Gender issues and Class distinction in Oliver Twist

Presented by- Urvi DaveClass- M A Semester- 2Paper no.- 6 (Victorian Literature)Batch Year- 2014-16Enrolment No.- 14101009

Email id- dave.urvi71@gmail.comGuidance- Heenaba ZalaSubmitted to- Smt. S B Gardi

Department of EnglishMaharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was a typical product of Early Victorian England. In the formative years of his life, Dickens was shaken by the events of the French revolution of 1789.

Society and Class is one of the central themes of most of Dickens's novels.

Dickens tells us how superficial class structures really are- at the core, everyone’s really the same, regardless of the social class into which they are born.

• He exposes how callous and uncaring Victorian society was. Folks just ignored the plight of less fortunate because they were so self- satisfied and so convinced that the systems they had in place to take care of the poor were the best and most humane systems possible.

• The upper classes of English society which comprised of the propertied classes were alarmed at the events in France where aristocrats and privileged sections of society were executed under the guillotine; but the underprivileged and the poor were happy and encouraged to agitate for better conditions.

“ And what an excellent example of the power of dress; Oliver Twist was. Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar- it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to have fixed his station in society. But now he was enveloped in the old calico robes, that had grown yellow in the same service he was badged and ticketed and fell into his place at once- a parish child- the orphan of a workhouse- the humble, half- starved drudge- to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none”.

• Board members of the workhouse were of high class. Oliver is presented to them and is told that he should consider himself fortunate to work in the workhouse.

• This shows that they ruled over the people of workhouse and decided what work each individual has to do.

• Oliver’s dialogue- “Please Sir! I want some more.”

• We find class and privilege when Noah Claypole takes it for granted that he is superior to Oliver. Dickens's says “ It shows what a beautiful thing human nature can be made to be, and how impartially the same human qualities are developed in the finest lord and the dirtiest charity boy”.

• Noah teases Oliver by saying “ But yer must know, Work 'us, yes mother was a regular right- down bad ‘un’.”

•We see gender discrimination in this novel. Nancy is a prostitute and is a member in Fagin’s gang. She is a noble person but at the end is killed by Bill Sikes when she helps Mr. Brownlow for Oliver’s rescue.

• She regrets the things that she had been done to Oliver especially since he was an innocent young boy.

• Concluding, we can say that class distinction and gender discrimination existed in this era and is clearly shown by Dickens.