i
REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL OPPRESSION
DURING THE MID 19
thCENTURY ENGLAND SOCIETY
IN CHARLES DICKENS’ OLIVER TWIST
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By
BAYU MURHANASWAN
Student Number : 044214122
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2009 In English Letters
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I can do all things
through Christ which
strengthened me
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This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
My Lord, Jesus Christ
My beloved father, Marhaenis Budi S.
My beloved mother, Dasanti M.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty God and my Savior, Jesus Christ who always shows His mercy and love for the entire of my life. It is only by His amazing grace that this undergraduate thesis is finally finished. Whenever I face many barriers to finish this thesis, He becomes my strength, my refuge and my hope. My deepest love is also given to my beloved parents who always pray for me all the time and give their support and love along my life. I also give thanks to my two young brothers who always care and support me.
My deepest gratitude and respect are due to my advisor, Gabriel Fajar Sasmita Aji, S.S., M.Hum., who has spent his time to help and to guide me in finishing this thesis. I thank him for his kindness and patience to correct my thesis writing. My deepest thank is also due to my co-advisor, Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum., who has helped me to check my thesis. I would like to give special thank to all the lecturers who have taught me and guided me along the years of my study. I also thank to all the administrative staffs of English Letters Department and SAC staffs for their helps and kindness through the years of my study.
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work and to serve God. I would like to thank to all friends in Grinjing 9c boarding house who has became my friends for my years living with them.
For all my 2004 best friends in English Letters Depertment: Adit, Cyllas, Galih, Wawan, Roni, Toni, Taufik, I really thank for the friendship since the first year of my study. I thank to "A Doll's House" team for the togetherness during the
preparation of play performance, and also to my close friend Karisma who has spent his time to support me during the end of my thesis writing.
My special thanks and love go to someone who always prays for me all the time and supports me to finish my thesis. Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone whose name cannot be mentioned one by one. Thanks for all who have been a blessing in my life.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN ... xii
PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA ...
3. The Relation between Literature and Society ... 14
C. Review on England Condition in the mid 19th D. Theoretical Framework ... 21 B. The Representation of Social Oppression during the mid 19 The Setting of Oliver Twist ... th England Society in Oliver Twist ... 36
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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 53
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 56
x
ABSTRACT
BAYU MURHANASWAN (2009). Representation of Social Oppression during the mid 19th Century England Society in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
Literature is a social institution that represents life. It is the imitation of social reality that is unintentionally constructed. It deals with human experiences, problems, feeling and attitudes toward life. This thesis analyzes these issues in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist to represent the social oppression that happened in
England society during the mid 19th century.
The objective of this study is to find out the representation of social oppression during the mid 19th century England society. Based on the problems, this study is conducted into three objectives. The first objective is to identify the setting in the novel. The second objective is to portray how the setting represents the social oppression towards the society during the mid 19th century. The last objective is to reveal the idea that is represented through social oppression during the mid 19th century England society.
In analyzing this thesis, the writer applies library research method. The sources are taken from the books and some sites in internet to collect the theories, approach, and some related studies that give significant ideas and opinion of other studies toward this novel. The writer also uses the socio-cultural historical approach to give a strong and significant idea as the novel represents the social condition at the time.
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ABSTRAK
BAYU MURHANASWAN (2009). Representation of Social Oppression during the mid 19th Century England Society in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Karya sastra merupakan sebuah institusi sosial yang merepresentasikan sebuah kehidupan. Karya sastra juga merupakan tiruan dari sebuah realita sosial yang dibentuk secara tidak sengaja. Karya sastra memiliki hubungan dengan pengalaman, masalah, perasaan dan sikap manusia terhadap kehidupan. Skripsi ini menganalisa masalah-masalah tersebut dalam novel Oliver Twist yang ditulis oleh
Charles Dickens untuk merepresentasikan tekanan sosial yang terjadi dalam masyarakat Inggris selama pertengahan abad ke-19.
Tujuan utama dalam studi ini adalah menemukan representasi dari tekanan sosial dalam masyarakat Inggris selama pertengahan abad ke-19. Berdasarkan rumusan masalah, studi ini di lakukan dalam tiga tujuan. Tujuan pertama adalah mengidentifikasi latar belakang cerita dalam novel. Tujuan kedua adalah memberikan gambaran tentang bagaimana latar belakang cerita merepresentasikan tekanan sosial terhadap masyarakat selama pertengahan abad ke-19. Tujuan terakhir studi ini mengungkap sebuah pemikiran yang direpresentasikan melalui tekanan sosial di dalam masyarakat Inggris selama pertengahan abad ke-19.
