Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Kasdi Merbah University - Ouargla

Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of Letters and English Language
Domain: Letters and Foreign Languages
Field: English Language and Literature and Civilization
Specialty: Anglo- Saxon Literature

Dissertation

Academic Master

Submitted by:

Ms. Zahra MANAOUI Ms. Amira YEZZA

Title

Poverty in Charles Dickens’s

Oliver twist

Publicly defended on: 02/05/2017

Before the jury:

Dr.Ben Zoukh Halima President KMU Ouargla

Mrs.Hanafi (Tidjani) Hind Supervisor KMU Ouargla

Mr.Doufene Madjid Examiner KMU Ouargla

Academic Year: 2016-2017

 Dedication (1)

Praise and thanks first foremost to Allah who has

guided and help me.

I dedicate this work: to my precious parent, to my

beloved sisters: Hanine, Hafida and her husband
Imad. And my dear brothers Mohamed El bachir
and Abd El hakim.

A special thanks to my husband Mr. b Souhaib for

his help.

I cannot forget my friend Amira.

Zahra

I
 Dedication (2)

I dedicate this work to my parents who provided

with all what I need.

To my husband and my loved family in law which

provided me also with all the support, patience and
encouragement.

To my brothers and sisters.

To all those who shared with me happy times at

university during the years of my study.

Amira

II
 Acknowledgments

First, Thanks go to the Almighty Allah who guids

me all the way.

I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs.

Hanafi (Tidjani) Hind, for her considerable help,
patience, and guidance.

I would like to thank the members of the jury: the

president Dr. Ben Zoukh Halima, the Mr. Doufene
Madjid.

My sincere thank go to all those who have helped

me to fulfill this study.

III
Abstract

The present study is an attempt to deal with poverty in British society during the Victorian
period. Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist considers as a case-study. It comes to show the
differences between the social classes in the Victorian society. Also, it aims to show that
Oliver Twist portrays the reality of social injustice to poor people in Britain during the
Victorian era. The study analysis done through the realities that Charles Dickens described in
Oliver Twist. The work is divided into two chapters. The first chapter presents general views
and definitions about social classes with Marxist theory, and the second chapter treats the
analysis of the novel focusing on the content through some quotes from Oliver Twist's.

Key Words : Marxism, Social Class, Poverty, Charles Dickens.

IV
 Table of Contents

Dedication (1)…………...……………………………………………….…I

Dedication (2)……………………………………………………………… II

Acknowledgments…………………………………………………..…III

Abstract………………………………………………………………… IV

Table of contents ………………………………………………………V

General Introduction

General introduction…………………………………………………………………….3

Motivation……………………………………………………………………………..4

The purpose of study…………………………………………………………………..4

Problematic…………………………………………………………………………….5

Research Questions……………………………………………………………………..5

Hypotheses……………………………………………………………………………..5

Research Methodology………………………………………………………………….6

Structure of Dissertation…………………………………………………………………6

V
 The Theoretical Part

Chapter One: Theory of Marxism in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist

Introduction………………………………………………………..10

1.1 Marxism: An Overview………………………………………...10

1.2 Marxist Theory………………………………………………..11

1.3 Definition…………………………………………………..12

1.4 Characteristics of Marxism………………………………..13

1.5 Philosophy of Marxism…………………………….13

1.6 Marxism Economics………………………………13

1.7 The Politics of Marxism………………………….14

2. Marxist Literary Criticism………………………………….14

2.1 Economic power…………………………………………15

2.2 Class conflict…………………………………………….15

2.3 Materialism Vs Spirituality……………………………...16

3. Social Class in Society………………………………………...18

3.1 Definition of Social Class……………………………….....18

3.2 Theories of Social Class…………………………………...18

3.3 Social Class in Marxism…………………………………..18

3.4 Layers of Social Class……………………………………..19

3.4.1 Uper-Class………………………………………………19

3.4.2 Middle-Class……………………………………………19

VI
 3.4.3 Lower-Class…………………………………………….20

Conclusion……………………………………………………….20

The Practical Part

Chapter Two: the Analysis of poverty in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist

Introduction………………………………………………………...24

1. Charles Dickens: A Profile………………………………..….24

1.1 Biography………………………………………………....24

1.2 Style of Writing…………………………………………..25

1.3 Charles Dickens as a Victorian Citizen…………………….26

2. Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist……………………………….26

2.1 Themes……………………………………………………27

2.2 Characters………………………………………………..28

2.2.1 Major Characters……………………………………….28

2.2.2 Minor Characters……………………………………...30

2.3 The Plot Summary……………………………………….31

3. Portraying Poverty in Charles Dickens’s: Oliver Twist : A Marxist….33

Approach………………………………………………………….33

Conclusion…………………………………………………………39

General Conclusion………………………………………………..41

Bibliography……………………………………………42

VII
General Introduction
 General Introduction

 Topics
 Motivation
 The puprpose of the study
 Problematic
 Research Question
 Hypotheses
 Research Methodology
 Structure of Desertation

2
General Introduction

The Victorian period was with joining of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837, and
lasted until her death in 1901. The Victorian period of English literature spans over six
contracts." In general, Victorian literature reflects the social, economic, religious, and
intellectual issues and problems surrounding the Industrial Revolution, growing class
tensions, pressures toward political and social reforms. The Victorian era include the most
recognized authors such as: Alfred lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Matthew
Arnold, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.

The basic goodness of daily life for people in Victorian England focus on the internal
structure of the layers determined by social class and poverty problems which formed by
traditional ways of life in country. English society in the nineteenth century was still giving
preference to high class, in spite of some old classes differences which began to disappear
by the end of the period. These social differences spread in parallel to the old social classes
system of dropped gentry and rural poor, the reason of this is the industrial revolution.

The Victorian novels focus on the realistic pictures of social life, and represent many
Victorian issues in the stories of its characters. Many authors speak about social problems of
the Victorian time in their works as Jane Austen (1775-1817) in Pride and Prejudice (1799),
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was considered one of the many novelists writing about
problems of the Victorians in the late nineteenth century. He showed what the conflict was
between the traditional and modern values. As regards Charles Dickens, he talks about the
social class and poverty in his novels especially in Great Expectations, and in Oliver Twist
which is the subject of this paper.

Actually, Dickens himself was something of social issues. He was personally blushed
of some aspects of his past, such as his working in blanking factory when he was a child,
and was all his dreams to improvement himself. In 1856 he had a country house in Kent
(Gad's Hill) that he had seen many times when was a child and he had a dream about living
in it one day. Therefore his novel Oliver Twist was the most popular novel about poverty in
the social and the background of class issue in English society at that time. Also he is one of

3
the most important social critics who used fiction effectively to criticize economic, social,
and moral violations in the Victorian era. Dickens showed compassion and empathy towards
the vulnerable and disadvantaged class of English society, and helped to several important
social reforms.

Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens’s many famous literary works. It considers his
autobiography by the many comparisons found to his true life, and follows the life of a
young lower class boy named Oliver. This novel, like many of Dickens’s works, focuses on
the one primary character. The aim of this study is to investigating and analyzing Dickens'
representation of poverty through the social class in his novel Oliver Twist, because Dickens
lived during a time of great social changes in Europe, the subject of his writing different of
many topics, one of them focuses on poverty in the social, through the English society
background at that time. According to some critics that he saw the novel as an important
way of social reform.

The choice of Charles Dickens is mainly based on our interest in his novel David
Oliver Twist which reflected a picture of poor people who differ in the social classes in
English society in the early of nineteenth century when the Industrial Revolution was the
reason of change in it. Also, deal with social issues in his society.

Motivation:

Oliver Twist’s novel includes a large member of contemporary social issues starting
from the abuse of children. In addition to, there are many motives behind the choice of
Victorian Literature, first because much of the writings of the Victorian period were care
about social problems of that time such as the effect of the Industrial Revolution, also,
because of an emergence of intensive production of literary works that this period witnessed,
especially novels that address the social realities during the Industrial Revolution.

