Irony of Dickens in Oliver Twist

A detailed Summary of Irony of Dickens in Oliver Twist

In Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, a boy named Oliver lives his strange life in Fagin's pickpocket street gang, and workhouses. Through his life he has people and groups of people who both help and deceive him. Charles Dickens uses a technique known as ironic reversal of values to make a profound effect in the way the novel is perceived. That is, characters with the responsibility to aid Oliver don't, those expected to treat Oliver harshly do the opposite, and characters in the upper class fall to poverty while those in poverty become the upper class.

Oliver's life begins in a workhouse, when in less than a year he is transferred to a private workhouse asylum. There he found poor conditions and poor nutrition. Some of the children who lived with Oliver died due to systematic starvation:

Unfortunately for the experimental philosophy of the female to whose protecting care Oliver Twist was delivered over, a similar result usually attended to the operation of her system; for at the very moment when a child had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food it did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of ten, either that it sickened from want and cold, or fell i

Mr. Bumble the beadle is introduced into the novel as being the tyrant over the workhouse that Oliver belongs to. He is described as being a fat man with a short temper. Mr. Bumble thinks highly of himself as described in the following passage, "Mr. Bumble had a great idea of his oratorical powers and his importance." Following Dickens theme of ironic reversal of values, Mr. Bumble ends up in the opposite position that he started in:

The latter part of this speech was hailed by a boisterous shout from all the hopeful pupils of the merry old gentlemen. In the midst of which they went to supper.

Fagin thinks that capitol punishment is a good thing because no one can squeal on him if they are dead. In the beginning of the story Fagin favors capitol punishment, but when the novel draws to a close and Fagin is the one facing death he changes his ideas about capitol punishment. Until Fagin meets his death he pleads to not be hung. Fagin's desperateness to get free is vivid in this passage, "Say I've gone to sleep-they'll believe you. You can get me out, if you take me so." Fagin's position on capitol punishment proved to be temperamental and conditional, depending on how he was involved.

"Aha!" said the Jew, shrugging up his shoulders, and distorting every feature with his hideous grin. "Clever dogs! Clever dogs! Staunch to the last! Never told the old parson where they were. Never peached upon old Fagin! And why should they? It wouldn't have loosened the knot, or kept the drop up, a minute longer. No, no, no! Fine fellows!

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1046
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English