Essay on The Abuse of the Poor in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Over the last century health and social care has changed and developed immensely with the implementation of the NHS and becoming a welfare state. Prior to this health care was only available to a minority of people, those who could afford it. In 1815 the old poor law was passed, it stated that each parish must look after its own poor and those who could not work were provided enough money to help them survive. By 1830 the poor law cost around £7 million, which came from taxing the middle and upper class, causing a sense of resentment towards lower class, unemployed people. In 1834 the new poor law was passed, its aim was to reduce the cost of looking after the poor. Workhouses helped with this, they provided clothes, food and healthcare in return for manual labour. Despite

The Poor Law of 1601 was the first to codify the idea of the state to provide for the welfare of its citizens. It distinguished between the 'deserving' and the 'undeserving' poor; relief was local and community controlled.1 The 1834 Poor Law Act Amendment Act was an amendment to the Act for the relief of The English Poor Law of 1601.

From the moment of his birth, Oliver Twist is besieged by pure evil, and while he grows up without knowledge of what being good is like, having never seen it, having never experienced it, he is able to maintain a level of morality that most of the adults around him cannot. His disposal into the workhouse, an institution original designed to help the poor but has been transformed into a house of punishment by the New Poor Law which callous

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act changed the law that was already in place, to centralise the relief given, and bring in more regulations. Outdoor relief was abolished for the able-bodied, and workhouses were to be established in parishes, or within unions of parishes. Under the Act, ratepayers in each union or parish elected a board of guardians to supervise the workhouse and send reports to the Poor Law Commissioners, who were appointed by the government and responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Act across the countries. Furthermore, the Act aimed to create workhouses as a last resort, and make the regulations and conditions dismal enough

Many writers are famous for showing how life was like in that specific era. Much like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee shows how life was in the south, and the racism going on. For Charles Dickens he shows the life of England in the Victorian Era. Especially showing the poverty, and ridiculing the government about not focusing on it. This style of writing represents this unique Victorian era the best of its kind, and gives the reader a better knowledge of the subject when reading Dickens. So if a school would like to learn about England in the 1800’s they should read his novels. This reason is why Dickens had so much popularity, Collins, Philip. “Charles Dickens: British Novelist.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 29 Aug. 2017,

In the 16th century the Welfare State was non-existent in Britain. The result of this was the increase in people subjected to living in absolute poverty due to them not having the basic living requirements. They also had no access to services such as health care, or education as these were not free institutions. The ruling era of Queen Elizabeth I identified that the paupers required some form of help and as a result introduced the ‘Act for the Relief of the Poor’ in 1601.

These changes came about as a direct response to the rising numbers of paupers and pauperism. The poor laws, which consisted of outdoor relief, the workhouse and parish responsibility for the locally born, required contradictory responses to poverty: succour and repression, alms and forced labour. These dual directives which were implemented by church wardens and several of the substantial householders who served as overseers of the poor were a burden on both administrators and paupers alike who had to decide which person would be given relief, and the type of relief given. In addition, the poor law, which had been put in place during the sixteenth century by Elizabeth 1 was becoming outdated and expensive, as rising numbers of paupers were too great to maintain this as a viable option for the relief of poverty. By this time the poor rate accounted for one fifth of the national expenditure by 1830. This led to sustained call for a more centralised and uniform system which brought about the Poor Law Amendment Act of

The excerpt itself does fantastic work in the way of elaborating on the living conditions of this group of people and doesn’t put priority on a specific group. The Excerpt instead provides a detailed account as to the different people that inhabitant different parts of the workhouse specific to their age and health status. The detail in which Dickens goes into is remarkable and really provides a clear picture to variety of domains within this area. A bit of knowledge of this time period is truly needed in order to grasp the broader themes that are in the

Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned British writers with well-known and widespread work. Dickens was born in England in 1812 and died in 1870. During this time, Victorian England experienced an Industrial Revolution, which impacted his life tremendously. New factories and industrial machinery changed many lives of the lower class citizens. The family grew up impoverished and struggled to maintain a good lifestyle. The family’s financial situation was strained as John Dickens, Charles’s father, spent money that the family didn’t have. These societal factors were influential in Charles Dickens’s life, and the same themes present themselves in his works. When an author creates a work, frequently themes of their life events are incorporated into the theme of the book, consciously or unconsciously. Victorian Age industrial-influenced strife was a common theme in Dickens’s life and presented itself throughout Dickens’s books.

Dickens begins the novel with a pro-revolutionary tone. His regard for the idea of the upcoming and inevitable revolution in a positive light is reflected by the atmosphere he sets for the reader. Dickens is able to make his readers pity the peasantry and sympathize with them. Through inclusion of detail, Dickens portrays the plight of the lower class writing, “gloom [gathers] on the scene that [appears] more natural to it than sunshine” (21). This allows the reader to imply that the suffering of the lower class has fallen into a continuous pattern, and they can understand the need for revolution. Additionally, Dickens uses anaphora with the phrase “Hunger [is]” (21). This gives the reader a sense of how much hunger dominates and defines their lives, effectively making their

England. Dickens addresses these issues in his timeless masterpiece Oliver Twist. In the story of Oliver Twist, Dickens uses past experiences from his childhood and targets the Poor Law of 1834 which renewed the importance of the workhouse as a means of relief

In this essay I will be writing about how Charles Dickens uses the story Oliver Twist to expose the appalling treatment of poor children in Victorian Britain. Oliver Twist was written in 1837–9, this period in Britain history was known as the Victorian period. Life in Britain was changing a lot at this time, more and more people were moving to the city due to the Industrial Revolution. Most of the people, who were moving to the city, were living in the country. There were a lot of negative effects of lots of people moving to the city, it was getting really overcrowded and there was a lack of housing.

Great Expectations’ main character, Phillip Pirrip- generally known as Pip- had a rough upbringing as a child. His sister, Mrs. Joe had “brought him up by hand”, after their parents and five brothers had all been laid to rest many years ago. Another character, Herbert Pocket experienced a bizarre childhood, though in a different manner. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations develops through the novel following Pip, a young “common boy” who grew up in the countryside. As he matured so did his love for a girl of higher class, Estella. However, being a common boy, Pip was not good enough for his Estella, thus once he was given an opportunity to become a gentleman in London he seized it without much hesitation. Charles Dickens’ had his own

In Oliver Twist, Dickens wrote “The deep remembrance …………. of the misery it was to my young heart to believe that day by day, what I had learned and thought and delighted in and raised my fancy and emulation up by was passing away from me……… cannot be written.” As a child labour, he would dine on a slice of pudding and for his twelve hour daily labour, receive a meager wage of six shillings a week” (Oliver Twist).

Charles Dickens came from a working class background and was taken away from his family to work in a dirty, filthy warehouse. Some of his brothers and sisters died when they were young. He did not have a good childhood. All his work, his novels were based on the main characters being poor, working class, uneducated with some sort of disability.