Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist is an
1838 novel by
Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a
serial.
Like most of Dickens' work, the book is used to call the public's attention to various contemporary social evils, including the
workhouse,
child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. The novel is full of
sarcasm and
dark humour, even as it treats its serious subject, revealing thehypocrisies of the time.
It has been the subject of numerous film and television adaptations, and the basis for a highly successful
British musical,
Oliver!.
Oliver is an orphan born in a workhouse, who has no idea of his parents' identity, his mother Agnes
having died in childbirth. The starving workhouse boys draw straws to decide who will ask for an extra helping at mealtime and Oliver is chosen. ("Please, sir, I want some more.") As a result of this breach of
etiquette, he is "sold" by the workhouse to be an
undertaker's apprentice. The
cruelty he suffers at the hands of an older apprentice named Noah Claypole causes him to run away.
He makes his way to
London, where he is taken under the wing of
the Artful Dodger, a boy
criminal. The Dodger introduces Oliver to his circle of friends, who include the
Fagin, a
Jewish criminal mastermind, and his brutal ally,
Bill Sikes. Oliver is trained to be a criminal, learning such skills as
pickpocketing, but never actually commits a crime. He is shown kindness by Bill's 17-year-old mistress,
Nancy.
After a
robbery that goes wrong, in which Oliver played the part of an unwitting lookout, he is taken into the home of a wealthy man, Mr Brownlow. Unknown to them, Oliver's half-brother, Monks, is trying to find him, in order to prevent him from obtaining his
inheritance, but Mr Brownlow soon begins to suspect that Oliver is the illegitimate son of his deceased best friend. Sikes and Nancy snatch Oliver back, and Sikes takes him on a
burglary, planning to get him a criminal record as a favour to Monks. But Oliver is left behind when the burglary goes wrong, and is taken in and cared for by
Rose Maylie and her family, who realize that Oliver was forced to take part in the robbery.
Meanwhile, Monks and Fagin are plotting to try to go after Oliver again and either kidnap or kill him. Nancy, fearing their intentions, goes to Rose Maylie and Mr Brownlow to reveal their plot. She manages to keep her meetings secret until Noah Claypole (he had fallen out with the undertaker and moved to London to seek his fortune) agrees to spy on Nancy and then tells Fagin. Angry at the notion of his plot being foiled, Fagin passes it on to Sikes, twisting the story just enough to make it sound as if Nancy had informed on him. (In actuality, she had shielded Sikes, whom she loves despite his occasional ill-treatment, as much as possible.) Believing that she has betrayed him, Sikes
murders Nancy in a fit of rage, and is himself killed when he accidentally hangs himself while being pursued by an angry mob. Monks is forced to divulge his secrets and give half of his inheritance to Oliver. Then Monks moves to
America, where he quickly spends his money, reverts to crime, and ultimately dies in
prison. Fagin is arrested and
hanged for his misdeeds. Rose Maylie turns out to be the long-lost sister of Oliver's mother Agnes; she is therefore Oliver's aunt. She marries her long-time sweetheart Harry, and Oliver lives happily with his saviour, Mr Brownlow.
*
Oliver – the main protagonist, a boy born in a workhouse
*
Fagin – a Jew who recruits and trains boys for thievery
*
Bill Sikes – a violent thief
*
The Artful Dodger aka John Dawkins – one of Fagin's boy pickpockets
*
Nancy – barmaid and Bill's girl
*Noah Claypole – apprentice to Mr Sowerberry
*Mr. Brownlow
*Monks, aka Edward Leeford – Oliver's half-brother
*
Rose Maylie*
Mr. Bumble – the parish Beadle
*Mr. Sowerberry – an Undertaker who takes Oliver into his service
*Mrs. Sowerberry
*Charlotte – servant to Mrs Sowerberry
*Gamfireld – a vicious chimney-sweep
The novel is characterized by the use of various motifs.
Charity and love are motifs because even though Oliver is treated horribly by most people, he is shown love by a few good people – Mr. Brownlow, Mrs. Maylie, and even Nancy.
Greed and corruption are also motifs because of how people take advantage of Oliver. He is taken advantage of by Mr. Bumble at the workhouse and the thieves. Mr. Fagin tries to control Oliver, to use him for his own wealth. Monks tries to steal his identity and his inheritance.
There have been many
theatrical,
film and
television adaptations of Dickens' novel:
* The earliest
film adaptation is a
silent film made in
1909.
*
Oliver Twist, a
feature film from
1948 by
David Lean, starring
Alec Guinness in one of his most defining roles as
Fagin.
* In
1960,
Lionel Bart's
musical play Oliver! opened to rave reviews in London. It became the longest-running musical there up to that time, playing six years. Producer
David Merrick brought the show to the United States. The show toured nationally in cities including
Los Angeles,
San Francisco and
Detroit before opening at the
Imperial Theatre on
Broadway on
January 6,
1963, where it received less ecstatic reviews and did not run nearly as long as it did in London.
* Lionel Bart's musical was adapted for the big screen in
Oliver! (
1968), and won the
Academy Award for Best Picture in
1969, featuring
Mark Lester as Oliver. It received better reviews than the show had. The film also won an Oscar for its director, Sir
Carol Reed.
* A
1985 BBC television drama adaptation in their
Classic Serial strand, produced by
Terrance Dicks and starring
Eric Porter as Fagin.
* An
animated interpretation by
Disney called
Oliver & Company (
1988), loosely based on Dickens, about an orphaned
cat named Oliver who meets a
dog called Dodger.
* A
television movie,
Oliver Twist, was released in
1997.
* An
ITV/
PBS production,
Oliver Twist, from
1999, adapted by
Alan Bleasdale and starring
Robert Lindsay as Fagin, and
Andy Serkis as Bill Sikes.
* The
2003 movie
Twist by director
Jacob Tierney is loosely based on the novel but set in modern-day
Toronto with male
prostitution and
drugs, rather than
pickpocketing.
* During the summer and autumn of
2004, director
Roman Polanski filmed a new version of
Oliver Twist, which was released in
September 2005. Starring are
Barney Clark (Oliver Twist),
Ben Kingsley (Fagin),
Jamie Foreman (Bill Sikes),
Harry Eden (the Artful Dodger) and
Leanne Rowe (Nancy). The screenplay of this new version has been signed by
Ronald Harwood.
*
Boy called Twist by director
Timothy Greene (
2004) is set in
Cape Town,
South Africa, in the street-kid scene. With its unglamorous but sympathetic account of city
poverty, the film is true to Dickens' story.
Adaptations of the novel tend to simplify the original story.The way the book is normally interpreted on screen causes modern readers to focus on Bill Sikes as the villain. They thus fail to recognise how Fagin has trained Sikes and made him what he is; part of Dickens' message is that he might have done the same with Oliver had chance not intervened.
The renowned
comic book creator,
Will Eisner, disturbed by the
anti-semitism in the typical depiction of Fagin, created a
graphic novel in
2003 titled
Fagin the Jew. In this book, the
back story of the character and events of
Oliver Twist are depicted from his point of view.
*
Online Text**
Free ebook of Oliver Twist at
Project Gutenberg**
Oliver Twist - Easy to read HTML version.
**
Oliver Twist – complete book in HTML one page for each chapter.
**
Oliver Twist - Searchable HTML version.
**
RSS Version - Read
Oliver Twist in the RSS Version.
*
Critical analysis**
When Is a Book Not a Book? Oliver Twist in Context, a seminar by
Robert Patten from the
New York Public Library