The purpose of Study:

The aim of the study is based on poverty thematic analysis through social classes in
Charles Dickens's novel Oliver twist in order to discover the English society during the 19th

4
century and to present the situations which English society undergo in that time. Also to
explore the relation of Charles Dickens’s life with the life of protagonist Oliver twist.

Problematic:

The Victorian period experienced many social classes’ problems of that time such as
the effect of the Industrial Revolution and the extreme poverty of people that what made of an
emergence of intensive production of literary works that this period witnessed. So our thesis is
an analytical thematic study to detect certain aspects of poverty that lived by people in
Victorian time of the nineteenth century in Oliver Twist novel written by Charles Dickens
with the uses of Marxist theory.

Research Question:

Through this research, the following questions might be answered:

 To what extent does Charles Dickens depict the theme of poverty through social
classes in his Novel Oliver Twist?

 Which themes in the corpus reflect poverty in Charles dickens’s Oliver Twist?

Hypotheses:

We set the following hypotheses so as to attempt at finding appropriate answers to the

questions :

 Reading Oliver Twist novel gives its reader an image about the life of Charles Dickens,
and may introduce different classes in the novel.

 Oliver Twist novel is a symbol of poor would represent poverty through the social
classes the Victorian society.

5
Research Methodology:

As for methodology, we have used the critical concepts of Marxist theory to analyze
the novel. Observation that Marxism is a worldview and method of societal analysis that
focuses on class relations. Our thesis is an analytical thematic study to detect certain aspects
of poverty that lived by people in Victorian time of the nineteenth century in Oliver Twist
novel written by Charles Dickens.

Structure of the Dissertation:

The present study is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is devoted to clarify
the Marxist theory that used by Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist with all of its approaches,
and also it will provide a number of notions about social class. The second chapter is the
analytic study of poverty in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist by showing the class division in
the Victorian society using the Marxist literary theory.

6
The Theoretical Part
 Chapter One

The Theory of Marxism in

Charles Dickens’s Oliver
twist
 Outline

Introduction

1. Marxism an Overview

1.1 Marxist Theory

1.1.1 Definition

1.1.2 Characteristics of Marxism

1.1.2.1 Philosophy of Marxism

1.1.2.2 Marxism Economics

1.1.2.3The Politics of Marxism

2. Marxist Literary Criticism

2.1Economic power

2.2Class conflict

2.3Materialism Vs Spirituality

3. Social Class in Society

3.1Definition of social Class

3.2Theories of society

3.3Social class in Marxism

3.4Layers of Social Class

3.4.1Upper-Class

3.4.2Middle-Class

3.4.3Lower-class

Conclusion

9
Introduction

Any discussion of each novel cannot be separated from getting the definition of theory
as a basic material for that discussion. From a variety of theory definitions the reader will
conclude many functions of theory. The major function is that theory works as a mirror of
novel; it provides the reader with a plenty of information. Theorists formed approaches and
methods to read a literary work and called them literary theories. Marxism, as literary theories
of these literary theories transacts with the literary text as a source of information about the
society that creates it.

Social class is considered as a basic feature in a society. Have many definitions by

many sociologists. The famous two theories concerning social class were those of Karl Marx
and Max Weber.

1. Marxism : An Overview

At the end of the 19th century, Marxism is considered to have three elements:
dialectical materialism, equal economic exchange and socialist institutions. Leading Marx to
advocate atheism is the confirmation of Dialectical materialism that all phenomena and nature
are caused by and made up of matter. He also shows that the value of merchandise should be
fixed just on the amount of work needed to produce them.

The main ideas of Karl Marx's are work theory of value, class conflict, alienation and
communism. He is the co-founder of Marxism and has published many books; the two most
famous being "Das Capital" and "The Communist Manifesto." The "Communist Manifesto"
was published in 1848, which it is actually one of the world's most influential political
documents. It separates the problems with capitalism and how it would be replaced by
communism in the end. It also the ideas of Marx identifies on society progression and class
conflict. Then he published "Das Capital" in 1867 describes how the exploitation of work
pushes capitalism within society.

Marxism is a political theory that has formed world politics for over 150 years. Basic
Marxist notions are absolutely the opposite of capitalism and some believe have produced a
mentality of a society that is very much a ‘them and us’ one. Marxism believes that there was
a real conflict between human nature and the way that it must work in a capitalist society.
Marxism states that capitalism can only flourish on the exploitation of the working class.
10
 Marxism believes that is an Economic, Political, and Philosophical system which it is
characterized by them. In the Economic, Marxism indicates to as a “surplus profit", when
calculates the difference between what goods are sold for and what they actually cost to make.
Marxism suggests that economic conflict produces class (rich, middle and poor). Then there is
Political Marxism (PM) which is Marxist theory that analyzes the history. It was developed as
a reaction against historical models of Marxist analysis in the discussion on the origins of
capitalism. The third characteristic that believes by it the Marxist is philosophy that is
influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or Marxist works written. Marxist
philosophy divided into Western Marxism, which derives out of different sources, and the
official philosophy in the Soviet Union, which imposed a strict reading of Marx, called
Dialectical Materialism. Hegel presented this theory, and applied by Marx to human history
and called it Historical Materialism.

Capitalism represents the educational system, without the economy education system
would become a helpless, as without education no jobs exist and the works which is what
keeps society moving. Education gives a hope to maintain the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
so that there can workers producing merchandise and services and others things. An ideology
schools conceded that capitalism is just and reasonable, and the Ruling class project their
view of the world.

1.1 Marxism Theory

German Ideology was the first declaration of Karl Marx's way of thinking, where he
introduced the concept of dialectical materialism, it means the production dominates a
society's institutions and beliefs, and claimed that history is moving towards the final of
communism. (Dobie, 2011). Marx influenced by communism where believed it is the best
solution to get the potentialities as human. He also detected that he has the same principles
and views with the political economist Friedrich Engels. In which the beginning of Marxist
thought came about through the collaboration of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The
Communist Manifesto during the late 19th century in (1848). They said that a revolution as a
result of the class struggle to overturn the capitalists where could happen by the workers. And
the workers have the prerogative to take control of the economic production that was as
another claim, and this should have to call for a stable distribution of the particular property
by the government. Marx saw that the social relations of production in a society as the
primary source of class stratification and conflict. Marx said also that history is fixed by

11
economic conditions and demands an end to specific property of public utilities,
transportation and the means of production. In the century that followed, it was their
differences and additions that have occurred, on the whole, despite that this point, Marx's
writings still supply the theory of economics, politics, history, sociology, and a religious
belief named Marxism. (Dobie, 2011).

The Marxist theory has many sides, as a historical philosophy, an economic doctrine,
and the main explanation of how societies change. This theory takes two sides as its basics:
materialism and class struggle.

Materialism, according to Marx is all the economic products that amount to the level
of dominant the human thinking. . How Marxists explained it this side of theory. In this kind
who control the economic also are the ones who control the political domain, and this leads to
govern in the leading ideas in that domain. Materialism exhibit that no human is able to get
his own ideas, but his ideas could the effect of the others around him, as Karl Marx said:
« The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e. the class which is the
ruling material force of the society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force ». (Marx &
Engels, 1845).

« The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle » (Paul,
2007.1990) this claim is taken as the second rule for the Marxism theory. The classes are
divided into the exploiters because of the capitalism situation in the societies; who want to
dominate the means of production, and the ones who have to purvey their work to the owners
to earn a living.

The capitalist society, who own the production; economic and political sides, and
which own the society by their wealth, power, and franchise. With that, this capitalist class
(bourgeoisie) usually represents the less percentage comparing to the working class.

1.1.1 Definition of Marxism

Marxism back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels belongs to an economic and social
system focus on the political and economic theories to Max and Engels. Requires would take
a real dimensions to explain the full effects and ramifications of the Marxist social and
economic ideology, Marxism is “a theory in which class struggle is a basic element in the
analysis of social change in Western societies where belong to the Encarta Reference. Encarta
defines Marxism as an economic system erect on the private property of the means of

12
production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and
motivation by profit. Marxism is the system of socialism of which the dominant feature is
public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. In the other word
Marxism is a theory that incarnate a set of social, economic, and political ideas that its
followers believe will enable them to interpret and change their world.

