Analysis of the extract “Oliver Wants Some More” from C. Dickens’s Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens’s most famous novels. The extract, coming from chapter 2, is set in the great orphanage canteen, where all the children eat together.

In the first part of the extract, there is a brief description of Oliver’s physical conditions. The adjectives used by Dickens convey the image of a very weak, feeble boy; however, there is a great contrast between the meagre body and the “sturdy spirit”, which as been reinvigorated by such hard life. His body is said to have “plenty of space to expand”: here the irony is used in order to depict a very tragic condition without dwelling too much on details. This narrative technique is indeed typical of the Victorian Age, when people did have a double-faced nature, and hid their feelings and ideas under the false masques of homologation. The following phrase “with a select party of two other gentlemen” is also very ironical, since it is referred to two other poor boys, who have been whipped like Oliver because “they atrociously presumed to be hungry”. The continuous shift between sad, violent images (in this case the punishment by whipping and the coal cellar), and apparently funny ones (“atrociously” is clearly used in a sarcastic way) makes up what Pirandello called the “perception of the contrary”, that is the awareness that, beyond the humorous façade, there is always a deeper, sadder reality, which we often try to conceal to keep our conscience “clear”.

The second part is focused on the children eating their meal. The description of the meal given to the children follows the grotesque technique. The gruel, a very poor and probably almost disgusting food, is considered a “festive composition”, and, in special days, it is also accompanied by a slice of bread. The sentence “bowls never wanted washing”, which may appear unclear at the beginning, is explained in the following sentence: the boys licked them till they made it shone, and children were fond of such disgusting food, since it was the only thing they could eat. It seems as if the children are about to turn into beasts, who are only interested in eating, and they would fight for a bread crumb or a splash of gruel.

As a matter of fact, the boys grow very hungry, and one of them, who “was tall for his age” (and, therefore, he could inspire fear in his mates) tells them that he claims two bowls of gruel, or he will devour his companions. The sentence is obviously a hyperbole; however, the other boys believe him since he has a “wild, hungry eye”, which means that, in those conditions, it would not have been so strange to act like a beast (“wild”). This concept is repeated when Oliver is said to be “desperate with hunger, reckless with misery”, which means that he had nothing to lose by taking the risk of asking the master some more food; it was desperation that led him to such action. The reaction of the master is comical, but it effectively shows the pitiless mentality of the Victorians, who did not even imagine the blasphemy of asking for more food. Oliver Twist’s act becomes indeed a violation of his social order: as a child of the orphanage, he was assured a fixed ratio of gruel, and his attempt to ask for more is intolerable.

When Mr Bumble, the supervisor, gets to know the news, he refers them to the board. The board is said to be in “solemn conclave”, that is an ironical, hyperbolical way to stress the distance between the poor conditions of the orphans and these men, who pretend to act for the “good of the children”, but, in reality, they consider them just a burden. The sudden start and the sentence said by the “gentleman in the white waist coat” (“that boy will be hung”) do add a vein of comical relief but also sadness to the scene, as it portrays a false society, based only on appearance and hypocrite philanthropy.