Theme,Motifs&symbol in Oliver Twist

Name: Joshi Toral

Paper: E-c-204: The Victorian Literature

Topic: Theme, Motifs and Symbols in Oliver Twist

SEM: 1, part 2.

Year: 2011-2012

Submitted to,

Dr.Dilip Barad,

Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

·     Theme

Ø The Failure of Charity:-

                           Much of the first part of Oliver Twist challenges the organization of charity run by the church and the government in Dickens’s time. The system Dickens describes was put into place by the poor law of 1834, which stipulated that the poor could only receive government workhouse. Were essentially if they moved into government. The workhouse operated on the principal that poverty was the consequence of laziness and that the dreadful conditions in the workhouse would inspire the poor to better their own circumstances. Yet the economic dislocation of the Industrial Revolution made it impossible for many to do so, and the workhouse did not provide any means for social or economic betterment. Furthermore as Dickens point out the officials who ran the workhouse blatantly violated the values they preached to her poor. Dickens describes with great sarcasm the greed, laziness and arrogance of charitable workers like Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Mann.  

“Being starved by a gradual process in the house or by a quick omit”           

Ø Society and Class :-

           "Society and Class" is one of the central themes of most of Dickens’s novels. In Oliver Twist, Dickens often shows how superficial class structures really are – at the core, everyone’s really the same, regardless of the social class into which they’re born. Dickens also exposes how callous and uncaring Victorian society was – folks just ignored the plight of the less fortunate because they were so self-satisfied, and so convinced that the systems they had in place to take care of the poor were the best and most humane systems possible.

Ø Institutional cruelty:-

The cruelty of institutions and bureaucracies toward the unfortunate is perhaps the preeminent theme of Oliver Twist, and essentially what makes it a social novel. Dickens wrote the book largely in response to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which represented the government's both passive and active cruelty to the poor and helpless. Although institutions show both passive and active cruelty in Oliver Twist, active cruelty is more prevalent, a move that serves to exaggerate and thus satirize this cruelty and make it seem intentional.

The cruelty of these institutions, however, is not separated from the cruelty of individuals. Although the parochial board that decides Oliver as future carelessly and without sympathy is largely anonymous, the man in the white jacket generally voices the specific cruel sentiments, so that they are not presented as having come from nowhere, or just from laws, but from the individuals in power. Similarly, Mr. Bumble is often directly involved in the institutional unkindness that Oliver faces. This cruelty is not nameless or faceless; it is just so prevalent that not all the perpetrators can be named.

·      Motifs:-

Ø Disguised or Mistaken Identities:-

                                

The lot of Oliver twist revoles around the various false identities that other characters impose upon Oliver, often for the sake of advancing their own interests Mr. Bumble and the other for workhouse officials insist on portraying Oliver, as something he is not an ungrateful, immoral pauper. Monks does his that Monks himself can claim Oliver’s rightful inheritance. Characters also disguise their own identities when it serves them well to do so. Nancy  pretends to be Oliver’s  middle-class sister in order to get him back to Fagin, while Monks changes his name and poses as a common criminal rather than the heir he really is scenes depicting the  manipulation of clothing indicate how it plays an impotent part in the construction of various character’s identities.

                   Nancy dons new clothing to pass as a middle-class girl, and Fagin strip Oliver of all his upper-class only when every characters identity is know with does the story achieve real closure.

Ø Oliver’s Face:-

Oliver’s face is singled out for special attention at multiple points in the novel. Mr. Sowerberry, charley Bates, and Toby crack it all comment on its particular appeal, and its resemblance to the portrait of Agnes Fleming provides the first alue to Oliver’s identity. The power of Oliver’s physiognomy combined with the facts that Fagin is hideous and Rose is beautiful suggested that in the world of the novel. External appearance usually given a fair impression of a person’s inner character.

·      SYMBOLS:-

Ø Character’s name:-

The name of the characters represents the inner qualities; Oliver-Twist himself is the most obvious example.  The name “Twist” though given by accident alludes to the outrageous reversals of the fortune that he will experience. Rose Maylie’s name is lighthearted reference to his chosen professions of breaking into houses.

Ø Mr. Bumble’s name connotes his bumbling arrogance.

Ø Mrs. Mann’s her look of maternal instinct.

Ø Mr. Grimwig’s his superficial grimness that can be removed as easily as swig.