The plot of the novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is built in such a way that the reader is in the center of attention of a boy who is faced with an ungrateful reality. He is an orphan from the first minutes of his life. Oliver was not only deprived of all the benefits of a normal existence, but also grew up very lonely, defenseless against an unfair fate.
Since Dickens belongs to the writers of the Enlightenment, he never focused on the inhuman conditions in which the poor lived at that time. The writer believed that poverty itself was not so terrible as the indifferent attitude of other people to such a category of people. It was because of this misperception by society that the poor suffered, as they were doomed to eternal humiliation, deprivation and wandering. After all, workhouses, the creation of which was conceived to provide ordinary people shelter, food, work, more like prisons. The poor were separated from their families and imprisoned there by force, fed very poorly, forced to do backbreaking and useless work. As a result, they just slowly starved to death.
After the workhouse, Oliver becomes an undertaker's apprentice and victim of orphanage boy Noah Claypole's bullying. The latter, using his advantage in age and strength, constantly humiliates the protagonist. Oliver flees and ends up in London. As you know, such children of the street, whose fate did not bother anyone, for the most part became the dregs of society - vagabonds and criminals. They were forced to engage in crime in order to somehow live. And there reigned cruel laws. Boys turned into beggars and thieves, and girls earned a living with their bodies. Most often, they did not die a natural death, but ended their lives on the gallows. At best, they were incarcerated.
They even want to involve Oliver in the underworld. Ordinary boy from the street, whom everyone calls the Artful rogue, promising the protagonist protection and lodging for the night in London, takes him to a buyer of stolen goods. This is the godfather of local swindlers and thieves Fagin.
In that crime novel Charles Dickens simply portrayed the London criminal society. He considered it an integral part of the then metropolitan life. But the writer tried to convey to the reader main idea that the soul of a child is initially not prone to crime. After all, the child in his mind personifies illegal suffering and spiritual purity. He's just a victim of that time. It is this idea that the main part of the novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is devoted to.
But at the same time, the writer was concerned about the question: what influences the formation of a person’s character, the formation of his personality? Natural inclinations and abilities, origin (ancestors, parents) or all the same public environment? Why does someone become noble and decent, and someone vile and dishonorable criminal? Can he not be soulless, cruel and vile? In order to answer this question for himself, Dickens introduces storyline novel image of Nancy. This is a girl who got into the criminal world back in early age. But this did not prevent her from remaining kind and sympathetic, able to show sympathy. It is she who is trying to prevent Oliver from taking the wrong path.
The social novel by Charles Dickens "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is a true reflection of the most topical and burning problems of our time. That is why this work very popular among readers and since its publication has managed to become popular.
In the novel The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Dickens builds a plot in the center of which is the boy's encounter with an ungrateful reality. Main character novel - a little boy named Oliver Twist. Born in a workhouse, from the first minutes of his life he remained an orphan, and this meant in his position not only a future full of hardships and hardships, but also loneliness, defenselessness against the insults and injustice that he would have to endure. The baby was frail, the doctor said that he would not survive. Dickens, as an enlightening writer, never reproached his unfortunate characters with either poverty or ignorance, but he reproached a society that refuses to help and support those who were born poor and therefore doomed to deprivation and humiliation from the cradle. And the conditions for the poor (and especially for the children of the poor) in that world were truly inhuman. The workhouses, which were supposed to provide ordinary people with work, food, shelter, actually looked like prisons: the poor were imprisoned there by force, separated from their families, forced to do useless and hard work and practically not fed, dooming them to slow starvation. Not for nothing, after all, the workers themselves called the workhouses "bastille for the poor." From the workhouse, Oliver is apprenticed to an undertaker; there he runs into Noah's orphanage boy Claypole, who, being older and stronger, constantly humiliates Oliver. Soon Oliver escapes to London. Boys and girls who were of no use to anyone, by chance finding themselves on the streets of the city, often became completely lost to society, as they fell into the criminal world with its cruel laws. They became thieves, beggars, the girls began to sell their own bodies, and after that many of them ended their short and unhappy lives in prisons or on the gallows. This novel is criminal. Society of London criminals Dickens portrays simply. This is a legitimate part of the existence of capitals. A boy from the street, known as the Sly Trickster, promises Oliver lodging and patronage in London, and takes him to a buyer of stolen goods, godfather London thieves and swindlers to the Jew Fagin. They want to put Oliver on a criminal path. It is important for Dickens to give the reader the idea that the soul of a child is not prone to crime. Children are the personification of spiritual purity and unlawful suffering. A large part of the novel is devoted to this. Dickens, like many writers of that time, was concerned about the question: what is the main thing in shaping the character of a person, his personality - the social environment, origin (parents and ancestors) or his inclinations and abilities? What makes a person what he is: decent and noble, or vile, dishonorable and criminal? And does criminal always mean vile, cruel, soulless? Answering this question, Dickens creates in the novel the image of Nancy - a girl who got into the criminal world at an early age, but retained a kind, sympathetic heart, the ability to sympathize, because it is not in vain that she tries to protect little Oliver from a vicious path. Thus, we see that social romance Ch. Dickens "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is a lively response to the most topical and burning problems of our time. And in terms of popularity and appreciation of readers, this novel can rightfully be considered a folk novel.
