Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist – second part – analysis.

The first part of the extract refers to the situation in which the poor children and the protagonist of the Victorian novel have to live. Firstly, it underlines the setting of the action told underlining the poverty of the room in which the children have to eat and the little size of what they can eat every day. Then the focus moves to the protagonist (Oliver Twist) and the considerations expressed from the point of view of the children. To express them the narrator uses the figure of a boy taller than the others, that was used to eat more than them and that cannot adapt to this portions.

Tthrough the use of concrete images, metaphors, metonymy, archaisms and synecdoche; the first part of the extract underlines some Victorian Age characteristics. Men were used to role and women to serve and to work. Children exploitation was common and the narrator considers it a problem; children were used as laborers because easy to maintain, to educate and inexpensive; so they were forced to live in a state of maximum poverty. The difference between the upper/middle classes and lower ones can already be seen in everyday situations, in the children’s grade of nutrition and health.

The second part of the extract from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, continues pointing again out children’s considerations about their conditions of life. The affirmation of the child taller than the others, that closes the first part of the extract, is generalized to the rest of the boys by the expression they implicitly believe him. Everyone wants to ask for more food to the master: the narrator emphasizes the spread of malnutrition among British children and the condition of exploitation in which they often were. A second element characterizing their condition appears in the next sentence: the fear of the master. Indeed, children draw lots to decide who should have made the request that night. This implies that, in addition to hungry, children would suffer other types of violence, was it verbal or physical, because otherwise they should not be afraid to make such a request.

The fate decides that Oliver Twist would have to ask: it means that he was only one of many, that he was not under different conditions compared with other children nor that he had a different opinion or was less scared than they were.

The next paragraph the psychological situation of the child is underlined: the fear is such that stops him before taking that action; he will walk up to the master only after receiving looks of encouragement by his companions. The child belongs to the lower social class of Victorian society and the owner presumably to the upper one. The relationship between the two makes so also clear the relationship between the various classes in the Victorian age: poor people were considered so inferior that they can be treated as if they were animals (since they were considered sinners according to Puritanism).

The sequence following the one in which is made explicit the general situation when Oliver Twist moves towards the master, is a dialogical one. The dialogue opens with the request from the child: Please, sir, I want some more. This statement is given in the form of demand pronounced respectfully and formally and not in the form of question as the reader would expect. Not putting it in question form, the narrator emphasizes the tone of pretension of the child and therefore the need to have more to eat of all those who are in his situation. The question not question is the central point of the extract, the explicit verbalization of the considerations previously indirectly including through the use of other characters. Making explicit the narrator anticipates what follows; that allows the reader to understand that the following part will exhibit the reaction of the powerful characters and therefore the point of view of the upper class.

The master was a fat, healthy man: the physical aspect of the characters also highlights the distinction between classes. The narrator builds a parallel between three leading figures from the extract. Exploited children for years and always found in this condition of malnutrition are too small and thin for their age, the child from what was the middle class is larger of them but now suffers the same condition and suffer from hunger; while the wealthy boss is not only healthy but also fat.The difference between the high and low classes is so pronounced that is also reflected in the degree of health of the various. The exaggeration of the condition of health and fitness of the master is again due to the deformation resulting from the technique of the grotesque: in this case, it is not turn to try pathos (as it was, however, in the case of the child higher than the others were) but to feel disgust against the powerful.

The grotesque is also used in the rest of the dialogical sequence: the master turned very pale, he reacts in an exaggerated and over-emphasized at the request of the boy. In fact he is asked to repeat it and repetition results in a continuously repeat by powerful characters appearing in the scene: the expression is repeated for more from the master at the time when he relates what happened to his superior as emphasis of its upset following the request.Each repetition is inserted in a sentence that ends with an exclamation point, and this does nothing but repeat again the specificity of the request never happened before, and not even tolerated. In this way the narrator repeats the reader the consideration that was directed towards the lower classes: they were not allowed to make requests or to forward claims against the upper classes and the consequence of these actions was the anger and indignation by them (I Know That boy will be hung).The exaggeration of this reaction can be considered as a new method of using of the grotesque: it is now applied not to the person or place but the mode of action of a particular character representing the upper class.

The consequences for the insubordination of those considered inferior comes to be even death, so the fears emerged earlier in the draw lots of children about violence are confirmed (they not only suffered the exploitation by the working point of view but also suffered violence that in the worst case corresponded to hang).The last paragraph of the extract focuses on the same subject. The consequence of the action of Oliver is not only his imprisonment but also its "put up for sale": money are offered to anyone who wants to take the boy with him. The exploited children are treated as if they were animals so much to be sold like beasts or goods at a market.

English society during the Victorian age was therefore characterized by:

-          Disparities between male and female in the economic and social work;

-          Widespread exploitation of children and the consequences of this;

-          Big difference between the social classes both from the point of view of the conditions of life and from the point of view of religious consideration;

-          Inability to full expression into literary texts and consequent use of figures of speech and of the narrative technique of the grotesque deformation.