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Oliver Twist Analysis

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Oliver Twist is up to its brim in themes and ideas that mingle together to create a wildly inventive and thought provoking novel. From social class to government corruption any number of messages can be investigated and examined in order to better understand mid-19th century London. One of which is the idea that the characters are forever stuck in their lifestyle, no matter how hated it may be. It is seemingly their fate to live out their lives like they always have. One can simply take a look at Oliver to see that this is not altogether true. Although at birth the course of his life was determined for him, he was able to break free from his figurative chains to become greater than he ever imagined. However, the case is different for Nancy. She could’ve abandoned her unhealthy lifestyle and was even offered a better one, but she chose to stay. It was her destiny to stay right where she was in her life, for better or for worse. By contrasting Oliver and Nancy’s lives, Charles Dickens demonstrates that while powerful, the fate of a person can be changed according to that person’s free will.
Oliver’s lonely birth brings no words of hope out of the narrator who says “...he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once–a parish child–the orphan of a workhouse–the humble half-starved drudge–to be cuffed and buffeted through the world–despised by all and pitied by none” (Dickens 4). All these labels and stigmas that are immediately placed on him serve as examples of the

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