In the novel The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Dickens builds a plot in the center of which is the boy's encounter with an ungrateful reality. The protagonist of the novel is a little boy named Oliver Twist. Born in a workhouse, from the first minutes of his life he remained an orphan, and this meant in his position not only a future full of hardships and hardships, but also loneliness, defenselessness against the insults and injustice that he would have to endure. The baby was frail, the doctor said that he would not survive.
Dickens, as an enlightening writer, never reproached his unfortunate characters with either poverty or ignorance, but he reproached a society that refuses to help and support those who were born poor and therefore doomed to deprivation and humiliation from the cradle. And the conditions for the poor (and especially for the children of the poor) in that world were truly inhuman.
The workhouses, which were supposed to provide ordinary people with work, food, shelter, actually looked like prisons: the poor were imprisoned there by force, separated from their families, forced to do useless and hard work and practically not fed, dooming them to slow starvation. It is not for nothing that the workers themselves called the workhouses “Bastilles for the Poor”.
From the workhouse, Oliver is apprenticed to an undertaker; there he runs into Noah's orphanage boy Claypole, who, being older and stronger, constantly humiliates Oliver. Soon Oliver escapes to London.
Boys and girls who were of no use to anyone, by chance finding themselves on the streets of the city, often became completely lost to society, as they fell into the criminal world with its cruel laws. They became thieves, beggars, the girls began to sell their own bodies, and after that many of them ended their short and unhappy lives in prisons or on the gallows.
This novel is criminal. Society of London criminals Dickens portrays simply. This is a legitimate part of the existence of capitals. A boy from the street, nicknamed the Artful Rogue, promises Oliver lodging and patronage in London, and leads him to a buyer of stolen goods, the godfather of London thieves and swindlers, the Jew Fagin. They want to put Oliver on a criminal path.
It is important for Dickens to give the reader the idea that the soul of a child is not prone to crime. Children are the personification of spiritual purity and unlawful suffering. A large part of the novel is devoted to this. Dickens, like many writers of that time, was concerned about the question: what is the main thing in shaping the character of a person, his personality - the social environment, origin (parents and ancestors) or his inclinations and abilities? What makes a person what he is: decent and noble, or vile, dishonorable and criminal? And does criminal always mean vile, cruel, soulless? Answering this question, Dickens creates in the novel the image of Nancy - a girl who fell into the criminal world at an early age, but retained a kind, sympathetic heart, the ability to sympathize, because it is not in vain that she tries to protect little Oliver from a vicious path.
Thus, we see that the social novel by Ch. Dickens "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is a lively response to the most topical and burning problems of our time. And in terms of popularity and appreciation of readers, this novel can rightfully be considered a folk novel.
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In the novel The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Dickens builds a plot in the center of which is the boy's encounter with an ungrateful reality. The protagonist of the novel is a little boy named Oliver Twist. Born in a workhouse, from the first minutes of his life he remained an orphan, and this meant in his position not only a future full of hardships and hardships, but also loneliness, defenselessness against the insults and injustice that he would have to endure. The baby was frail, the doctor said that he would not survive.
