OLIVER TWIST.
„Oliver Twist“ was first published in 1838. The purpose of its author, Charles Dickens, was to shock
his readers. He wanted to show criminals as they were, and to reveal all the horrors and violence that hid
in the narrow, dirty backstreets of London. Dickens also had another purpose. He wanted to show that
goodness can survive through every kind of hardship. So he gives us little Oliver Twist- an orphan
thrown into a world of poverty and crime, starved and beaten and unloved. And, as in all the best stories,
goodness triumphs over evil in the end.
Oliver is an orphan of a mysterious origin. His mother, a young, good-looking girl, dies, giving him a
birth in a workhouse. Oliver is given a name by a local beadle and grows up in an orphanage in very
harsh conditions. He starves all the time, he is cold, beaten and unloved. But his character remains clear
and innocent. When he is 10, he is employed by a local undertaker. His permanent expression of sadness
makes him suitable for accompanying the coffins to funeral. However, his living conditions have not got
any better at the undertaker´s shop. He has to sleep among the coffins, he is hungry and often humiliated
and called horrible names by the four years old boy, Noah, who is jealous of Oliver and wants to make
his life a misery. Once after being personally insulted by Noah, Oliver knocks the older boy to the
ground. He is unfairly and severely punished by the undertaker. Poor Oliver decides to run away. He
walks with just a penny in his pocket 70 miles to London. After seven days, when he finally reaches the
outskirts of London, absolutely exhausted and starved, he meets a strange boy of the same age, called
Artful Dodger. Dodger promises inexperienced and naïve Oliver to take him to a very nice gentleman
who will let him live in his place and not ask him for money. „The nice gentleman“ turns to be the head
of the gang of young thieves, wicked Fagin. Dodger himself is a skillful pickpocket.
On his first „stealing mission“ innocent Oliver is caught, accused of theft, taken to the court and finally
released, his innocence being proved by a witness. Miserable Oliver is taken to the house of the elderly
kind gentleman, Mr Brownlow, who was robbed by Dodger. So Oliver for the first time in his life is
taken care for, is given nice clothes and enough food.
But Fagin wants Oliver back. He fears he could speak and show the police Fagin´s hiding place. He
has a plan. He gets his brutal partner, Bill Sikes, and his girlfriend, Nancy, to kidnap the boy at the first
opportune moment. This happens when Oliver is sent by Mr Brownlow, who trusts him, with some
money to the bookshop. On his way he is kidnapped by Nancy and Sikes and is back with evil Fagin.
Soon the thieves need the small boy for another action. To get through a small window into a house in
the country, which they want to break in. During the burglary Oliver is shot by the servants and bleeding
left behind by Sikes. And here again our hero meets good people. The owner of the house, Mrs Maylie,
treats his wound, protects him and keeps him in her house.
But Fagin does not give up. He was contacted by another evil character, mysterious Monks, who paid
Fagin to trap Oliver into a life of crime. The readers do not know his motives, which are revealed at the
end of the book. Monk is Oliver´s stepbrother. Oliver´s farther did not get on well with his wife and his
son Monk and separated from them. After 10 years of separation, Olivers´s father fell in love with
Agnes, gave her a wedding ring and a golden locket as a token of his love. Just before he died, he
discovered she was pregnant, and left most of his money to her and his expectant child. Monk´s mother
found this last will and burnt it, so that she and her son could get all the money. The money should have
only gone to Monks, as the older son, if the younger had turned out to be evil, too. Therefore Monks
wanted Oliver to become a thief.
The conspiracy is revealed by Nancy, who by chance hears the conversation between Monks and Fagin.
She informs and warns Oliver´s friends but remains loyal to Sikes. Although she is in danger, she
refuses to abandon her lover and begs them not to harm him. But she is spied on by a Fagin´s man and
her „betrayal“ disclosed to Sikes. Violent Sikes murders Nancy with a heavy stick.
In the end all villains are punished. Sikes unintentionally strangles himself to death on his flight.
Fagin is caught and hanged in prison. Monks becomes ill and dies in prison on the other side of the
world (he gets half the money from generous Oliver)
Oliver is adopted by kind Mr Brownlow.