and at work. In a nutshell, the life of a young worker
was in essence the life of a slave. Many children worked 16-hour days under
atrocious conditions, as did their parents. As more people commuted to town to
work, the demand for clothes and food grew. There were more things needed as
the cities grew. More and more machines were beings built in factories and with
that, the companies needed cheap labor. In Oliver twist, Charles Dickens
describes some issues that occurred during the industrial revolution
In the workhouse Oliver treated as a slave not as a
child and he was doing work out of his capacity though they not have good foods
with both qualities and quantities. That
is why Oliver wants some more foods with the famous dialogue:
“Please
sir, I want some more.”
(2) Birth of social reform:
The unhappy and terrible conditions of labors, miners, debtors and
prisoners court attention in the eyes of social reforms. As a result, there was
the birth of the Reform Bills which arouse the democratic consciousness among
the Victorian people this age witnessed a conflict between aristocracy and
democracy.
Dickens as a socialist who wants to reforms society.
In Oliver Twist Dickens situated himself and his readers among some complex
areas of the criminal law… He criticizes the poor laws of 1834. That is why he
put Oliver Twist in both social and individual.
Here
as a reader we laugh on the character Oliver Twist because Dickens as a
socialist he wants us to laugh forcefully because we are responsible for all
these things, we are failure to given shelter. It is Dickens’s dream of ‘ideal’
society and that is why he wrote this novel through the intention of the reforms
the society.
(3) Growth in Population:
There was an expentional grown in population during
the Victorian age. The population of
Great Britain at that time of the first sensors in 1801 was about ten and half
millions but by the end of 1901 it was about 37 millions.
In the Victorian age because of the industrial
revolution people were wants more and more money to live life perfectly. But
they have not enough money to support their family. Therefore children were
sending for work,
(4) Scientific Development:
It was period of extra ordinary scientific thinking.
Manyscientific devotees dedicated their time to popularize scientific works
like Darwin’s ‘‘Origin of
Species’’ despite the progress of science people in general were still
governed by religious and moral consideration because Victorian were very
religious at hart. There was a noticeable disagreement between religious and
science and between moralist and scientist.
For
Example – Workhouse
in Oliver Twist. In the workhouse children have food with the name of God
though they not have good food with both quantities and qualities. ‘‘God
is Good’’, ‘‘God is Love’’these label Dickens put in the workhouse in
satirical way because when God is good then why all the children live in bad
situation and why God not help them to live in better way.
(5)Domestic life and Social life:
The Victorian compromise was observable in three
branches of life such as -
· Political
life,
· Religion,
· Science.
In the Oliver Twist, there was also we seemed domestic life. In which
Bill Sikes has power to control his wife Nancy. Nancy wants to help Oliver
Twist but she can’t do this and that is why she doing all that things secretly.
Nancy has no voice against her husband and at the climax her husband kills her
without any mercy for her. So, we can say that she was not free to do whatever
she wants to do. In social life they don’t like that they were called as
cultural people.
The
Uniqueness of Individuality:
Charles
Dickens
was one of the most original writers and a profound novelist of that
age. His style and method is extraordinary, his viewpoint is towards
reformation of the society, and his character was original just like Oliver Twist because
he was reflection of the Victorian reality that children don’t like to becoming
criminal but situation make them criminal
Moral
Writing:
The Victorian way of writing both in prose and
poetry had a moral purpose behind it. Dickens has same idea behind their
writing novel ‘‘Oliver Twist’’. Dickens has set up his own moral dilemma in his
novel. Oliver Twist portrays Dickens’s distaste for the justice system through
satire and wit. Charley’s significance, as the symbol of a moral conscience, reflects
Dickens’s view of morality as a product of personal choice rather than
religious intervention.
Epilogue
:
In short, we can say that the novel ‘‘Oliver Twist’’
is the reflection of the Victorian period in various ways. And Dickens purpose
behind this novel is to reforms the society. It is Dickens’s dream of ‘ideal
society’.
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