Dickens, as an enlightening writer, never reproached his unfortunate characters with either poverty or ignorance, but he reproached a society that refuses to help and support those who were born poor and therefore doomed to deprivation and humiliation from the cradle. And the conditions for the poor (and especially for the children of the poor) in that world were truly inhuman.
The workhouses, which were supposed to provide ordinary people with work, food, shelter, actually looked like prisons: the poor were imprisoned there by force, separated from their families, forced to do useless and hard work and practically not fed, dooming them to slow starvation. It is not for nothing that the workers themselves called the workhouses “Bastilles for the Poor”.
From the workhouse, Oliver is apprenticed to an undertaker; there he runs into Noah's orphanage boy Claypole, who, being older and stronger, constantly humiliates Oliver. Soon Oliver escapes to London.
Boys and girls who were of no use to anyone, by chance finding themselves on the streets of the city, often became completely lost to society, as they fell into the criminal world with its cruel laws. They became thieves, beggars, the girls began to sell their own bodies, and after that many of them ended their short and unhappy lives in prisons or on the gallows.
This novel is criminal. Society of London criminals Dickens portrays simply. This is a legitimate part of the existence of capitals. A boy from the street, nicknamed the Artful Rogue, promises Oliver lodging and patronage in London, and leads him to a buyer of stolen goods, the godfather of London thieves and swindlers, the Jew Fagin. They want to put Oliver on a criminal path.
It is important for Dickens to give the reader the idea that the soul of a child is not prone to crime. Children are the personification of spiritual purity and unlawful suffering. A large part of the novel is devoted to this. Dickens, like many writers of that time, was concerned about the question: what is the main thing in shaping the character of a person, his personality - the social environment, origin (parents and ancestors) or his inclinations and abilities? What makes a person what he is: decent and noble, or vile, dishonorable and criminal? And does criminal always mean vile, cruel, soulless? Answering this question, Dickens creates in the novel the image of Nancy - a girl who fell into the criminal world at an early age, but retained a kind, sympathetic heart, the ability to sympathize, because it is not in vain that she tries to protect little Oliver from a vicious path.
Thus, we see that the social novel by Ch. Dickens "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is a lively response to the most topical and burning problems of our time. And in terms of popularity and appreciation of readers, this novel can rightfully be considered a folk novel.
(No ratings yet)
Other writings:
- Ch. Dickens's novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist", although designated as an "adventure", still cannot be called adventure in the full sense of the word. Its purpose is not so much to entertain the reader with adventurous intrigue as to draw his attention to pain points society, modern Read More ......
- The problem of education can be called one of the leading in English literature. Charles Dickens was not a pioneer in this, but he found his way to solve the problem by showing the bottom of London without romance. In the preface to one of the editions of the novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" Dickens Read More ......
- Ch. Dickens' novel about the adventures of a boy, in which even the name of his mother was taken away, is a work of high humanistic meaning. The writer forces us to take a fresh look at the generally accepted concepts of decency, respectability, which his contemporaries were so proud of. Undoubtedly, external manifestations beautiful upbringing important, but Read More ......
- The English realist writer C. Dickens in the novel Oliver Twist fully reveals the problem of the plight of the masses of people. Through the story of the protagonist - the child and the people around him - the writer outlined the fate of the English people, destroyed, forced to survive with the help of lies, theft, Read More ......
- First literary work Dickens was ordered, and he, as a novice young author, splashed out on paper, sometimes truly at random, a considerable baggage of his observations and remarks, which, as it were, were strung on the canvas of road adventures by themselves. The idea for the second novel was already Read More ......
- Researchers English Literature claim that none of English writers did not enjoy such fame during his lifetime as Charles Dickens. Recognition came to Dickens after the first story and did not leave until last days, although the writer himself, his views and work Read More ......
- In the history of the formation and development of English realism, the novel by Charles Dickens “ David Copperfield” (1849-1850) occupies a special place. Along with such famous works of the writer as “Bleak House” and “Little Dorrit”, this novel marks a qualitatively new stage in his work, characterized by a deeper Read More ......
