How Charles Dickens

’ Life Influenced Oliver Twist Essay, Research Paper

How Charles Dickens’ Life Influenced Oliver Twist

“The range of his creative activity is, in the first place, limited to the world of his youth” (Cecil 169). This quote explains many people. What has previously happened to a person has a tremendous impact on them. It can affect their decisions, emotions, and life. The life of a person can sometimes be seen quite easily through what they do. Artists often reveal what their life has been like through the works that they create. The same can be said about writers. Events in authors past often show up in his works. The above quote is, in fact, made in regard to Charles Dickens.

Dickens had several real life experiences of poverty and abandonment in his life that influenced his work, Oliver Twist. The times of poverty and abandonment in Charles Dickens’ life instilled a political belief in Dickens’ mind against the new poor laws of Great Britain. Dickens’ felt the new poor laws victimized the poor, failed to give the poor a voice, and were in need of change. These points are shown in Oliver Twist through the characters, scenes, and narration Dickens’ uses throughout the book.

Dickens lived a life full of events that would later influence his novels. Dickens grew up during a time of change for Great Britain. By the time he was born in 1812, the Industrial Revolution was in full force. Dickens grew up as a normal middle-class child in Portsmouth, Great Britain. It was around the age of twelve that his life took a drastic turn. Dickens was still a child when his father was imprisoned for debt. Families, at this time, lived with the father in prison. Charles did not live in prison, though. Instead, he was sent to live alone and become a laborer at Warren’s Blacking Factory. After several months, Charles’ dad received an inheritance and was freed from prison. Much to Charles Dickens’ dismay, his family did not rush to get him. Eventually, they saved him from the factory. Charles grew up and put himself through the education he could manage to find. He got a job as a lawyer’s apprentice, and then he worked as a parliamentary reporter. Dickens began to do some freelance writings for several magazines. He eventually became the editor of a magazine and an author of his own novels.

Throughout Dickens journey through life, the poor laws of Great Britain were closely intertwined. The first major impact that his childhood experiences had on him was his exposure to the factory system. The Industrial Revolution created large urban areas with a central factory that employed most of the area’s people. The factory was full of lower-class people in unsanitary conditions. In the days of Dickens’ factory experience the old poor laws were in effect. This helped Dickens’ situation greatly. His father lived in a fairly nice and sanitary prison, and was given time to find the money he owed. The old poor law system of giving aid to the poor helped to save the Dickens family. When Dickens grew up and was a parliamentary reporter, the new poor laws were about to be passed. Dickens realized that the new poor laws would bring doom to many families. The new poor laws did not help the poor but worsened their condition in order to drive them to work.

Dickens’ experiences of living in abandonment and working in Warren’s Blacking Factory, coupled with his later occupation as a parliamentary reporter, helped to mold his political beliefs. The first political belief he held was that the new poor laws victimized the poor. Dickens felt that diminishing the already low standards of the lower class would break them. He felt that it would lead to crime and anarchy. He also felt that the lower class would become helpless. He thought they would lose their voice. The most powerful political urge Dickens felt was the need of these laws to change. Throughout Dickens whole literary career he tried to make people aware of the political problems of Great Britain. He tried to inspire change in every way he could, including novels.

The political beliefs of Charles Dickens show up through the characters in Oliver Twist. The characters in Oliver Twist are unique. Dickens created the characters to show his political belief that the new poor laws victimized the poor and forced them into a life of crime. His characters capture the feelings and views of the actual classes of England (Taine 155). The main character that Dickens political beliefs can be seen in is Oliver. Since Dickens believed that the poor were victims, he created Oliver to be a noble orphan. It is important to remember that Dickens believed his characters were the same as the real people they portrayed (Gissing 423). Dickens tried to make the readers feel so much sorrow and pity for Oliver that they would be inspired to help the cause of the poor. “Oliver, after all, seeks nothing more than food, shelter, and consoling love. Key concerns of Oliver Twist are more primal than topical” (Murray 80). Dickens created a character that just wanted food, shelter and love. When Oliver did not receive these things, the readers were to feel angry and upset. They were to realize that those three things were all the poor really wanted, and what they had been denied. Another political belief can be found in the characters of Oliver Twist. This political belief is that the new poor laws would lead to crime. The new poor law would try