The extract I am going to analyze, Oliver asks for more, is taken from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
The scene opens in a workhouse. The workhouse offers the poor the opportunity of slow starvation instead of quick starvation on the streets. One night at dinner, one child tells the others that if he does not have another bowl of gruel he might eat one of them. Terrified, the children at the workhouse cast lots, determining that whoever loses shall be required to ask for more food for the boy. Oliver loses, and after dinner, the other children insist that Oliver ask for more food at supper. His request so shocks the authorities that they offer five pounds as a reward to anyone who will take Oliver off of their hands.
Right from the start, the intelligent reader recognizes in the novel two of the most characteristic themes of the Victorian novel: struggle of class and children's conditions. In the novel Charles Dickens develops new strategies, mostly in the use of language ( irony, grotesque, use of high lexicon,..) that allow him to write about all the contradictions of the society he was living in without directly express what he thinks.
The incipit of the chapter suggests the presence of a third person omniscient narrator. It follows that the reader will have a panoramic of the events set in a specific space and time and he will be guided through the narration. As the matter of fact the scene opens in a "large stone hall" at "mealtimes".
Right after introducing the setting, the narrator moves to the center of the narration. The situation is dramatic: children are starving; hunger brings them to behave as animals (“The bowls never wanted washing. The boys polished them with their spoons till they shone again"; “eager eyes"; “sucking their fingers"; "devour"). The intelligent should immediately make connections between the children's conditions and the workers' ones in the industries. People had to work fourteen hours a day; the hygienic conditions were miserable; the salary was reduced to the minimum. They were treated as slaves by the "masters".
The double face of capitalism also emerges in Oliver Twist's extract. On one side there are the poor orphan children who suffer the "slow tortured starvation" and on the other side there is the "master". Their animal behavior makes the postmodern reader reflects on the actual European situation. Lots of people are dying; actually they are committing suicide, because they have no money, no job and last but not least no dignity. The discrepancy between rich and poor is getting bigger and bigger and people have gotten to the point of desperation. Another characteristic element of C. Dickens' writing is the use of irony. Irony is a way of writing that will later be adopted by Pirandello in the Italian literature. It is very important in C. Dickens’ novel because on one side it makes the reader smile and, on the other one, it makes the reader cry. As a result the image of the children who behave as animals will make the common reader smile but at the same time it will make the intelligent reader reflect and cry.
The use of language is very significant. The use of high register ("companions", "per dime", "advancing",) seems to be inappropriate to speak about such themes. To tell the truth, it seems as if Charles Dickens wanted to show one more time the contradictions of his time: the high register, symbol of the upper middle class to speak about poverty. One more time the postmodern reader should immediately make connections with Emilio Gadda. In the Cognizione del Dolore, E.Gadda the linguistic pastiche is the necessary tool in order to face the caos of existence.
In conclusion, even if Oliver Twist is apparently a common story that everyone could read, the use of language allows Charles Dickens to criticize and ironize (referring to Pirandello "umorismo") about the society he is living in without directly express his thoughts.