- Despite the title of the novel, it is she, Florence Dombey and not her father or brother, who is the main, true heroine. It is Florence Dombey who connects the characters. Their attitude to it determines their spiritual qualities. main man in the life of little Paul and a witness Read More ......
The Adventures of Oliver Twist is the first social novel by Dickens, in which the contradictions of English reality were incomparably clearer than in The Pickwick Papers. “Hard truth,” Dickens wrote in the preface, “was the aim of my book.”
In the preface to Oliver Twist, Dickens declares himself a realist. But he immediately makes the exact opposite statement: “... It is still far from clear to me why the lesson of the purest good cannot be learned from the most vile evil. I have always considered the opposite to be a firm and unshakable truth ... I wanted to demonstrate on little Oliver how the principle of good always triumphs in the end, despite the most unfavorable circumstances and difficult obstacles. The contradiction that is found in this policy statement of the young Dickens stems from the contradiction that characterizes the writer's worldview at an early stage of his creative activity.
The writer wants to show reality "as it is", but at the same time excludes objective logic life facts and processes, tries to idealistically interpret its laws. A convinced realist, Dickens could not abandon his didactic ideas. To fight this or that social evil for him always meant to convince, that is, to educate. The writer considered the correct education of a person to be the best way to establish mutual understanding between people and the humane organization of human society. He sincerely believed that the majority of people are naturally drawn to goodness and that a good beginning can easily triumph in their souls.
But to prove the idealistic thesis - "good" invariably triumphs over "evil" - within the framework of a realistic depiction of complex contradictions modern era was impossible. To implement the controversial creative task that the author set himself, it took creative method, combining elements of realism and romanticism.
At first, Dickens intended to create a realistic picture of only criminal London, to show the "miserable reality" of the thieves' dens of London's "Eastside" ("East" side), that is, the poorest quarters of the capital. But in the process of work, the original idea expanded significantly. The novel depicts various aspects of modern English life, and poses important and topical problems.
The time when Dickens was collecting material for his new novel was a period of fierce struggle around the Poor Law published back in 1834, in accordance with which a network of workhouses was created in the country for the maintenance of the poor for life. Drawn into the controversy that arose around the opening of workhouses, Dickens strongly condemned this terrible product of the rule of the bourgeoisie.
“... These workhouses,” wrote Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England, “or, as the people call them, bastilles for the poor (poor-law-bastilles), are arranged in such a way as to scare away anyone who has the slightest hope of living without this form of public charity. In order that a man should turn to the poor's fund only in the most extreme cases, so that he would resort to it only when he had exhausted all the possibilities of managing on his own, the workhouse was turned into the most disgusting place that the refined imagination of the Malthusian could conceive of.
The Adventures of Olever Twist is directed against the Poor Law, against workhouses and existing political economy concepts that lull public opinion with promises of happiness and prosperity for the majority.
However, it would be a mistake to think that the novel is only the fulfillment by the writer of his social mission. Along with this, creating his work, Dickens is included in the literary struggle. "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" was also a kind of response by the author to the dominance of the so-called "Newgate" novel, in which the story of thieves and criminals was conducted exclusively in melodramatic and romantic tones, and the lawbreakers themselves were a type of superman, very attractive to readers. In fact, in the "Newgate" novels, the criminals acted as Byronic heroes who moved into the criminal environment. Dickens strongly opposed the idealization of crimes and those who commit them.
In the preface to the book, Dickens clearly stated the essence of his plan: “It seemed to me that to portray the real members of a criminal gang, to draw them in all their ugliness, with all their vileness, to show their miserable, impoverished life, to show them as they really are , - they are always sneaking, seized with anxiety, along the dirtiest paths of life, and wherever they look, a terrible black gallows looms before them, - it seemed to me that to portray this means trying to do what is necessary and what will serve society. And I did it to the best of my ability."
The author shows that evil penetrates all corners of England, most of all it is widespread among those whom society has doomed to poverty, slavery, suffering. The darkest pages in the novel are those dedicated to the workhouses.
