It is useless to discuss whether the conduct of the girl [Nancy] seems natural

or unnatural, probable or improbable, right or wrong. IT IS TRUE. Every man

who has watched these melancholy shades of life knows it to be so...It is emphatically

Gods truth, for it is the truth he leaves in such depraved and miserable breasts

Dickens was evidently keen to point out to his readers, the 'truth' about the lives of the financially and socially disadvantaged and in Oliver Twist; the orphaned child receives the reader's sympathy. For the Victorian orp

The boy was lying fast asleep on a rude bed upon the floor,

Oliver Twist and Jane Eyre are blatantly very different characters and the novels themselves were created to communicate comparatively different messages and concerns about Victorian society to the reader. However, the question of whom or what should guide an orphaned child in a world where little benevolence and few gentle provisions exist for the infant is very authentic and consequently one which neither Dickens nor Brontë can answer. Ultimately both authors portray compassionate blood relatives as being the only source of true, adequate and lasting guidance for an orphan, with Oliver only finding real happiness with his long last aunt and her associates and Jane Eyre only resolving her own situation by finding her beloved cousins and securing a hefty inheritance from her one remaining uncle. For the hero and heroine of these respective novels, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and indeed, a family ready to greet them with open arms to help Oliver and Jane to build a happier, more secure future. However, Dickens and Brontë seem unable or at least unwilling to find an alternative, satisfactory solution to the problems that face their primary characters and although the thoughts and issues that these novels provoke are pertinent, such improbable solutions only appear to cast an even longer shadow over the many children of Victorian society, for whom the fairytale simply did not exist.

The idea that Oliver and the many Victorian children like him could be sold if a guardian so chose, having no real perceived right to a childhood, is a particularly cruel one, particularly by our modern western standards. Bumble is not concerned as to whether Sowerberry will care for his charge or ensure Oliver's safety and well being, he is rather more concerned with the prospect of having what he sees as a young troublemaker in his midst. Indeed, despite the long years he spends with the young boys he must oversee, no emotional bond is ever formed and no compassion summoned from the breast that lies within his shiny-buttoned coat. As a figure of authority, Dickens creates a rather dim-witted, although often entertaining fool in the figure of Bumble. However, the more serious implication of the role that Bumble plays reiterates the fact that many Victorian children, devoid of parents and good fortune, were reliant on a system that allowed the exploitation of those that are most in need of society's protection.

Jane's retaliation against the physical abuse she obtains from her cousin, leads to a punishment that famously involves the child's imprisonment within the 'red room', the place in which her uncle drew his last breath. Much can be supposed about the symbolic values of the red room for Jane as a motherless and yet near-adolescent child; it may be suggested that the room represents a horrific and hellish womb, with the indication that Jane is endangered and emotionally undernourished in a 'home' that should provide her with the stability and love that children need to fully develop into healthy adults. Writers such as Jeanette King have interpreted the experience as Jane's menstrual entry into womanhood and accordingly when Jane emerges from the room she does display attributes of early adulthood as the reader sees her begin to speak her mind more thoroughly and no longer finding solace in the childish books and stories that she used to so enjoy. However, these developments are perhaps as easily attributable to a nervous breakdown as to the emotional growth into maturity.

The fact that Jane sees within the moon a 'white human form' could well be construed as her near admission into madness but equally as the desperate, passionate vision of her one true and constant mother, nature itself. Indeed, it is to Mother Nature that Jane places herself on the wild and untamed moors following her flight from Thornfield and preceding her future encounter with lost relativ

Some common words found in the essay are:
Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, Rochester Jane, Robert Newson, Indeed Fagin's, Oliver Victorian, Helen Burns, Nature Jane, Fagin Fagin, Aunt Reed, oliver twist, jane eyre, miss temple, mother nature, legal guardian, boys care, helen burns, relationship boys care, jane found, encounters matriarchal, victorian children, encounters matriarchal figures,
Approximate Word count = 3846
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)