Oliver Twist is one of the most important Dickens’ works. It is a Victorian novel in which the poet focuses his attention on the contradictions of his contemporary society. Besides its aim is to explain to the reader the negative conditions of life of the major part of English people. The main feature of Dickens’ work is the presence of a poor character: Oliver Twist is an orphan child.

In the extract taken from the second chapter of Oliver Twist, Dickens starts to create the child’s characterization through his age (he is nine years old) and his physical aspect (he is a pain thin child).  The speaking voice, that is a third person omniscient narrator, provides to give a concrete description, listing Oliver’s positive and negative aspects: Oliver has a robust spirit that permits him to go on in spite of difficulties. From the first lines of the extracts, the reader can notice the use of a high language: Dickens uses an elevate register and some figures of speech such as hyperbole, irony and grotesque. Hyperbole is used to exaggerate a thing or a concept, irony is used to reflect about the dramatic situation of English society and grotesque is used to deform reality. The text goes on describing the place where Oliver Twist and the other children are. It is a large stone hall, where the master was usual to give meals to children. Dickens provides to give to the reader some elements regarding the kind of meal: it is a poor meal, it is a portion of gruel. The absence of an adequate nutrition comes into surface even through children’s behavior: when they finished they portions, they were usual to polish completely the bowl because they were very hungry. In the second part of the extract, Dickens explains Oliver’s actions: he tries to ask to the master a double portion but he receives a blow as answer. In the final part, the speaking voice introduces two new characters: the beadle and the board. They have the function to decide a punishment for Oliver’s actions. They consider that the boy should be hung as example for the other children. The conclusion of the extract doesn’t permit to understand Oliver’s future, so the reader is inducted to continue the reading.

Observing the connotative aspects, Dickens’ style is put in evidence. He uses some techniques such as hyperbole, irony and grotesque as said in the first part of the analysis. Besides the reader can find some examples of contrasts and repetitions within the text. Concerning the contrast, the main example is given by the phrase “this festive composition”: there is nothing festive but children’s conditions should make us reflect. In addition to this, the reader understands that repetitions are used to impress in his/her mind some concepts or elements. For example the word “gruel” is repeated many times. Dickens adopts this technique to explain the simplicity of the meal and the absence of nutrition in children’s alimentation.

In conclusion, I can say that Dickens adopts some techniques to permit to the reader to understand the 19^th century English society with all its problems: the speaking voice pushes the reader to a more deep reflection.