雾都孤儿 analysis of Oliver twist 读后感.doc

Social Protest by Oliver Twist Charles Dickens was born on February 7,1812, in Portsea, England.Although his parents are middle-class, they still suffered financially. When he was twelve years old,he was forced to quit school and work in a blacking factory. The horrific conditions in the factory haunted him for the rest of his life. Apparently ,he never forget the day when a more senior boy named Bob Fagin instructed him how to do his work efficiently. Dickenss resentment of him reached a fevered pitch in the characterization of the Villain Fagin in Oliver Twist. After the introduction of the writer,lets come to the plot of the novel.It is a novel of social protest with a sentimental,ironic,hyperbolic,crusading tone.Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse in 1830s ,England,and Dickens uses his situation to criticize public policy towards the poor in 1830s England. Though treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life,he was an innocent child,and his charms drew the attention of several wealthy benefactors. Mr.Brownish,with whom the Machine had reunited Oliver,confronted Monks and Wrings the truth about Olivers parentage from him. Finally,Mr.Brownlow adopted Oliver,and they retired to a peaceful countryside and lived a happy life. As we all know,themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.(Todays Most Popular Study Guides) in my opinion, themes of this novel can be divided into two parts. The first part is the failure of charitable institutions. Much of the first part of Oliver Twist challenges the organizations of charity ran by the church and the government. According to the Poor Law,labor was required,families were almost separated,and food and clothing were not provided enough.The idea upon which the workhouses were founded was that poverty was the consequence of laziness and that the dreadful conditions in the workhouse would inspire the poor to better their own circumstances.Yet the economic dislocation of the industrial revolution made it impossible for many to do so. Furthermore,as Dickens pointed out,the officials who ran the workhouses blatantly violated the values they preached to the poor.In general,charitable institutions only reproduced the awful conditions in which the poor would live anyway. The poor chose between being starved by a gradual process in the house,or by a quick one out of it. The second part isthe folly of individualism.With the rise of capitalism during the industrial revolution,individualism was very much in vogue as a philosophy.Victorian capitalists believed that society would run very smoothly if individuals looked out for their own interests. Ironically,the clearest pronunciation of the philosophy came not from a businessman but from Fagin,who operates in the illegal businesses of theft and prostitution.He told Noah Claypole thata regard for number one holds us all together,and must do so,unless we would all go to pieces in company. In other words,the groups interests were best maintained if every individual looks out for the number one,or himself.the folly of this philosophy is demonstrated at the end of the novel,when Nancy turns against Monks,Charley Bates turns against Sikes,and Monks turns against Mrs.Corney.Fagins unstable family,which was held together only by the self-interest of its members,was constructed with the little society formed by Oliver,Brownlow,Rose Maylie,and their many friends.This second group was bound together not by concerns of self-interest but by strong affection and humanity of heart,by the selfless devotion to each other that Dickens saw as the prerequisite for perfect happiness. But everything can not be entitled spotless,and neither is this novel.For one thing,Dickens argued that a corrupt environment is the source of vice,instead of nature.but Olivers incorruptibility undermines some of Dickens argumentation. Although surrounded by evil circumstances,he was compassionate,and innocent all the time,which seemed that he was born with dignity,just as dickens opponents thought that corruption is inborn in poor people. Furthermore,he spoke in proper Kings English,while other pauper children use rough Cockney slang.For another,although after writing this novel,Dickens denied that anti-semitism had influenced his portrait of Fagin,the Jewish thiefs characterization does seem to owe much to ethnic stereotypes.Constant references to him as the jewseem to indicate that his negative traits are unfortunately connected to his ethnic identity. The stereotypes may arise many peoples antipathy. In general,