In Capitalism period, each of the proletariat, the working class or “the people,” they
have the ability only to vend their own work. The definition of class is the relations of its
members to the means of production this is according to Marx. And also he declared that
history is the chronology of class struggles, wars, and uprisings. Marx attempts continues, the
workers, to support their families are paid a minimum wage or salary. And the ego of the
worker makes him has no control over the work or product which he produces. Where the
products produced by the workers at a relative value as related to the work involved, they sell
it the capitalists. Is calculated the excess value by the difference between what the workers is
paid and the price for which the product is sold.

1.1.2 Characteristics of Marxism

From the principle of Marxism is focus on the truth that as long as Capitalism
continue, the vast majority of the world’s workers will never have their needs met; Marx
proves this truth that cannot be denied in his writings especially Capital vol 1. What Marx
presented is that the majority working class has to exist in relative poverty for the means of
production (fuel, machinery, technology, factories, transportation, land), holding Capitalist
class to collect vast wealth from the profit they make off the unpaid part of the worker’s
salary, this fact is easily seen by looking at any Forbes rich list.

Marxism has three basic characteristics: Philosophical, Economical and Political.

Philosophy of Marxism: is Dialectical Materialism, Is represented this theory that everything

include disagree forces in itself. The controversy between those two forces leads to the
invention of a new being from the old. Hegel presented this theory, and applied by Marx to
human history and called it historical materialism. According to historical materialism human
society includes opposing forces which are continuously in disagree with each other. This
disagree gives birth to a new social order and demolishes the status quo.

Marxian Economics: is very large. However it has two fundamentals- The work theory of
value and the excess value theory. The LTV represents as the theory which states that it is

13
work that creates value and not capital or any other worker. Either the excess value theory
states that the politics of Marxism is believed by the idea of proletarian revolution. Surplus
value is the value of unpaid work.

The Politics of Marxism: is believed by the idea of proletarian revolution. According to

Marx, capitalism will create intensified class conflict between the working class (proletariat)
and the (bourgeoisie) capitalist. And that what will in the end lead to a working class
revolution while will ultimately demolish the capitalist society and give birth to socialist
order.

2. Marxism Literary Criticism

Although Marxism theory was not considered as a literary theory, its principles are
applied in literature (Dobie, 2011). Any part of writing is an expression of the writer’s
personality, for Marxism is a way to view of what behind the letters of the literary work. The
reader how using the Marxist theory, will pass the verge of words, pass the adventure of the
story and pass the imagination there, to have a look to the real world of the intended setting .

When using this theory, the society of the writer will be reflected on his writings. The
ideology, social classes and political of the writer conflicts in that society will obviously
appear in the work. Thus, three main points can be mentioned (Pogreba, 2005).

Text cannot be separated from its cultural situation, and any analysis of a literary work
using the Marxist theory will have a relation directly to the culture mentioned in the story, this
is the first point. It means that the detailed sides which happen in the story are in a real
detailed side in the society which the writer called the events from them.

In the second point, if the writer tried to insulate himself from his society, his writings
will include a sign of it. While Karl Marx believes that the philosophers have only explained
the world through their creativity (Dobie, 2011). There are many writers; their works are
critiqued as Marxist. Like Charles Dickens, Jonathan Swift, William Blake. Those writers
have a relation to social problems which they tried to solve their, especially the ones which
deal with the economic conflicts can be developed to political ones, in addition to the
“capitalism” of their society.

The last one that using the “capitalism” idea, that Marx explained it the literary works
are an easy way to disclose the classes‟ conflict within the authors‟ society (Dobie, 2011).

14
 Marxist criticism has many principles that helpful to examine in more detail and to see
how applied to literary texts. From this principle there are: Economic power, materialism
versus spirituality, class conflict.

Economic Power: According to Marx the causes of the moving force beyond human history
is the economic system for the life of people and production involves the material
appropriation. Which a mode of production includes a specific installation of the forces of
production and social relations of production. The productive forces include raw materials,
elements of production, and the technical partition of work versus to these raw materials. The
social relations of production include social control over the distribution of resources to
productive activities and so over the specification of any resulting surplus; the social partition
of work ; Some Marxists depend on the role of productive forces to give a change in
producing social but the majority view that the primary is the social relations of production.
In the real these social relations is the cause of shape the choice among productive forces and
how they get published in production.

Some Marxists believes that the power relations in organization of the work operation back to
the primacy of the relations of production in economic power. This is considered the primary
reason of the hostility between capitalists and workers. The control be in different forms as
technical, despotic, and bureaucratic which each one has own implications to forms of class
conflict and publishing of power between capital and work. There is other Marxists believe
that the organization of production back to the circuit of capital. They focus on the relative
importance of financial capital or industrial and the different institutions.

Class conflict: Marx focuses on the structure of society in relation to its major classes and the
conflict between them as moves to change this structure. The conflict was not a deviation
inside of society's structure, and the classes were not functional elements preserving the
system. The structure was in the conflict of classes, his was a struggle view of modem society.

The basis to understanding Marx is his class definition. The definition of class is the
ownership of property. As any person has a power to exclude others and control of them in
personal purposes. This property represented on three classes in society: the bourgeoisie (who
own the elements of production, and whose source of income is profit), landowners (whose
proceeds is rent), and the proletariat (who they sell own their work and for a wage). It is

15
determined this class by the property, And by distribution and consumption, which that
reflects the production and power relations of classes. The class is theoretical relationship
between individuals.

There are differences in interests that related with land ownership and rent from interests of
the bourgeoisie. But with society ripeness, all of the capital, land ownership, and bourgeoisie
merge with each other. So the relation of production, the natural opposes between proletariat
and bourgeoisie, specifies all other activities.

Marx saw that the conflict of class has evolved; where in the beginning of conflict was
confined between classes on the individual factories. Then eventually, done circulate into
generalized to coalitions across factories. The conflict class proved at the social level, so there
are increase in class consciousness and the use of and conflict for political power occurs.

Finally, the breadth of the partition between classes will lead to social structure collapses, and
that back on the condition of the exploited worker will break down. However the worker's
victory will exclude the basis of class partition in property through public ownership of the
elements of production.

There are five elements in Marx's view of class struggle.

 Classes are judgment relationship focus on property ownership.

 A class represent individuals that suffering with common life situations.
 Naturally classes are hostile of their interests.
 The class conflict has a consequence which is structural change.

Marxism believes that class struggle forming the dynamics of social change, and his
consciousness that change was not random but the result of a struggle of interests. However,
history and time have changed many of his hypotheses and predictions. And the separation of
the control of production and capitalist owner ship.

Marx focus on conflict, on classes, and on their relations with the country, and the change of
social was a powerful perspective that should not be rejected. These historical events of
Marx's approach have much value.

Materialism versus Spirituality: Marx proved that reality is material not spiritual. Where, he
said, is not focused on gods and of what related with, and it is not a religious beliefs.

16
 What appear us the reality is the material world? It will show us how people live in
social groups with the activities interrelated. The relationships between socioeconomic classes
and by analyzing superstructure enable us to achieve insight into selves and society. Rarely,
the Marxist exposes the failings of capitalism and much continue on to debate for the fair
redistribution of merchandise by the polity.

17
3. Social Class
Through the characters‟, the setting, and the characterization in Oliver Twist, Dickens
portrays certain social facts of poor society and tries to give a picture a social status that lived
it the poor class. He leads the reader to hope for the New Poor Law, which it focuses on
reform that may give birth to social justice and equality between the poor people and the
others. Dickens creates a story that subtracts the issues of the Victorian era including the
suffering of poor people and class division that existed during this era. Depends dickens in
Oliver Twist by describes of poverty and the social status, that was very decadent for the poor
people especially the focus on his novel about the children as a good example of exploitation.

