Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837-38)

Extract from chapter II

Exercises

1. Read the text and briefly summarise what happens.

Oliver Twist and the other companions were in the eating-house when the master entered into the room. He gave food to the children but it was too little. The children were always hungry, and, as a consequence, they decided that one of them should ask the master some more gruel after having eat.

Oliver was the child supposed to do that, and, under his companions urges, he did.

The reaction of Mr Limbkins (the chairman of the board), when Mrs. Humble (the beadle) told to him what happened, was not good: he wanted Oliver to 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?

The aspect taken from real life is the condition in which children lived during the Victorian Age. The extract taken best showed one of the bad consequences of industrialization: children exploitation and poverty.

Parents are not able to grown their children because to survive they had to work all day in factories. Even if they work a lot there were no money to support sons. Children lived in the street or they could work in work-houses in the life conditions described in the text.

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

The reader thinks that the writer sides with children because they are presented as they who acted. In the extract seemed that adults only react to Oliver's request.

So the third person omniscient intrusive narrator focused his attention on children's plans, thoughts, problems and just on the adults reaction that interest also Oliver and his companions.

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

The main target of Dickens is to shown to the Victorian upper society, to aristocracy and to the middle class what are the results of industrialization in low classes.

He wanted the factory owners that exploited children to identify themselves with the devilish caricature of Mr. Limbkins.

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

No, the reader is not able to form a different opinion because the omniscient narrator filtered the story by his point of view. The reader is guided by him and he is unable to create in his mind a different opinion on the story because he hasn't events on which reflect. There aren't, in the text, the thoughts of the adults or their troubles, or the reasons why they act in such ways.

3. Focus on language and style.

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

The bad life condition of the children is rendered and emphasized by the sentence "he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him". This sentence creates humour because it is an exaggeration and a comic way to talk about a real fear: to starve to death.

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

Dickens used the juxtaposition of comic and tragic details ("clung for support to the copper"), the hyperbole ("The assistants were paralysed", "Horror was depicted on every countenance") and the repetition ("stupefied astonishment") to describe reactions after Oliver's request.

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

-         Juxtaposition of comic-tragic details: "basin of gruel" - "dietary"

    Adults doesn't ‘feed' children because they are on diet.

-         Hyperbole: "The boy will be hung"

    Oliver will be killed because he asked more food.

-         Repetition: "voracious wild with hunger", "afraid to eat the boy who slept next him", "short commons".

    They are different ways to refer to children's hunger.

Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby(1838-39)

Extract from chapter VIII

Exercises

1.     Read the text and list the main events of the morning.

1)     The children had porridge for breakfast.

2)     They go to school.

3)     They clean windows, weed the garden, rub the teacher's horse and draw water up.

4)     They listen to the stories taken from antiquated spelling books.

5)     At one o'clock they have porridge for lunch.

2.     Focus of the characters.

1.      In what way are the pupils different from those of an ordinary school? What evidence of their ill-treatment is given in the text?

The children were exploited to clean and to do the humblest and hardest works. They are different from students of ordinary school because while such children are supposed to study and to learn to read, to write and to calculate, on the contrary, Victorian students had to work as servant for the "teacher".

In the text the writer focused his attention on the humiliations that such children had to prove and would to make the reader reflect on the rule and the aim of education.

2.      How does Mr Squeers define his teaching method? What is his actual aim? Why do you think he gives an explanation to Nicholas? What do his words reveal about him and his qualifications as teacher?

•-         Mr Squeers defines his method "practical mode of teaching" and "the regular education system".

•-         The aim of such method is to teach grammar without using books.

•-         Mr Squeers tries to explain to Nicholas his method because he wants that everyone praise him for his work and good method. He doesn't have a good opinion and he is in hatred with his nephew but he wants him to estimate him. Therefore he want also to prove to him that is way of acting is the right one.

3.      Do Mr Squeers' wife, son and school reflect his personality?

Mr Squeers' wife and his son reflects his personality. His son is the mirror for the father's wickedness and lack of feeling and both (wife and son) they reflects Mr Squeers' feeling of superiority.

To prove such common qualities between Mr Squeers and Mrs S. and their son, there are their actions. Mrs S. co-operated with his husband without help the children, where is her maternal instinct? The son doesn't help the children but he managed to make worse their life condition.

4.      Does Nicholas' opinion about what is going on come out at all?

No, it doesn't come out at all because it is hidden in his answers to his uncle questions.

3.     Focus on characterization and narrative technique.

a)     Give examples of negative aspects and comic details in Mr Squeers' description and behaviour.

-         "as if he had a perfect apprehension of what was inside all the books"

-         "Obedient to his summons"

b)     Would you say Mr Squeers is a well-rounded character or a flat character?

Mr Squeers is a flat character because the reader is not able to know the every aspect of him.

c)     What kind of narrator tells the story? Which character/s do you think he sides with? Give reasons for your answer.

The narrator is a third person omniscient intrusive narrator.

She tells facts using the third person, he knows feelings, emotions, thoughts, being of every character and, last but not list, he use to stop the narration to provide the reader of his considerations. (Ex. "As if he had a perfect....books").