Oliver Twist

By Charles Dickens

The author

Have you ever heard of Charles Dickens?

After Shakespeare, he is probably the most famous writer

in the English language. He is best know for his novels about

life in the 19th century Britain.

Dickens was born in 1812 into a good family in the south

of England. When he was still a young boy, his father went to

prison because he had got into debt.

Charles went to London to earn money for the family.

At the age of twelve, he was working for ten hours a day in a

London factory. He saw how hard life was for poor people,

and many of the ideas for the stories of his novels and the

characters in them came from this time.

Setting and the main themes

Time: The 19th century during the Industrial Revolution

Place: England

Main Themes:

• Poverty against Greed and Richness:

Dickens throws the light on the sufferings of most people

from being poor and miserable. People left their homes and

came to cities to find work and food. On the other hand the

rich led a very luxurious life using these poor people for their

own interest.

Crime:

In Oliver Twist Dickens focused on creating a criminal societ

because of hunger and how some children were driven to me

thives for food and sleep

Characters in the

Novel

• Oliver’s Family and benefactors• The gang• The workhouse people

Oliver Twist

Oliver is an orphan born in the workhouse.

The writer used him to citisice public plocy

towards the poor in the 1830s England.

Mrs Mann

A woman who looked after Oliver and the other young orphans from the workhouse. Mrs. Mann took somemoney of the orphanage for herself. So the boys never had very much to eat.

Mr Bumble

An official from the workhouse ,He behaves without compassion towards the children under his care. He is also greedy for money.

Mr Brownlow

A gentle man from London who took care of Oliver and had some kind of relationship with Oliver’s father

Mr Sowerberry

The Coffin maker to whom Oliver was apprenticed

Noah Claypole

He was Mr Sowerberry’s employee. he was well grown, cowardly bully who treated Oliver badly because he was jealous that Mr Sowerberry was pleased with Oliver