Pag. 339: Oliver Twist

•1)     What information are we given about Oliver?

Oliver Twist is a child, he is nine years old, he is pale, thin, with a minute stature and a very small circumference. On the contrary he has a good, robust spirit.

•2)     What do you think "the establishment" is?

The establishment probably is a sort of prison and an institution where all sort of people live and work. It is a place for poor people, thieves, orphans.

Pag. 348: Murdering the Innocents

•1)     What kind of person is Thomas Gradgrind?

Thomas Gradgrind is a man of realities, of fats and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four. Thanks to this the intelligent reader understand that he is rigid, sever and that he does not accept mistakes.

•2)     What kind of teaching do you expect he has adopted in his school?

A reader expects he ahs adopted a very strong method/ kind of teaching in his school and that students are not allowed to rebel. They are not allowed to thing and works as they want or prefer.

•3)     The title Dickens gave to his chapter is "Murdering the Innocents"; who do you think the innocents are and how might they be murdered?

The innocent probably are student's mind which can easily be modelled through the teacher's strong character. In this way the innocents minds are murdered because they are obliged to listen teacher's will.

Pag. 342:  Workhouses

•-        Institutions where people unable to support themselves lived and worked

•-        Places of hardship and degradation where families were broken up

•-        Food was poor and scarce

•-        Conditions were uncomfortable in order to discourage laziness in poor people

•-        Early 19^th century à increase in population; agricultural depression à relief system under strain -à strong public protest

•-        Workhouses remained a powerful symbol of degradation and shame until their final dismantling in 1929

Pag. 350: Utilitarism

•-        Term "Utilitarian": first adopted in 1823 by John Stuart Mill; he advocated the theory of Utilitarism, a political, economic and social doctrine which considered the principle of "the greatest number" as the foundation of morals and based all values on utility.

•-        Utilitarism dismissed as superfluous fiction terms such as conscience, moral science, love and right

•-        Their claim was that they were "scientific" and that they set aside old-fashioned moral casuistry à create a population entirely controlled by factories and machines