OLIVER TWIST

•1.    Read the text and briefly summarise what happens.

The scene in set in the dining hall of the workhouse where Oliver Twist lived.

Children who lived there were hungry because they were exploited and undernourished, so they decided to ask some more gruel at the dinner.

They drew lost for the boy who should walk up to the Master and it fell to Oliver Twist.

At the evening, Oliver asked to the Master to have some more gruel, but the Master hit him and reported Oliver' s rebellion to his uppers; the gentlemen in the high chair commented this fact with the words: "That boy will be hung".

•2.    Now focus on Dickens' realistic view of this scene.

•1.    Which aspects of the scene strike you as being taken from real life?

I think that the most realistic scene is children' s dealing during the dinner:  even if children are hungry and tired, Dickens doesn't describe them like they were little men (patient, resigned and calm) but he describes their impatience, the fact that they can' t keep still, as the reader can understand from

 "the boy whispered each other, and winked at Oliver.."

Children are afraid but they are described like children, with their excitement.

•2.    Which group of characters do you think the writer sides with? Give reasons for your choice.

I think that the reader is sided with children: Dickens describe in two different way children and uppers, he underlines uppers'  well-being, in juxtaposition to children's condition.

He dwells on the contraposition between children' s hungry and  the Master' s physical aspect

"The master was a fat, healthy man..."

so Dickens expresses his disappointment about suckers.

•3.    What do you think the main target of the writer' s criticism is?

I think that the main target of the writer' s criticism are that people who exploit and railroad themselves: these people are not necessarily masters or gentlemen in a with waistcoat, they can be common people too because everyone can bully somebody even if he is not more rich or intelligent respect his victim.

4.  Can the reader from a different opinion from the narrator' s? Explain why or why not.

The reader can' t have a different opinion from the narrator because there in a third person, omniscient, intrusive narrator.

•3.    Focus on language and style.

•a)    Consider the general condition/feelings before Oliver's request. What detail/s has/have a humorous affect in spite of tragic condition of the children?

"...the boys whispered each other..."

"...they winked at Oliver..."

"...neighbours nudged him."

•b)    Mark the various characters' reactions after Oliver' s request. Which of the devices listed above have been used to describe these reactions?

Dickens describes the general reaction after Oliver' s request using the juxtaposition (or mixes) of sad  and comic details and with the ridiculing of what he intends to criticizes by repeating words and phrases: he explain the same concept more that once, but using different words.

•c)    Find some more example from the text for the other features listed above.

Dickens introduces a tragic aspect of real life in his novel: the sentence

"That boy will be hung [...] I know that boy will be hung"

adds an exaggerated judge about an innocent request and it negative connotes  people who exclaimed its.

Dickens uses a tragic and exaggerated term to affect his idea about childrens' situation.