The workhouses were contrary to the beliefs of Dickens the humanist, and their depiction becomes the writer's response to disputes around a deeply topical issue. The excitement that Dickens experienced in studying what he regarded as an unsuccessful attempt to alleviate the lot of the poor, the sharpness of his observations, gave the images of the novel a great artistic power and persuasiveness. The writer draws a workhouse based on real facts. It depicts the inhumanity of the Poor Law in action. Although the rules of the workhouse are described in only a few chapters of the novel, the book has firmly established the fame of a work that denounces one of the most dark sides English reality in the 1930s. However, a few, but eloquent in their realism, episodes were enough for the novel to firmly establish the glory of a novel about workhouses.
The main characters of those chapters of the book in which the workhouse is depicted are children born in gloomy dungeons, their parents dying of hunger and exhaustion, eternally hungry juvenile pupils of workhouses and hypocritical "trustees" of the poor. The author emphasizes that the workhouse, promoted as a “charitable” institution, is a prison that degrades and oppresses a person physically.
Thin oatmeal three times a day, two onions a week, and half a loaf on Sundays—that was the meager ration that supported the pathetic, always hungry boys of the workhouse, who had been tearing hemp since six o'clock in the morning. When Oliver, driven to despair by hunger, timidly asks the warden for an extra portion of porridge, the boy is considered a rebel and locked in a cold closet.
Dickens, in the first of his social novels, also depicts the filth, poverty, crimes that reign in the slums of London, people who have sunk to the "bottom" of society. The slum dwellers Fagin and Sykes, Dodger and Bates, who represent thieves' London in the novel, in the perception of young Dickens are an inevitable evil on earth, to which the author opposes his preaching of goodness. The realistic depiction of the bottom of London and its inhabitants in this novel is often colored with romantic and sometimes melodramatic tones. The pathos of denunciation here is not yet directed against those social conditions that give rise to vice. But whatever the subjective assessment of the phenomena by the writer, the images of the slums and their individual inhabitants (especially Nancy) objectively act as a harsh accusatory document against the entire social system that generates poverty and crime.
Unlike previous novel, in this work the narrative is colored with gloomy humor, the narrator seems to hardly believe that the events taking place relate to a civilized and boasting of its democracy and justice in England. The pace of the story is different here too: short chapters are filled with numerous events that make up the essence of the adventure genre. In the fate of little Oliver, adventures turn out to be misfortunes when the sinister figure of Monks, Oliver's brother, appears on the scene, who, in order to obtain an inheritance, is trying to destroy the main character by conspiring with Fagin and forcing him to make a thief out of Oliver. In this novel by Dickens, the features of a detective story are palpable, but not professional servants of the law are investigating the mystery of Twist, but enthusiasts who fell in love with boys and wished to restore good name his father and return his rightful inheritance. The nature of the episodes is also different. Sometimes melodramatic notes sound in the novel. This is especially clearly felt in the farewell scene of little Oliver and Dick, the hero's friend doomed to death, who dreams of dying sooner in order to get rid of cruel torments - hunger, punishments and overwork.
The writer introduces a significant number of characters into his work, tries to deeply reveal them inner world. Of particular importance in The Adventures of Oliver Twist are the social motivations of people's behavior, which determined certain traits of their characters. True, it should be noted that the characters of the novel are grouped according to a peculiar principle arising from the originality of the worldview of the young Dickens. Like the romantics, Dickens divides heroes into "positive" and "negative", the embodiment of goodness and carriers of vices. At the same time, the moral norm becomes the principle underlying such a division. Therefore, the son of wealthy parents, Oliver's half-brother Edward Liford (Monks), the head of the thieves' gang Fagin and his accomplice Sykes, the beadle Bumble, the matron of the workhouse, Mrs. Corney, engaged in raising orphans, Mrs. Mann, and others, fall into one group (“evil”). It is noteworthy that critical intonations are associated in the work with and with the characters, who are called upon to protect order and law in the state, and with their "antipodes" - criminals. Despite the fact that these characters are at different levels of the social ladder, the author of the novel endows them with similar features, constantly emphasizing their immorality.