3.1. Definition of Social Class

There are various ways in which can be defined social class, because it is a complex
term. It can be summarized as a grouped of people of similar status, commonly sharing
comparable levels of power and wealth. In other hand, it is a broad group in society including
common economic, cultural, or political status. A social class is also, considered as one unit
of different society that possess certain value, activity, property and their ethics of social
intercourse. In other definition of social class is a group of people whom share some
characteristics like life style, education, or position. We can distinguish the different social
classes by inequalities like power, authority, wealth, living conditions, religion, education,
language, work, and culture.

3.2 Theories of Social Class

Social classes are one of the most important debated concepts that sociologists handle.
There are two major sociologists who are most important in the discussions about class; they
are Karl Marx and Max Weber.

3.2.1 Social Class According to Karl Marx

In the mid-nineteenth century, Marx defined class as follow:

Persons share important characteristics in the system of economic

production. This condition depended on individual status with the

18
 economic process, whether owned and controlled the means of
production or worked for someone else (Kimball & Mack, 1965).

Marx believed that societies are divided into two groups which are the capitalists and
proletarians. Where the capitalists how owned the materials of production, and the proletariat
how works. The first one includes professionals, managers, administrators, scientists, and
engineers, and the second one includes: teachers and nurses. These two sub are belong
characterized to the middle class, because they have power and revenuer over the other
employees. So, they are different from the lower class. (Dobie 2011)

Marx claims that the capitalist class (Bourgeoisie) who own and control the means of
the production (which includes land, factories, financial institutions and the like), Marx adds
that : «The lower class is those who own nothing but their ability to sell their labor power in
return for wages». (Wright, 2003)

3.3 Layers of social class

3.3.1 The Upper Class

A social economic term used to describe individuals or the owners of natural resources
and factories. This group controlled the political power of the country and its power comes
from employment of labors and wealth. In Charles Dickens Oliver Twist novel tells the story
of a different group of classes upper- lower and middle class of people at the time of Queen
Victoria, and describes the upper class manner of living in very high living conditions. This
class included the group of people that has natural resources, nobility, great power and wealth.
It included the royal family, lords, clergy, great officers of state, and those above the degree
of baronet. The group of this class owned the majority of the land. They were privileged and
not submitted to taxes due to their noble birth status.

3.3.2 Middle Class

There had been a small class of merchants, traders and small farmers. This small class
was the middle class; which is a people in the center of a social hierarchy. The middle class
include the factory owners, bankers, shopkeepers, merchants, lawyers, engineers,
businessmen, traders, teachers, and other professionals. In other words, the middle class is the

19
broad group of people who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper
class. We can take a role of middle class men and women as an example; middle class men
are oriented for work in business while their woman took care of family. Middle class men
did not get married until the age of 27 or 30 because of their financial stability concern. This
class was characterized by the idealization of family life and togetherness because the
opportunity of being together.

3.3.3 Lower Class

This class of people in society was characterized by low incomes, low level of
education and a high unemployment ratio which leads to a low social status. In other words,
this category of people occupied lowest position with little money. Dickens in Oliver Twist,
focus on this class and tries to give a picture of the situation of people and describes specially,
the conditions of children to stir people’s consciences in Victorian society.

Dickens depicts the life of some children suffering from poverty and deprivation. Such
children earned just enough to stay alive.

Conclusion

Literature has been always a topic of discussion that can be classified according to
fiction or nonfiction whether it is poetry or prose according to genres of novel, short story,
and drama. A literary work characterized by historical period.

Always, there is a literary theory that helps to read, understand and analyze a work of
literature. It gives the reader are opportunity to read the text with a variety of pictures. From a
Marxist point of view the text show many things about different social classes in a society and
their struggle between these social classes.

The Marxists analysis of the text is based on how author reflects realities through
characters, settings, or other aspects of the literary text. Dickens tries to give a picture of
thoughts, feelings, and ways of living and characters of the different social classes.

20
Practical Part
 Chapter Two
The Analysis of Poverty in
Charles Dickens’s Oliver
Twist
 Outline
Introduction

1. Charles Dickens: A Profile

1.1 Biography

1.2 Style of Writing

1.3 Charles Dickens as Victorian Citizen

2. Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist

2.1 Themes

2.2 Characters

2.2.1 Major Characters

2.2.2 Minor Characters

2.3 The Plot Summary

3. Portraying Poverty in Charles Dickens’s: Oliver Twist: A Marxist Approach

Conclusion

23
Introduction
This chapter is to identify the term of poverty in Twist. Dickens used vivid stories to
challenge the social in judges of his day, to highlight the ordeal of the poor and the hardships
of the working class. The novel involves the misery and the suffering of the orphan children.1
January, 1839 talked of my getting on in Oliver Twist; of the descriptions of “squalid vice” in
it; of the accounts of starvation in the Workhouses and Schools, Mr. Dickens gives in his
books. Lord M. says, in many schools they give children the worst things to eat, and bad beer,
to save expense; told him Mamma admonished me for reading light books (Blooms Classic
Critical Views Charles Dickens (Philip Collins, 1839).According to the theme Charles
Dickens conceded as a witness of the events which happened through the period, and then as
the writer. His witnesses and experiences for social realities were his source of inspiration. In
Oliver Twist, Dickens addresses the British society, which is embodied in his setting and
characters. Where living people, poor and children were under oppressive life. Through the
characters of Dickens in Oliver Twist he gave a picture about the Victorian society and the
differences between its classes through education and living conditions.

1. Charles Dickens: A profile

Charles Dickens was born in Land port, Portsmouth, England, on February 7, 1812.
The second child of John Dickens, and Elizabeth Barrow Dickens. The family moved to
London in 1814, to Chatham in 1817, and then back to London in 1822.But in 1822, when
John Dickens returned to London and the family took up residence at 16 Bay Hams Street,
Camden Town, and the boy’s prospects darkened. The family’s straitened finances meant that
Charles was not able to continue his education, where put him to work at a shoe-blanking
warehouse. In that same year, his father was briefly imprisoned for debt. Later of this period
of his life were to affect much of Dickens's writing. (Harold Bloom, 2008)

1.1 Biography

From 1824 to 1827 after studying at the Wellington House Academy in London,
Dickens worked as a solicitor’s clerk and then became a reporter for the Morning Chronicle
from 1834 to 1836.Then Dickens published The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
was published in monthly parts from April 1836 to November 1837, that they become one of
the most popular works of the time. Then he continues it was published in book form in
1837.In the same year Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of the editor of the

24
Evening Chronicle. Together they have 10 children before they separate din 1858. After this
successes, Dickens worked as a novelist, producing work of increasing complexity at an
incredible rate :Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickel (1838-39), The Old Curiosity
Shop and Barnaby Ridge as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840-41), all being
published in monthly installments before being made into books. In 1842 he travelled with his
wife to the United States and Canada, which perform to his controversial American Notes
(1842) and is also the basis of some of the episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens's was
offering a series of five Christmas Books were soon to follow: a Christmas carol (1843), the
chimes (1844), the cricket on the hearth (1845), the battle of life (1846), and the haunted
man (1848). After living briefly abroad in Italy (1844) and Switzerland (1846) Dickens
continued his success with Dombey and Son (1848), the largely autobiographical David
Copperfield (1849-50), bleak house (1852-53), Hard Times (1854), little Dorrit (1857), a Tale
of Two Cities (1859), and great expectations (1861).
Dickens was admired for estate since childhood which made him buy Gad's Hill Place
in 1856, and all of that from his popularity. In 1858 Dickens began a series of paid readings,
which became instantly popular. In that time he separated from his wife. It was also around
that time that Dickens became involved in an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan.
And that was very clearly to Dickens's personal and professional life. Dickens worsened his
declining health by giving numerous readings. During his readings in 1869 he collapsed,
showing symptoms of mild stroke. Charles Dickens died at home on June 9, 1870 after
suffering a stroke. He was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. The inscription
on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and
by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."(Paul Davis 2007, 1999:1
to 10)

1.2Style of Writing
The writing style of Charles Dickens is very distinct; he writes in a poetic way and
uses a lot of irony and consequently humor. Dickens's started his literary writing from
newspaper where most of his stories wereis in an episodic form. He is known using this
method in his stories, using cliff hanger endings he was able to keep his readers interested in
his stories. Dickens marked by uses idealized characters in his books. However in some times
Dickens does not make all of his characters perfect, rather he uses his idealized characters to
reflect the ugly side of life that he so often depicts. As an example of one of his idealized
characters, during the book of Oliver Twist is put through many experiences including an

25
orphanage and a small training center for thieves. Throughout all of this Oliver is silly and his
values are never compromised even though he is put in very difficult situations.

