The world of Oliver Twist

1. The world of Oliver Twist!

2. Dickens had some personal experience of poverty in his own childhood. At the age of twelve, when his father had financial problems, he was sent to work in a London factory making shoe polish. Heneverforgot the miseryofthatexperience. Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse, the home of the poorest people in 19th century England. In many towns workhouses were built to keep poor people off the streets and give them some kind of employment. They were cold, unfriendly places with no comfort and minimum of food. They were sometimes run by brutal or unscrupulous managers, who abused the people under their control. It was a great disgrace to come from a workhouse. Most people considered them as no better than prisons. Oliver was often insulted by people who called him "a workhouse boy". There were many poor people in England in those years. The population was growing and society was changing rapidly because of the agricultural and industrial revolutions. People moved into the developing industrial towns where new factories were opening. But working and living conditions there were very bad. Life was particularly hard for the children of poor families. Most of them never attended a school and some were sent out to work at the age of only five or six.

3. Oliver escapes from his town and makes his way to London to seek his fortune. London was the greatest city in England and probably the biggest in the world at that time. Britain was becoming the first great industrial nation and it was still growing. • In some parts of the city there were magnificent townhouses, extensive parks and elegant streets and shops. London was a dirty chaotic city and had a terrible size, so this must have been a shock for a boy from a small town, such as Oliver. • In the east end of London there was a terrible poverty. Here the houses were old and broken-down. Sanitary conditions were very poor: rubbish and waste often ended up on the street or in the river.

4. In London, Oliver finds himself adopted by a criminal and his gang of thieves. • Crime was one of the great fears of ordinary people in London. • Pickpockets and thieves were active in the streets while violent robbers broke into the houses of the rich.

5. Poor people couldn't afford a lawyer to defend them. • Men, women and children were often thrown all together into the same prison. • Food and conditions were terrible and disease was very common. Others were kept for years inside dark, dirty prison ships on the River Thames. • The death penalty was a common punishment even for relatively minor crimes. • Death was by hanging and executions were carried out in public, because these were like a form of popular entertainment. • Dickens had personal experience of how the law operated. When he was a child his own father was held in prison because he was unable to repay his debts.

6. I love reading! I read "Oliver Twist" a few years ago and I also saw the film. I really liked it because it’s an engaging story. This story is about social problems in England in the nineteenth century also experienced by the author, Charles Dickens. Then the film is fantastic! How about you? Have you ever read it?