To another group (“good”), the writer includes Mr. Brownlow, the sister of the mother of the protagonist Rose Fleming, Harry Maley and his mother, Oliver Twist himself. These characters are drawn in the traditions of educational literature, that is, they emphasize the indestructible natural kindness, decency, and honesty.
The defining principle of the grouping of characters, both in this and in all subsequent Dickens novels, is not the place that one or another of the characters occupies on the social ladder, but the attitude of each of them to the people around him. Positive characters are all persons who “correctly” understand social relationships and the principles of social morality that are unshakable from his point of view, negative characters are those who come from ethical principles that are false for the author. All the "good" are full of vivacity, energy, the greatest optimism and draw these positive qualities from the fulfillment of their social tasks. Among the characters positive for Dickens, some (“poor”) are distinguished by humility and. devotion, others ("the rich") - generosity and humanity, combined with efficiency and common sense. According to the author, the fulfillment of social duty is a source of happiness and well-being for everyone.
The negative characters of the novel are the bearers of evil, hardened by life, immoral and cynical. Predators by nature, always preying on others, they are hideous, too grotesque and caricatured to be plausible, though they leave the reader in no doubt that they are true. So, the head of a gang of thieves Fagin loves to enjoy the sight of stolen gold items. He can be cruel and merciless if disobeyed or harmed in his cause. The figure of his accomplice Sikes is drawn in more detail than the images of all the other accomplices of Fagin. Dickens combines the grotesque, caricature and moralizing humor in his portrait. This is a “subject of strong build, a kid of about thirty-five, in a black velvet frock coat, very dirty short dark trousers, lace-up shoes and gray paper stockings that fit thick legs with bulging calves - such legs in such a suit always give the impression of something unfinished unless they are adorned with shackles. This "cute" subject keeps a "doggie" named Flashlight to punish children, and even Fagin himself is not afraid of him.
Among the “bottom people” depicted by the author, the image of Nancy turns out to be the most difficult. Sykes' accomplice and lover endows the writer with some attractive character traits. She even shows a tender affection for Oliver, however, subsequently cruelly pays for it.
While ardently fighting selfishness in the name of humanity, Dickens nonetheless put forward considerations of interest and benefit as the main argument: the writer was dominated by the views of the philosophy of utilitarianism, which was widely popular in his time. The concept of "evil" and "good" was built on the idea of bourgeois humanism. To some (representatives of the ruling classes), Dickens recommended humanity and generosity as the basis of "correct" behavior, to others (workers) - devotion and patience, while emphasizing the social expediency and usefulness of such behavior.
In the narrative line of the novel, didactic elements are strong, or rather, moral and moralizing, which in " Posthumous notes Pickwick Club" were only insert episodes. In this novel by Dickens, they form an integral part of the story, explicit or implied, expressed in a playful or sad tone.
At the beginning of the work, the author notes that little Oliver, like his peers, who find themselves at the mercy of heartless and morally unscrupulous people, will face the fate of “a humble and hungry poor man passing his life path under a hail of blows and slaps, despised by all and nowhere met with pity. At the same time, portraying the misadventures of Oliver Twist, the author leads the hero to happiness. At the same time, the story of a boy who was born in a workhouse and left an orphan immediately after his birth ends happily, clearly contrary to the truth of life.
The image of Oliver is in many ways reminiscent of the characters in Hoffmann's fairy tales, who suddenly find themselves in the thick of the battle between good and evil. The boy grows up, despite the most difficult conditions in which the children who are raised by Mrs. Mann are placed, he experiences a half-starved existence in the workhouse and in the family of the Sowerbury undertaker. The image of Oliver is endowed by Dickens with romantic exclusivity: despite the influence of the environment, the boy rigorously strives for good even when he is not broken by the lectures and beatings of the workhouse trustees, who has not learned obedience in the house of his “mentor” - the undertaker, falls into Fagin's gang of thieves. Having gone through the life school of Fagin, who taught him the art of thieving, Oliver remains a virtuous and pure child. He feels his unsuitability for the craft, for which he is an old swindler, but he feels light and free in Mr. Brownlow's comfortable bedroom, where he immediately draws attention to the port of a young woman who later turned out to be his mother. As a moralist and Christian, Dickens does not allow the moral fall of the boy, who is saved by a happy accident - a meeting with Mr. Brownlow, who pulls him out of the kingdom of evil and transfers him to a circle of honest, respectable and wealthy people. At the end of the work, it turns out that the hero is the illegitimate, but long-awaited son of Edwin Lyford, to whom his father bequeathed a fairly significant inheritance. Adopted by Mr. Brownlow, the boy finds a new family.