1.3 Charles Dickens as a Victorian Citizen

Dickens was one of the most famous English biographies, and his friends said in his
footnote that “years after he [Dickens] was famous he would pass the street to avoid the smell
from a totally different blacking factory, with its reminder of what he once was.” (Fletcher,
2002).
In the Victorian period, Charles Dickens considered as the most famous popular
English novelist. He was born at Mile End Terrace, Land port, on the suburbs of Portsmouth,
on 7th February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens (Louis, 2006).
Dickens father’s job forced him and his family to move frequently, because he was the second
among eight children. When Dickens lived few years in Chatham, he received some
education. He spent happy time in Chatham; this time was followed by a period of an
intensive misery that deeply affected Dickens. The family moved again to London in 1822,
Charles had to leave school and worked at blacking factory in London. Their financial affairs
ended by imprisoning the father because of debt. All these memories of this painful period
inspired much of his fiction, notably the early chapters of Oliver Twist.
Between 1824 and1827, Dickens studied at Wellington Academy, London, and later in 1827,
at Mr. Dawson’s school. Then heworkedas a law office employee, and then as a shorthand
reporter at Doctor’s Commons at 1827 to 1828.
Dickens married Catherine Hogarth at the age of twenty-two. He had 10 children with her,
and he was a good father for his children. In 1858, he separated with his wife after twenty
years of marriage. Dickens is known for his Hard Times (1854), Oliver Twist (1837), Bleak
House (1852), A Tale of Cities (1859), David Copperfield (1850) and others.

He died in 1870. But From 1858 till his death, Dickens travelled throughout England
and the United States, discourses and reading from his works.

2. Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist

A novel written by Dickens published 1837 in Victorian time. Oliver Twist is one of
Dickens strong social critiques, it portrays the poverty problem and it portrays his philosophy

26
on values. Dickens exhibits genius in embodying London character, and much remarked skill
in making use of peculiarities of expression. He has a hearty sympathy with humanity. Oliver
Twist is a novel give way to the dark criminal underworld of Sikes and Fagin. Dickens has a
hearty sympathy with humanity, so he try by Oliver Twist to gives and describes a real picture
to the poverty, and what is the suffering of the poor people through portraying the outside
world to all inside of English societies in that period. Oliver Twist considered as a piece from
the life of Charles Dickens, which is portrays some events that he passed in his life. Where
this story has a relation to a life of Dickens, when speak about the poor and poverty problems
seek to give the reader a part from his life. And find that Oliver character is Charles Dickens
himself.

2.1 Themes

Oliver Twist demonstrates a young orphan boy who reflects the evils of England’s
poor house's in the 1830's. It also shows the profoundness of London's crime with showing
the petty theft and pick pocketing.

In characters of the novel, Dickens showed the fact that not all poor are born evil.
There are in Oliver Twist novel some characters portrays as an evil in particular, which are
Fagin is characterized as money pincher with no true passion. He had just one target, is how
exploits the people around him to give a better for his situation and strengthen his power. In
contrast, Oliver portrays all that is good in society. He is honest, and loving.

Oliver Twist is a story about the combat between good and evil. With exploitation of
the evil for good. The novel represents the power of love, hate, greed, and revenges. So many
characters lives hatred and greed, yet love and prescript dominate at the end. Dickens shows
in the end of the novel that goodness overcomes evil, in which the evil characters become the
victims of their own crimes, while the good characters live in happily forever.

In Oliver Twist Dickens presented also several themes like the theme of social class,
poverty, criminally, and identity.

The theme of social class, considered as one of the basic themes of most Dickens
novels. The social classes are all inter collected to each other in some aspect. In Oliver Twist,
Charles Dickens shows how the class structures have a different between people where he

27
focuses on the lower class. Dickens also shows how the abnormal Victorian society was_ just
ignored the ordeal of the poor people because they have self confidence. And so satisfied that
the systems they had in place to take care of the poor were the best and most humane systems
possible.

The theme of poverty, Oliver Twist definitely has a specific view on poverty. In Oliver
Twist, Dickens was very concerned with showing how the suffering the lower class really
were the 19th century London. Dickens wasn't shy away from portraying the situations of the
poor in all their misery with brave realism.

The theme of criminality, when Dickens was writing, Crime was a big problem in
London in the 1830. Novels and plays about crime were become famous in the time. Where
some novelists wrote about crime because they had a specific point to make about the source
of criminal behavior, or try to gave solutions to the crime undulation.

Dickens was famous by Oliver Twist, which he wanted to show how criminals lived,
and in order he gave vision about criminal society to poor people for avoid turning to crime.
He also wanted to show how the outward influences make people has criminal behavior as
much or more than natural criminal urges.

The theme of identity, where this novel is all about mistaken identities. Most the
characters of this novel don't know their origins, where each one doesn’t know their parents.
Supposedly each one has a name to be known, it is the society's main marker for identity and
in Oliver Twist, and Oliver’s name is pushing on him almost arbitrarily (or not…) by Mr.
Bumble. The result is a stranger disconnect between the way Oliver sees himself, and the way
the world looks around him, by asking this question: Which is the real Oliver? The honest and
innocent boy or the criminal?

The theme of fate and free will. In Oliver Twist novel, some characters are live happily
and liberated after all the suffering that they lived in. In contrast, other characters aren't able
to get-away from labyrinth which they signed it. Actually, some characters seem to give up
their freedom and will, and therefore to concede themselves.

The focus of Dickens on fate in Oliver Twist seems to undermine that idea, and he
wants to show us how outer world influences turn people into criminals. The lack of free and
self confidence in the human, forcing him to turn into criminals.

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2.2 Characters

Characters are divided into major and minor characters. The major ones are the
important and the big role in the story. In contrast, the other characters the writer takes it to
make his story more convincing and lifelike.

2.2.1 The Major Character

The major characters in Charles Dickens’s novel, Oliver Twist, are important,
wonderful, and sometimes humorous types of personalities that most people know.

Oliver: The protagonist of novel. He is an orphan child, after coming to a life his mother dies.
He lived and grows in the orphanage, and Dickens uses his situation to criticize public policy
toward the poor in 1830s England. He is a nine years old. He is a naive, innocent, and easily
taken advantage of. His true identity is the central mystery of the novel.

Fagin: A conniving career criminal. Fagin mission takes in homeless children and teach them
to chosen pockets for him. He buys the stolen goods from the other people. He always
preferred to employ others to commit crimes, on that do it himself and often suffer legal
punishment. Dickens’s picture of Fagin shows the influence of anti-Semitic stereotypes.

Nancy: Conceded as whore and one of Fagin’s old child pickpockets. She is also Bill Sikes’s
lover. When Sikes abuses Oliver, Nancy intervene come into conflict, because she has ethics.
Despite her criminal lifestyle, she considered as the noblest characters in the novel. Actually,
she gives her life for Oliver when Sikes murders her for discovering Monk’s conspiracy.

Rose Maylie: Agnes Fleming’s sister, raised by Mrs. Maylie after the death of Rose’s father.
Rose is the novel’s model of female grace; she is a beautiful, compassionate, and forgiving
young woman. She created a loving relationship with Oliver even before it is discovered that
the two are related.

