Oliver Twist

Introduction of Charlse dickens:-

      Charles John Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, was an English novelist and social critic. He created many most memorable fictional characters. He knew as the greatest novelist of the Victorian age or period. During his life, his works gave him name and fame. He was accepted as a novelist and writer by the critics and linguistics during those days. His novels and short stories become so popular.

 

          As a prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays, novellas, novels, fiction and non-fiction, during his lifetime Dickens became known the world over for his remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives, and his depictions of the social classes, mores and values of his times. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. On 8 June 1870, on 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Droid. He never regained consciousness, and the next day, on 9 June, five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash, he died at Gad's Hill Place.

              

His creative works are:

The Pickwick papers

David Copperfield

Oliver Twist

A Tale of two cities

Great Expectations

     Among his novels, here we are concerned with Oliver Twist, which is entitled as The Parish Boy's Progress and it is the second novel by major English novelist of the Victorian age. Oliver Twist is remembered for Dickens's unromantic portrayal of criminals and their social lives. The story deals with an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker.

Introduction of Novel: - Oliver Twist

     Oliver Twist is a novel which is written by famous English Author Charles Dickens. The novel is published by Richard Bentleyin in 1838. The story is about an Orphan child named Oliver Twist. He is protagonist. Oliver Twist endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes from workhouse. He travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naïvely unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin.

   This novel is a social novel; the book has dark side of society and evils of society. It has negative parts of society like child labour, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous film and television adaptations, and is the basis for a highly successful musical play and the multiple Academy Award winning 1968 motion picture made from it.

Bird view on the novel:

       In this novel Oliver is an orphan child, who born in a workhouse in a small town near London in the early part of 19^th century. His mother died immediately after his birth. Nobody knows who she was. It was clear that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Oliver lived in a “Child Farm” and brought up here until he is 8 years old. At the age of eight the Parish official running the child farm decided that it is time to start working. So at the age of 8 years, an orphan child has to start working. Then Oliver also sends to work house. At the working house Oliver ask for more foods with famous quotation:

“Please sir, I want some more!”

         

         At the orphan house Oliver made some misbehave, Oliver commits the unpardonable offense of asking for more food when he is close to starving. So the parish officials offer five pounds to anyone who is willing to take Oliver on as an apprentice. Here authority got some persons who wanted to, adopt him and took Oliver to his home.  Dickens characterizes Oliver as "a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board." The parish officials eventually send Oliver off with a coffin-maker.

        Here, At the coffin-maker’s shop, Oliver got good food, Good clothes and batter condition of living life. At the coffin-maker’s shop, Oliver is treated much better than he was at the workhouse or the child farm. The coffin-maker, Mr. Sowerberry, isn’t so bad, but his wife, Mrs. Sowerberry, and the other apprentice, Noah Claypole, have it in for Oliver from the start.  Noah told something bad about mother of Oliver, so he got angry and both of the fought. Oliver badly beat Noah. Oliver gets in trouble for knocking Noah down. After being abused some more, Oliver decides to set out for London on foot. Now Oliver ran away from that family and went to London. When he’s almost there, he runs into an odd-looking young man named Jack Dawkins. He Dodger buys him lunch and offers to introduce him to a "gentleman" in London who will give him a place to stay. Once in London, it quickly becomes clear to the reader that the Dodger and his friends are an unsavory bunch. Then Dodger introduces Oliver with Fagin. Fagin was a inhuman and cunning person.

            The old "gentleman," Fagin, trains kids to be pickpockets, and then he sells off what they steal. But Oliver doesn’t Realize what’s up until he’s actually out with the Dodger and another one of the boys, named Charley Bates. Oliver sees the pair steal the pocket handkerchief out of a nice-looking old man's pocket. When Oliver turns to run away, the nice-looking old man sees him run and yells, "stop, thief!" Oliver is tackled in the street, but by then the nice old man - his name is Mr. Brownlow has taken a better look at him.  He realized that Oliver looks too sweet and innocent to be a pickpocket. In fact, Oliver isn’t so much a pick-pocket as he is a very sick little boy. So Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver home and cares for him until he’s well. Unfortunately Fagin, the Dodger, Nancy (a prostitute), and Bill Sikes (another criminal) are worried that Oliver will rat them out to the police, so they keep a watch on Brownlow’s house.

            One day, when Brownlow entrusts Oliver with some money and an errand to run in the city, Fagin and the criminals nab the poor kid once again. Nancy feels guilty and steps in to defend Oliver when Fagin tries to smack him around. Fagin keeps Oliver shut up in a dreary old house for weeks, all the while still trying to turn him into a criminal. How long can a Nine-year-old hold out?  Not long afterwards, Bill Sikes and another thief say they need a small boy to help them break into a house outside of London; Fagin volunteers Oliver. The plan goes awry when the servants of the house wake up and catch Oliver in the act of sneaking in. The servants don’t realize that Oliver is there against his will, and was actually about to wake up the household to warn them about the robbers. So poor Oliver takes a bullet and is left behind when the rest are all running away. Fortunately, Oliver is picked up by the people who shot him, a family that turns out to be as nice as Mr. Brownlow.  They become Oliver’s caretakers. Meanwhile, Fagin is at his wits’ end wondering what happened to Oliver. He lets slip that a mysterious man named Monks offered to pay him hundreds of pounds to corrupt the young boy. Nancy pretends not to know what’s going on, but secretly resolves to help Oliver, and to figure out why Monks is so keen on having Oliver turn to crime.

             While Fagin and the criminals distress, Oliver learns to read and write with his new friends, the Maylies. He's also reunited with his first friend, Mr. Brownlow. Fagin and his gang are still trying to track Oliver down. Monks has managed to get hold of – and destroy – one of the few surviving tokens of Oliver’s parentage. Nancy finds out about it and gets in touch with Rose Maylie to warn her about Monks’s plot with Fagin.

            Unfortunately for Nancy, Bill Sikes (her lover) finds out about it and brutally murders her. Sikes tries to escape, but he’s haunted by what he’s done. Eventually, he's killed while trying to escape from the police: he falls off a rooftop while he’s trying to lower himself down, and inadvertently hangs himself.  Meanwhile, Mr. Brownlow has managed to find Monks. Mr. Brownlow was an old friend of Monks’ father and knows all about him. As it turns out, Monks is actually the older half-brother of Oliver, and was trying to corrupt Oliver so that he’d secure the entire family inheritance himself. Monks chooses to admit to everything rather than face the police.  Oliver ends up with what’s left of his inheritance, is legally adopted by Mr. Brownlow, and lives down the road from the Maylies. Everybody lives happily ever after.

 Except for Fagin, who is arrested and hanged, and Monks, who dies in prison.

Those are important characters of Novel. Oliver is protagonist and centre character of the novel.