1、Oliver Twist-book report by 侯文娟 Number:0091131013One of Dickens most popular stories is Oliver Twist, an early work published in 1837. As with most of Dickens work, Oliver Twist is used to bring the publics attention to various contemporary social evils, including the workhouse, child labour and the
2、 recruitment of children as criminal. The novel is full of sarcasm and dark humour, even as it treats its serious subject, revealing the hypocrisies of the time.Oliver is a boy born in a workhouse, who has no idea of his parents identity. His mother Agnes died in childbirth. By pure chance he is cho
3、sen as a scapegoat by the other starving boys, which is made him to go and asking for an extra help at a meal time. As a result of his breach of etiquette, he is sold by the workhouse as an undertakers apprentice. The cruelty he suffers at the hands of an older, and he finds his way to London where
4、he is taken under the wing of the Artful Dodger, a boy criminal. The Dodger introduces Oliver into his circle of friends, who include Fagin the Jew, a criminal mastermind, and his brutal ally, Bill Sikes. Oliver is taught crimes such as picking pockets, but never actually participates in them. He is
5、 shown kindness by Bills 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. Meanwhile, Monks and Fagin are plotting to try to go after Oliver again and either kidnap him of k
6、ill him. Nancy is fearful of such a scenario and goes to Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow to divulge the plot of the evil pair. She manages to keep her secret meetings hidden until Noah Claypole(he has fallen out with the same undertaker who once employed Oliver and moved to London to seek his own fortu
7、ne)agrees to spy on Nancy and then gives information to Fagin and Sikes. In a fit of rage, Sikes murders Nancy and is himself killed(by getting hanged)while being pursued by an angry mod. Monks is forced to explain his secrets and give half of his inheritance to Oliver, and moves to America soon aft
8、erwards, where he quickly spends his money, reverts to criminal activities and ultimately dies in prison. Fagin is arrested and hanged for his crimes. Rose Maylie marries her long-time sweetheart Harry, and Oliver lives happily with his savior, Mr. Brownlow.Dickenss Oliver Twist had many purposes th
9、at are brought up through Olivers journey. This novel brought forth messages of poverty, selfishness, capitalism, social welfare and child labour.One of Dickenss most famous and wicked characters ever written was Fagin. He, being a dark and thieving character, enforces the terrible problems of the s
10、ociety, to give the reader an idea as to what some people had to live through during the 1800s.He is ugly, simpering, miserly, and avaricious. Constant references to him as the Jew seem to indicate that his negative traits are intimately connected to his ethnic indentify. However, Fagin is more than
11、 a statement of ethnic prejudice. He is a richly drawn, resonant embodiment of terrifying villainy. At times, he seems like a childs distorted vision of pure evil. Fagin is described as a “loathsome reptile” and as having “fangs such as should have been a dogs or rats.”Other characters occasionally
12、refer to him as “the old one”, a popular nickname for the devil. Indeed, Fagin is meant to inspire nightmares in child and adult readers alike. Perhaps most frightening of all, we enter Fagins head for his “last night alive.” The gallows, and the fear they inspire in Fagin, are a specter even more h
13、orrifying to contemplate than Fagin himself.As the child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities. On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised in corrupt surroundi
14、ngs, his purity and virtue are absolute. Throughout the novel Dickens uses Olivers character to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminal are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment in the source of vice. At the same time Olivers incorruptibility undermines som
15、e of Dickenss assertions. Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between good and evil. Instead, he is goodness incarnate.Compared with the other works of Dickens, Oliver Twist is not of great value, but it is of great importance. Some parts of it are so crude and of so foolish a
16、 melodrama that one is almost tempted to say that Dickens would have been greater without it. But even if he had been greater without it, he would still have been incomplete without it. With the exception of some gorgeous passages, both of humour and horror, the interest of the book lies not so much
17、 in its revelation of Dickenss literary genius. Its the most depressing of all his books by far. Its in some ways the most irritating. Its ugliness gives the last touch of honesty to all that spontaneous and splendid output. Without this one discordant note all his merriment might have seemed like l
18、evity.Some favorite sentences1.“Please, Sir, I want some more.” Oliver, asking the cook at the workhouse for more gruel. 2. “Good-bye dear! God bless you!” Dick told Oliver on his way to London, which warmed Olivers heart and gave him courage. 3. “As he spoke, he pointed hastily to the picture above
19、 Olivers head; and then to the boys face. There was its living copy. The eyes, the head, the mouth; every feature was the same. The expression was, for an instant, so precisely alike, that the minutest line seemed copied with startling accuracy” from the moment when Mr. Bumble realizes who Oliver is
20、. 4. “Am I, said the girl Nancy Take care I dont overdo it. You will be the worse for it Fagin, if I do; so I tell you in good time keep clear of me”Nancy protecting Oliver from Fagins beatings. This line foreshadows the downfall of the Jew brought about by Nancys hand. 5. “the mother, when the pain
21、s of death first came upon her, whispered in my ear that if her babe was born alive, and thrived, the day might come when it would not feel so much disgraced to here its poor young mother namedwhether it be a boy or girl, raise up some friends for it in this troubled world; and take pity upon a lone
22、ly and desolate child, abandoned to its mercy.” the old nurse sally told Mrs. Corney when she was dying. 6. “ When the boy is worth a hundred pounds to me, am I to lose what chance threw me in the way of getting safely, through the whims of a drunken gang that I could whistle away the lives of! And
23、me bound, too, to a born devil, that only wants the will and has the power”Statement by Fagin to Nancy that shows the depth of his greed and exploitation of the people around him. 7. But even if he has been wicked, pursed Rose, think how young he is, think that he may never have known a mothers love
24、, or the comfort of a home; and that ill-usage and blows, or the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt. Aunt, dear aunt, for mercys sake, think of this, before you let them drag this sick child to a prison, which in any case must be the grave of all his cha
25、nces of amendment.”The powerful speech by Rose that saves Oliver from going to prison. This speech is also a statement by Dickens about the effectiveness of the prison system in saying that it does not reform people. 8. “If I had been less- less fortunate, the world would call it; if some obscure an
26、d peaceful life had been my destiny; if I had been poor, sick, helpless; would you have turned from me then? Or has my probable advancement to riches and honour, given this scruple birth?”Harry during his proposal to Rose wondering if he had a different station life, would she accept his offer. Dick
27、ens says here that love need not have money to be happy, and actually states that the lesser the money or station in life, the happier two people may be, because money corrupts people. 9. “raising herself with difficulty, on her knees, drew from her bosom a white handkerchief Rose Maylies own, and h
28、olding it up, in her folded hands, as high towards heaven as her feeble strength would allow, breathed one prayer for mercy to her maker” A powerful passage, Dickens illustrates that Nancy, with her final act of good helping Oliver that she too, like Rose Maylie, was not evil any longer. 10.“ Not Au
29、nt,” cried Oliver, throwing his arms about her neck: Ill never call her aunt sister, my own dear, sister, that something taught my heart to love so dearly from the first! Rose, dear, darling Rose!” Olivers joy at finally having a loving family member who will love him comes through, because his story is all about his search for a family and love.