Mr. Bumble: A minor church official—for the workhouse where Oliver is born. He also
responsible for running all of the "charitable" establishments in the parish—including the
baby farms and the workhouse. Though Mr. Bumble bodes Christian morality he manages
without mercy toward the poor under his carom. Bumble prefers power, and he likes to use it.
And he’s kind of a sadist, but he’s not without a few redemption qualities. Although Mr.
Bumble has a heart! But the problems that he doesn’t act on his pity. He seems to think that

29
he won’t be respected if he shows pity to anyone, and he considers it is weakness. Dickens
seems to want us to see Mr. Bumble as a real character exist in the real society.

Mr. Brownlow: Mr. Brownlow is erudite gentleman who as Oliver’s first friend and
benefactor. He’s had an approximate life— he was engaged to Mr. Ledford’s sister when she
died. And he was going to marry with her. Throughout the novel, he emerges as a natural
leader and he behaves with compassion and common sense he, because still has faith in
people.

Bill Sikes: Sikes is gritty and strong, professional burglar and he is along shooter in Fagin’s
gang. He’s also distrustful, tenacious, and has what you might call some anger. Sikes is
Nancy's lover, and he treats both them by severely. In spite of his Nancy love, he did the most
heinous of the many crimes that happened in the novel.

Charley Bates: One of Fagin’s pickpockets serves the same role as the Dodger but in a
slightly different way. The Dodger is funny, and knows too much for his age, so that the
variance creates comedy. Charley is just his dumb sidekick. He’s referred to as "Master Bates.

Master Bates believes and that crime is just one long joke against the system. That is the
cause of Nancy's death by Sikes. Except could say that Charley is the only the character
passing on big change. In the final chapter of the novel Dickens tells us that Charley became a
farm hand and is very happy with a country life, because after the murder, Charley believes
that crime is not something funny and goes straight.

The Artful Dodger: Is one of the most famous characters in the novel, which was the
cleverest of Fagin’s pickpockets. He has a real name is Jack Dawkins. He offers comic
episodes in part because of his anti-establishment. Some critics believe that the Artful Dodger
is focused on the historical thief and prison-breaker, Jack Sheppard.

2.2.2 Minor Character

Dickens uses in Oliver Twist many minor characters to make they serve to complement the
major characters and help move and continue the events. They are:

30
Agnes Fleming: Oliver’s mother. After falling in love with Mr. Leefordand carries it, she
chooses to die to be a stain her family. She was a beautiful, loving woman, the daughter of a
retired naval officer’s. She died shortly after giving birth to Oliver.

Mrs. Maylie: The mother of Harry Maylie and adoptive “aunt” of Rose.

Harry Maylie: Mrs. Maylie’s son.

Mr. Losberne: The doctor of Mrs. Maylie’s family.

Mrs. Corney: The matron of the workhouse where Oliver is born.

Noah Claypole: A good boy and Mr. Sowerberry’s apprentice.

Mr. Sowerberry: The undertaker to whom Oliver is apprenticed.

Mrs. Sowerberry: The wife of sowerberry.

Barney: Criminal associates of Fagin friends.

2.3 The Plot Summary:

Oliver is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. His mother dies after his birth
without known any one, and he is found on the street. In the first nine years of Oliver's life
lived in a poorly run home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse for
adults. When Oliver was feel hungry, he asking for more food, so the parish officials display
five pounds to anyone who will take the boy away as an apprentice. In the end he parish
beadle eventually send Oliver off with a coffin-maker, Mr. Sowerberry. When the other
undertaker, Noah Claypole, annoys Oliver by speaking about Oliver's mother, he attacks him
and incurs the Sowerberrys’ wrath. After Oliver was ill-treated, he decides at dawn to set out
for London on foot.

When he arrived to London, he got to know a young man named Jack Dawkins (better
known as The Artful Dodger). In the beginning Jack offers him shelter in the London house of
his volunteer; Fagin. Oliver doesn't know that Fagin is a career criminal who trains orphan
boys to pick pockets for him. After a few days of training, Oliver is sent to the first a pick
pocketing mission with two other boys, which is called one of them Charley Bates. Oliver
sees the boys steal the pocket handkerchief out of an old man's pocket. When Oliver turns to

31
run away, an old man sees him run and yells, "stop, thief! » It was the first time that Oliver is
stealing; he is caught but strictly escapes being convicted of the theft. The man whose
handkerchief was stolen (Mr. Brownlow), home and cares for him until he’s well. Where Mr.
Brownlow semi Oliver to a picture of a young woman that hangs in his house. Mr. Brownlow
decides to take care of Oliver and keep him in his home, but Fagin was afraid to rat them out
to the police, so he sent two young adults in Fagin’s gang, Bill Sikes and his lover Nancy, to
catch Oliver and return him to Fagin.

Fagin keeps Oliver imprisoned for days, with his insistence to turn him into a criminal.
Then Fagin sends Oliver to help Sikes in a theft. After the entry Oliver and Sikes to the home
the servants of the house wake up and catch Oliver in the act of sneaking in. Oliver was
actually about to wake up the household to warn them about the robbers, but the servants
don’t realize that he is there against his will. Oliver was a victim Fagin and his gang, but
when he was injured by the shooter, he is picked up by the people who shot him. This family
turns out to be as nice as Mr. Brownlow. They become Oliver’s caretakers. Fagin didn't give
up returning Oliver, so he and a mysterious man named Monks are set on recovering Oliver.
Nancy was kind to Oliver and doesn’t likes what happen to him, so secretly resolves to help
Oliver, and to find out why Monks is so care to turning Oliver to crime. So Nancy was told
about Monk’s plot with Fagin to Rose Maylie. When Sikes know about Nancy's help to
Oliver, he killed her and flees London, but he dies while trying to escape from the police.

Oliver learns to read and write with his new friends, the Maylies, when Fagin and the
criminal distress. He assembled with his first friend, Mr. Brownlow.

Mr. Brownlow tries hard to find Monks, and he confronted him by the truth about
Oliver’s pedigree from him. At the end, Monks is actually the older half-brother of Oliver,
and Their father, Mr. Leeford, where had an affair with Oliver’s mother, Agnes Fleming, with
whom he was married. Actually, Monks was trying to spoil Oliver so that he’d insurance the
entire family inheritance for himself.

Oliver ends a happy life, where taking his share of inheritance through law adopted by
Mr. Brownlow, and lives down the road from the Maylies. Everyone lives happy, where Mr.
Brownlow adopts Oliver. Except for Fagin, who is detained and hanged, and Monks, who dies
in prison.

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3. Portraying Poverty in Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens famous literary works. First published in
(1837-39), considered as many subjects and events in the story are based on Dickens' life
from early, childhood to maturity. He focuses on the poverty life and what happened to
orphan children in workhouse through dealing badly with them, and depriving them of the
simplest forms. Dickens try to describe us the exploit people in different genres of crime like
stealing, killing and others that what make people go to the abyss in the society. Dickens takes
the children as an example in his novel.
Dickens wrote of Oliver Twist:

So they established the rule, that all poor people should have the

alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they,) of being

starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of

it. (Oliver Twist, 1842, 21)

This passage, from Chapter 2, represents the conditions in the workhouse which Oliver
passed through. Dickens wants to give us description that has twofold: first, he wants us to
sympathies with Oliver and his friends and second, to register Dickens’s protest against the
welfare policy and practice of charity in the England of his time. The British Parliament
passed a controversial amendment to the nation’s “poor-laws, and that was Three years before
the publication of Oliver Twist. This amendment stipulated that the poor must stay in official
workplaces and abide by their regulation in order to obtain public assistance. In these
workhouses, living conditions were often very poor because husbands were separated from
wives. Dickens adopts a sarcastic, harshly satirical tone to make this point, and this passage
we find it throughout the early chapters of the novel. Dickens, in fact, does only state the truth
but when read and we try to focus on what he says, we find that he says the exact opposite of
what he means. All of the conditions he describes did actually exist. Dickens depends on the
absurdity of the way English society treated the poor to manifest itself through his description.

