Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, narrates the story of a young boy, Oliver, who gets sent to a workhouse after his mother's death. In the workhouse, Oliver and the other orphans are treated cruelly with insufficient food and severe punishments. Even after being sold to the Sowerberrys, Oliver lives unhappily and with little food and care. After being insulted by another Sowerberry co-apprentice, Oliver fights with him and is later punished by Mr. Sowerberry. After running away from his cruel owner, Oliver is hooked into a gang of thieves, with the leader as Fagin, who tries to teach him to steal numerous items for money. When Oliver is accused wrongly of stealing a handkerchief, Mr. Brownlow takes pity on him and adopts him. Under Mr. Bronlow’s care, Oliver is treated well and heals from his many past wounds from both the workhouse and the punishment of the officers. Worried about being incriminated by him, Fagin attempts to bring Oliver back, but he runs away and is kindly cared for by the Maylies. Later, the Maylies and Mr. Brownlow work together to find that Oliver and Monks, Fagin's associate, were half-brothers with the same father and that Monks attempted to steal Oliver's inheritance. After Fagin's gang members finally get caught and sentenced, Oliver, the Maylies, and Mr. Brownlow live peacefully in a small village in England.
Social status and class are crucial in society, especially in the Victorian era, which could influence people’s future lives in different ways. Social class consists of the upper, middle, and lower classes; social status and reputation in turn affect people’s social lives greatly, in both negative and positive ways. In Oliver Twist, the upper class consists of the Maylie family, The Leeford family, and The Brownlow family; the middle class includes the Bumble family and the Sowerberry family; the lower class consists of Oliver Twist who was born as a poor pauper and the many members of Fagin’s criminal gang. While the different ways people were treated weren’t emphasized much throughout the novel, their life conditions were greatly differentiated. For instance, the members of Fagin’s criminal gang were stuck in poverty and had to perform criminal activity in order to make a living. Oliver and his workmates lived in poverty and extreme starvation and often suffered severe punishments. On the other hand, under the care of kind and wealthy families such as the Maylies and Mr. Brownlow, Oliver was treated with great care, protection, and decent surroundings. People like Oliver Twist, who was born into the lower class, had to climb up the social ladder to live in better conditions. While most people such as the criminal gang, Mr. Brownlow, the Maylies, the Bumbles, and the Sowerberrys stayed in the same social class throughout the course of the novel, some, also called social climbers, managed to ascend to higher social levels, such as Rose, who married Harry Maylie; Agnes Fleming, who married Mr. Leeford; Charles Bates, who worked in the fields; and Oliver Twist, who was lucky enough to get found by Mr. Bronlow. People’s lives are affected by their social status and class, which is seen as an important factor throughout multiple time periods.
The new poor law ensured that the poor people who went into workhouses were clothed, fed, and sheltered and that children were to be educated at less cost; however, in exchange for all this treatment, all workhouse paupers had to work for several hours each day. Although many people believed the new poor law was able to ensure better treatment for poor people, it seemed to punish poor people for no fault of their own. The Victorian workhouse was used more as a tool to lessen the number of poor people from the bottom level and to elevate the power and wealth of rich people from the upper social class. Oliver Twist, set in around 1837, reflected the conditions and times of the workhouse after the new poor law was introduced, in 1834. Oliver, and his workmates, were treated harshly and worked nonstop even as young children. Before the new poor law, the middle and high social levels had to pay increasingly more taxes to the government to care for the poor, creating complaints. The new poor law was said to ensure similar treatment as the old poor law during the Victorian era, with less cost and tax. However, it required inmates, male or female, young or old, to work many hours a day, offered only 10 minutes of break for each of the two meals a day, and had to suffer harsh punishments for being disobedient. Andover Workhouse was a scandal centered around the new poor law reporting that starving workhouse inmates were found eating the rotten flesh around bones. Many scandals caused the government to be stricter with people who ran workhouses, but it didn’t help the condition of inmates. The new poor law after the Victorian Era made it cost less to care for the poor in workhouses and worsened their living conditions simultaneously.
Fate, or destiny, can influence people’s roles in their individual lives and decisions in multiple ways. Many people’s lives and roles are determined by fate, their family background, and their born human nature. Many characters in the story have their fates determined by them, influencing them to pursue one specific path or career for the whole of their lifetime. For instance, Fagin and the other members of his gang were all fated to remain as criminals for their whole life, and be later punished because of their crimes. The Artful Dodger remains a criminal and pickpocketer for the whole novel and is later caught by the police and sentenced to a penalty in prison. The other members of the criminal gang, such as Toby Crackit, Barney, and Tom Chitling, have similar endings because of fate and destiny. Likewise, Fagin pursues the same lifestyle throughout his life and is later sentenced to death by the authorities. Although they both try to escape detection within the big streets of London, they both accept that it is their fate to be a criminal until the end. Like most people, they are unable to change their fate and direct themselves to a better career, because of their family or birth background and social or financial conditions. Later in the novel, when he murders Nancy, Sikes also understands and accepts that he has become a known criminal and must face the punishments for his crime. Many people, like Fagin and most of his criminal gang, are fated to a determined path in life and continue in the same specific direction or career until the end. Many people are set up with one career or life path and are influenced in decisions and roles by fate and destiny.
Oliver Twist narrates the story centering Oliver, a young boy, who experiences multiple peaks and slopes throughout his childhood life. In the novel, social class is seen as one of the key factors that contribute to the structure of the story; it contrasts the beginning of Oliver’s childhood life in the workhouse with his later happiness with the Brownlow family and the Maylie family, which both are kind and good-conditioned households. The novel especially introduces the Victorian workhouse, an establishment created to care for the poor who cannot care for themselves or find a job. The new poor law established after the Victorian Era was said to ensure a good living condition for inmates in a workhouse with less cost, but in reality, it required people to suffer harsher punishments and worse treatments. Throughout the story, fate is shown to play a major role in each of the characters’ lives. People’s careers and life paths are greatly influenced by fate and destiny; for instance, Fagin and the members of his criminal gang are all set up with the similar fate of being a criminals and performing illegal actions. Like many people nowadays, most characters in the novel cannot control their fate and have to continue their lives with destiny’s flow.
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