In this case, we can talk not about Dickens' strict adherence to the logic of the life process, but about the writer's romantic mood, confident that Oliver's purity, purity of soul, his resistance to life's difficulties need a reward. Together with him, others find prosperity and a peaceful existence. positive characters novels: Mr. Grimwig, Mr. Brownlow, Mrs. Maley. Roz Fleming finds his happiness in marriage with Harry Maley, who, in order to marry his beloved girl of low birth, has chosen a career as a parish priest.
Thus, a happy ending crowns the development of intrigue, the good characters are rewarded by the humanist writer for their virtues with a comfortable and cloudless existence. Equally natural for the author is the notion that evil must be punished. All the villains leave the stage - their intrigues are unraveled, because their role is played. In the New World, Monks dies in prison, having received, with the consent of Oliver, part of his father's inheritance, but still wishing to become a respectable person. Fagin is executed, Claypole, to avoid punishment, becomes an informant, Sykes dies, saves from the chase. Beadle Bumble and the workhouse matron who became his wife, Mrs. Corney, lost their jobs. Dickens reports with satisfaction that, as a result, they “succumbed gradually to a state of extreme misery and misery, and at last settled like the despised poor in the same workhouse where they had once ruled over others.”
In an effort to maximize the completeness and persuasiveness of a realistic drawing, the writer uses various artistic means. He describes in detail and carefully the setting in which the action takes place: for the first time he resorts to subtle psychological analysis (the last night of Fagin, who was sentenced to death, or the murder of Nancy by her lover Sykes).
It is obvious that the original contradiction of Dickens's worldview appears in Oliver Twist especially clearly, primarily in the original composition of the novel. Against a realistic background, a moralistic plot that deviates from the strict truth is built. It can be said that the novel has two parallel narrative lines: the fate of Oliver and his fight against evil, embodied in the figure of Monks, and a picture of reality, striking in its truthfulness, based on a truthful depiction of the dark sides of contemporary life for the writer. These lines are not always convincingly connected; a realistic depiction of life could not fit into the framework of the given thesis - "good triumphs over evil."
However, no matter how important the ideological thesis for the writer, which he tries to prove through a moralizing story about the struggle and final triumph of little Oliver, Dickens, as a critical realist, reveals the power of his skill and talent in depicting the wide social background against which the hero’s difficult childhood passes. In other words, the strength of Dickens as a realist does not appear in the depiction of the protagonist and his story, but in the depiction of the social background against which the story of the orphan boy unfolds and ends happily.
The skill of the realist artist appeared where he was not bound by the need to prove the unprovable, where he depicted living people and real circumstances over which, according to the author's intention, a virtuous hero should triumph.
The advantages of the novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist", according to Belinsky V.G., lie in "fidelity to reality", while the disadvantage is in the denouement "in the manner of sensitive novels of the past."
In Oliver Twist, Dickens' style as a realist artist was finally determined, a complex complex of his style matured. Dickens' style is built on the intertwining and contradictory interpenetration of humor and didactics, the documentary transmission of typical phenomena and elevated moralizing.
Considering this novel as one of the works created on early stage in the writer's work, it should be emphasized once again that The Adventures of Oliver Twist fully reflects the originality of the worldview of the early Dickens. During this period, he creates works in which positive characters not only part with evil, but also find allies and patrons for themselves. IN early novels Dickensian humor supports positive characters in their struggle with the hardships of life, it also helps the writer to believe in what is happening, no matter how gloomy colors reality is painted. It is also obvious that the writer's desire to penetrate deeply into the life of his characters, into its dark and bright corners. At the same time, inexhaustible optimism and love of life make the works of the early stage of Dickens's work generally joyful and bright.