They made a great many other wise and humane regulations

having reference to the ladies, which it is not necessary to

repeat. (Oliver Twist 1842, 21)

33
 Parish authorities wanted to control the poor people so try to keep poor people on nor
reproducing and creating more little poor people. So they had rigorous rules to retain men and
women in separate quarters in the workhouses. And was the rule is neither wise non humane.
It was part of the self-censoring that’s all over Victorian fantasy. The reason for separated
men and women was, of course, to prevent them from multiplying.

The houses on either side were high and large, but very old; and

tenanted by people of the poorest class. [...] A great many of the

tenements […] which had become insecure from age and decay,

were prevented from falling into the street by huge beams of

wood which were reared against the tottering walls, and firmly

planted in the road; but even these crazy dens seemed to have

been selected as the nightly haunts of some houseless wretches,

for many of the rough boards which supplied the place of door

and window, were wrenched from their positions to afford an

aperture wide enough for the passage of a human body. The

kennel was stagnant and filthy; the very rats that here and there

lay putrefying in its rottenness were hideous with famine.

(Oliver Twist 1842, 51)

This passage from chapter 5, which is a best example of Dickens’s realism – he

describes the poorest part of the town without drawing any punches that expressing by it.
Dickens’s was interested by any point that has a relation with the poor people, because there
are some readers were offended by this kind of details – he wanted to shock readers by
showing them how the poor really lived. In this passage makes dickens people like their
houses, which every poor house express on his social status. Earlier in the paragraph, Dickens
describes people are dehumanized they give them an example (like shadows), and they’re
reduced to "human bodies" here – they’re not even "people" – just nameless bodies.

I never knew how bad she was, till the fever came upon her, and

then her bones were starting through the skin. There was neither

34
 fire nor candle; she died in the dark – in the dark. She couldn’t

even see her children’s faces, though we heard her gasping out

their names. I begged for her in the streets, and they sent me to

prison. When I came back, she was dying; and all the blood in

my heart has dried up, for they starved her to death. I swear it

before the God that saw it, – they starved her! (Oliver

Twist1842, 52.53)

Mr. Bayton is a poor man, telling to Mr. Sowerberry and Oliver over the body of his
dead wife. When we read this passage we find two questions: why does he repeat "in the
dark"? Obviously, she was in the dark when she died (there is no light), but repeating it makes
us wonder if, he has a half-crazy, but the suggestion of Mr. Bayton that she died in the dark
has more figurative sense, as well. The whole system leaves people in the dark. There is the
second question: that Mr. Ayton is accusing of starving her to death? By using the pronoun
"they". Again, that’s something he repeats: "they starved her." Does he mean the authorities
concerned? The neighbors in the poor neighborhood around him? The rich people who turn a
blind eye to the suffering of others? All of society? If it’s all of society, does that mean that
the reader, too, shares some of the guilt of starving her?

The man’s face was thin and very pale; his hair and beard were

grizzly, and his eyes were bloodshot. The old woman’s face was

wrinkled, her two remaining teeth protruded over her under lip

and her eyes were bright and piercing. Oliver was afraid to look

at either her or the man, – they seemed so like the rats he had

seen outside. (Oliver Twist, 1842, 52)

Dickens seems to want the reader to sympathize with them, by portraying these people
as desperately poor. In this description, they hardly believes that this human, and Oliver finds
that he can’t empathize with them because they’re more like animals than people.

35
 The sun was rising in all his splendid beauty, but the light only

seemed to show the boy his own lonesomeness and desolation

as he sat with bleeding feet and covered with dust upon a cold

door-step. (Oliver Twist, 1842, 72)

The sun shines on everyone – rich and poor this is an old famous saying. When we take this
saying on Oliver , the sun might be shining on Oliver, but he don't feel it because it isn’t
warming at all – the door-step Oliver is sitting on is still "cold," and the light only shows him.

Out-of-door relief, properly managed, -- properly managed,

ma’am,-- is the parochial safe-guard. The great principle of out-

of-door relief is to give the paupers exactly what they don’t

want, and then they get tired of coming. (Oliver Twist, 1842,

327)

Trade secrets here revealing by Mr. Bumbles. They come to ask for help "Out-of-door
relief» is the practice of giving people help, rather than waiting until they have no choice but
to be admitted to the workhouse. Mr. Bumble’s used "parochial safe-guard" because that
method is a way to save the parish money-but do the poor stop coming because they’re tired
of it, or because they want to stay starved to death on their own?. So Dickens attacks the New
Poor Law of 1834 by his writing Oliver Twist. The New Poor Law was really a series of
measures that were published in 1834. Supposedly these laws were to supply aid and
assistance to impoverished people. However the system had serious blemishes.

Rich woods of an inland village! Who can tell how scenes of

peace and quietude sink into the minds of pain-worn dwellers in

close and noisy places, and carry their own freshness deep into

their jaded hearts! Men who have lived in crowded, pent-up

streets, through lives of toil, and who have never wished for

36
 change ;men to whom custom has indeed been second nature,

and who have come almost to love each brick and stone that

formed the narrow boundaries of their daily walks ;even they,

with the hand of death upon them, have been known to yearn at

last for one short glimpse of Nature’s face, and, carried far from

the scenes of their old pains and pleasures, have seemed to pass

at once into a new state of being .(Oliver Twist,1842, 297)

In this passage from Chapter 32, representing Oliver’s sojourn to the countryside with
Mrs. Maylie and Rose, Dickens reveals his deep adopt about the impact of urban life on
human personality. This section praises the clarity and health of the rural environment.
Dickens pointed out that every poor people are clean and neat. The filth and famine that
characterize urban poverty are not present in rural England. Dickens’s perfect vision make
him all the more clearly as an urban writer, since his bold portraits of city life are based on
real experience, while his portrait of rural life seems more the product of wistful fantasy.

Stay another moment,” interposed Rose. . . . “Will you return to

this gang of robbers, and to this man, when a word can save

you? What fascination is it that can take you back, and make

you cling to wickedness and misery?” “When ladies as young,

and good, and beautiful as you are,” replied the girl [Nancy]

steadily, “give away your hearts, love will carry you all

lengths—even such as you, who have home, friends, other

admirers, everything, to fill them. When such as I, who have no

certain roof but the coffin-lid, and no friend in sickness or death

but the hospital nurse, set our rotten hearts on any man, and let

him fill the place that has been a blank through all our wretched

lives, who can hope to cure us? Pity us, lady—pity us for

having only one feeling of the woman left and for having that

37
 turned, by a heavy judgment, from a comfort and a pride into a

new means of violence and suffering .(Oliver Twist ,1842,381)

This passage from chapter 40, there are the exchange place between Rose and Nancy.
It represents an advanced treatment of ethical and social issues that dominate the story.
Nancy, a prostitute, represents for Dickens about impairment in poverty can force people to
do some things not good. On the other hand, Rose represents all the purity that comes from
good breeding. Both women represent feminine passion which brought them together to help
Oliver. In this part, Dickens confirms the main role that environment plays in distinguishing
vice from virtue: which was virtue in Rose is a self-destructive force for Nancy. Though
intelligent and emotional of Nancy, but she favors Rose’s attempts to save her from her life of
crime, thus proving that bad upbringing and that there is no dispute in this. We find in the
novel that the love of Nancy for Sikes and her compassion for Oliver together compel her to
sacrifice her own life.

[…] every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome

indication of filth, rot, and garbage; -- all these ornament the

banks of Folly Ditch. (Oliver Twist, 1842, 471)

Poverty is something very loathsome and repulsive in folly ditch. Is that a reflection of what
Dickens believes of poor people, or of the conditions the broken social system forces them to
live in.

38
Conclusion
Through the characters‟, the setting, and the characterization in Oliver Twist, Dickens
portrays certain social facts of poor society and tries to give a picture a social status that lived
it the poor class. He leads the reader to hope for the New Poor Law, which it focuses on
reform that may give birth to social justice and equality between the poor people and the
others. Dickens creates a story that subtracts the issues of the Victorian era including the
suffering of poor people and class division that existed during this era. Depends dickens in
Oliver Twist by describes of poverty and the social status, that was very decadent for the poor
people especially the focus on his novel about the children as a good example of exploitation.

39
General conclusion
 General Conclusion

English society saw many challenges through the Victorian period as a result of a
phenomenon called poverty which is one of the principal problems in many aspects of life.
Through it, many novelists at that time were influenced by the social problems especially that
related by the social classes in the country which lead them to use this theme in their works.
One of those novelists was Charles Dickens, who oftentimes his writers about his a real life.

Dickens considered as a social critic, which he had a profound influence on novelists.

Dickens participated in many activities, which was in promoting and raised awareness in
against poverty, deprivation of child education, and work.

Therefore, Oliver Twist is one of the famous novels which treat and express the theme
of poverty in Britain society, especially the problems which the orphan children suffer from.
In general the novel treated the social class differences, and the reflection of poverty in
society behavior and ethics.

Oliver Twist is the semi-autobiographical life of author Charles Dickens. The novel
portray his childhood to maturity, which seek the suffering of Dickens also in his life with
family, where in each chapter of ten novel we discover some parts of his experience from life.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens reflects society with its phenomena, morals and
values. Marxism theory aligned with this idea. From our analysis by using the Marxist theory,
we discovered that the description of setting and characters appear real. They are reflections
of some realities, where the events of the novel reflect the conditions and the poverty in the
British society.

41
 Bibliography

 Dobie, M. A. (2011). Theory into Practice (3rd edition Ed.).

 Marx, K. (Ed). (1998). the German Ideology. (Edited by Great Books in

Philosophy) United States, America: Book Finder org.

 Pogreba, D. (2005). Literary Criticism: Marxism.

 Kimball, Y & Mack, R. (Eds). (1965). Sociology and Social Life. (3rd edition

Ed.). New York: American.

 Wright, E. O. (2003). Social Class.

 Harold Bloom (2008). Blooms Classic Critical Views Charles Dickens

 Fletcher, H. R. (2002). A History of English Literature.

 Louis, J. (2006). The Victorian Novel. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing.

 Philip Collins (1839). The Critical Heritage Charles Dickens.

 Paul (2007.1999). Critical Companion To Charles Dickens: A Literary

Reference to His Life and Work..

 Rania Kiwan.Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens with Summaries and Notes

Prepared.

 The Definition of
Marxist.http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/slaugh
te.htm.
 Marxism Theory.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marxism.

 Chracteristics of Marxism.
 https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-defining-characteristics-of-Marxism
 www.sparknotes.com › ... › Literature Study Guides › Oliver Twist/ Plot

Summary.

 www.shmoop.com › Literature › Oliver Twist.

42
Résumé

La présente étude tente de faire face au problème de la pauvreté dans la société

britannique pendant la période victorienne. Le roman de Charles Dickens Oliver Twist
considéré comme une étude de cas. Il s'agit de montrer les différences entre les classes
sociales dans la société victorienne. En outre, il vise à montrer qu’Oliver Twist dépeint la
réalité de l'injustice sociale envers les pauvres et l'Angleterre en période victorienne.
L'analyse de l'étude se fera à travers les réalités des réalités décrites par Charles Dickens
dans Oliver Twist. Le travail est divisé en deux chapitres. Le premier chapitre présente des
vues et des définitions générales sur les classes sociales avec la théorie marxiste, et le
deuxième chapitre traite l'analyse du roman en se concentrant sur le contenu à travers une
discussion quelques citations du roman d'Oliver Twist.

Mots Clés : Marxist, Class de la Société, La Pauvreté, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

43
 ‫ﻣﻠﺨﺺ‬

‫اﻟﮭﺪف ﻣﻦ ھﺬه اﻟﺪراﺳﺔ ھﻲ ﻣﺤﺎوﻟﺔ اﻟﺘﻌﺎﻣﻞ ﻣﻊ ﻣﺸﻜﻠﺔ اﻟﻔﻘﺮ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻤﺠﺘﻤﻊ اﻟﺒﺮﯾﻄﺎﻧﻲ ﺧﻼل اﻟﻌﺼﺮ اﻟﻔﯿﻜﺘﻮري‪.‬ﺗﺸﺎرﻟﺰ دﯾﻜﻨﺰ‬
‫"رواﯾﺔ أوﻟﯿﻔﺮ ﺗﻮﯾﺴﺖ" ﺗﻌﺘﺒﺮ ﻛﺪراﺳﺔ ﺣﺎﻟﺔ‪ .‬وﯾﺄﺗﻲ ذﻟﻚ ﻹظﮭﺎر اﻻﺧﺘﻼﻓﺎت ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﻄﺒﻘﺎت اﻻﺟﺘﻤﺎﻋﯿﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻤﺠﺘﻤﻊ اﻟﻔﯿﻜﺘﻮري‪.‬‬
‫ﻛﻤﺎ ﯾﮭﺪف إﻟﻰ إظﮭﺎر أن أوﻟﯿﻔﺮ ﺗﻮﯾﺴﺖ ﯾﺼﻮر واﻗﻊ اﻟﻈﻠﻢ اﻻﺟﺘﻤﺎﻋﻲ ﻟﻠﻔﻘﺮاء ﻓﻲ ﺑﺮﯾﻄﺎﻧﯿﺎ ﺧﻼل اﻟﻌﺼﺮ اﻟﻔﯿﻜﺘﻮري‪ .‬وﺳﯿﺘﻢ‬
‫ﺗﺤﻠﯿﻞ اﻟﺪراﺳﺔ ﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل واﻗﻊ اﻟﺤﻘﺎﺋﻖ اﻟﺘﻲ وﺻﻔﮭﺎ ﺗﺸﺎرﻟﺰ دﯾﻜﻨﺰ ﻓﻲ أوﻟﯿﻔﺮ ﺗﻮﯾﺴﺖ‪ .‬وﯾﻨﻘﺴﻢ اﻟﻌﻤﻞ إﻟﻰ ﻓﺼﻠﯿﻦ‪ .‬ﯾﻌﺮض‬
‫اﻟﻔﺼﻞ اﻷول آراء ﻋﺎﻣﺔ وﺗﻌﺎرف ﺣﻮل اﻟﻄﺒﻘﺎت اﻻﺟﺘﻤﺎﻋﯿﺔ ﻣﻊ اﻟﻨﻈﺮﯾﺔ اﻟﻤﺎرﻛﺴﯿﺔ‪ ،‬أﻣﺎ اﻟﻔﺼﻞ اﻟﺜﺎﻧﻲ ﻓﯿﻌﺎﻟﺞ ﺗﺤﻠﯿﻞ اﻟﺮواﯾﺔ‬
‫اﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﺮﻛﺰ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﻤﺤﺘﻮى ﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل ﻣﻨﺎﻗﺸﺔ ﺑﻌﺾ اﻟﻤﻘﺘﻄﻔﺎت ﻣﻦ رواﯾﺔ أوﻟﯿﻔﺮ ﺗﻮﯾﺴﺖ‪.‬‬

‫‪.‬اﻟﻜﻠﻤﺎت اﻟﻤﻔﺘﺎﺣﯿﺔ˸ اﻟﻨﻈﺮﯾﺔ اﻟﻤﺎرﻛﺴﯿﺔ ‪ ,‬اﻟﻄﺒﻘﺔ اﻻﺟﺘﻤﺎﻋﯿﺔ‪ ,‬اﻟﻔﻘﺮ‪ ,‬ﺗﺸﺎرﻟﺰ دﯾﻜﻨﺰ‪ ,‬اوﻟﯿﻔﺮ ﺗﻮﯾﺴﺖ‬

‫‪44‬‬