Dalam menganalisisa, penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka. Sumber-sumbernya di ambil dari buku-buku dan beberapa situs di internet untuk mengumpulkan teori-teori, pendekatan dan beberapa tinjauan studi yang memberikan pendapat dan pemikiran yang penting dari studi lain tentang novel ini. Penulis juga menggunakan pendekatan sosiokultural historikal untuk memberikan sebuah pemikiran yang penting dan kuat untuk merepresentasikan kondisi sosial dalam novel pada masa itu.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : BAYU MURHANASWAN
Nomor Mahasiswa : 044214122
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL OPPRESSION DURING THE MID 19TH
Yang menyatakan
CENTURY ENGLAND SOCIETY IN CHARLES DICKENS’ OLIVER TWIST
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 30 Mei 2009
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PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA
Saya menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa skripsi yang saya tulis ini tidak memuat karya atau bagian yang lain kecuali yang telah disebutkan dalam kutipan dan daftar pustaka sebagai mana layaknya karya ilmiah.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature is a social institution that represents life, while life itself is a social reality. In other word, literature is the imitation of social reality that is unintentionally constructed. According to Wellek and Warren in Theory of Literature, the literary works are the mirror of society. It is not the reflection of society, but the essence of the history.
But furthermore, literature represents life and life is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner of subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary imitation (1956: 94).
From the quotation above, we can see that literature is an expression of society. It has social function. It is also a reflection of human daily life. It expresses human experiences, problems, feeling and attitudes toward life. Literature with its medium devices and objects is the representation of life itself.
oppressive toward them. Sometimes, they surrender to the situation around them. This is the condition that the novel wants to reveal.
Oliver Twist is a work of social commentary. This is a strong criticism novel of the poverty and social stratification of England society at the time. Oliver Twist is also one of the most important novels of the nineteenth century that describes poor living conditions. This novel becomes popular because it relies on the reality so that the people reading this novel will know about the reality of life and many circumstances that affect their life. It is stated in Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 7:
It is true that Oliver Twist consists of a queer mixture of melodrama and realism; but both the realism and the melodrama are deliberately dark and grim 1970: 378).
Dickens' Oliver Twist is actually a simple story of an innocent boy named Oliver Twist who struggles for survival. It portrays in the story that there are many circumstances in the society that take control or even oppress the people. The situations that happen in the society are used in this novel to make a pointed social commentary, attacking the hypocrisy and mistakes of institutions like workhouse, including the government, its laws and criminal system, and also the ways of dealing with poor. It is also a kind of a fictional novel possessing the western slavery behavior of adults to young youths.
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This novel reveals so many values to readers that can be practiced and can give them a picture of a good morally person. This novel is completely able to bring the reader into the reality through the social condition at the time. By reading this novel, the writer can see so many things happen in this life, revealed through the condition of the society at the time. This novel really amazes the writer so much with its images of social oppression that result in, for instance, poverty, crime and another humiliating society. It concerns on being a citizen to other people who is being oppressed and discriminated. In this novel we can see how the poor is seemingly born for hardships and misfortunes live. They are described as a helpless and hopeless people, lives under the violent situation. It is stated in New Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 5:
Though containing much comedy still, Oliver Twist is more centrally concerned with social and moral evil (the workhouse and the criminal world) ― the spectacle of the lost or oppressed child as an occasion for pathos and social criticism (1983: 707).
Novel Oliver Twist is also one of many representations in literary works. It represents the real condition of England during the mid 19th
The novel shows how the Industrial revolution really brings great impact toward the people’s life and the society as a whole. People from the upper class and middle class develop and begin to exploit the lower classes. The novel tries to century. The story actually concerns with the situation that happened at the time and tries to criticize this situation that oppresses the society.
develop the social consciousness to overcome social misery. As a result, for instance, the novel reveals bad condition of the poor, the hard life in workhouse and many others wicked situations. These situations then force people to run away from their life reality and some turn into criminality in order to survive.
The writer tries to find out why the society seems oppressive and to connect the situation in the novel with the social condition at the time. The writer is also interested in the condition of the society in the novel because it represents the social oppression in England society at the time. Moreover, the writer sees that the social oppression will result in what happen toward the society. That is why the writer prefers to choose this topic to be analyzed deeply.
B. Problems Formulation
1. 2.
How is the setting depicted in the novel?
How does the setting in the novel represent social oppression in the society during the mid 19th
3.
century?
What idea is represented through the social oppression during the mid 19th century England society?
C. Objectives of the Study
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social oppression towards the society during the mid 19th century. The last objective is to find out the idea that is represented through social oppression during the mid 19th
D. Definition of Terms
century England society.
1. Representation
Gibson in his book Postmodern Theory towards a Postmodern Theory of Narrative states that there two representations; surface and depth.
The surface representation is a realism of particulars that conceives of language as unproblematically adequate to what it represents and apparently founded in the visual.
The depth representation is representation of essences, general features, types which depends on and expresses ontological conviction. It also means penetrating the visible (1996: 81-82).
2. Social Oppression
According to Dictionary of Sociology and Related Sciences (1970: 275), social is having to do with the reciprocal relations of interacting human beings, either as individuals or groups.
Thus, social oppression is an action of authority or power in a cruel or unjust manner that happens in the live of community or human being interaction.
3. Society
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
According to Wilson in his The World of Charles Dickens, the achievement of Dickens is his greatest gifts of strong characterization and dialogue. The story is also done by the use of heavy irony which marks all his novels (1970: 129). He said that the story was a story of routine cruelty that is almost faced in a system of Victorian society. According to Wilson, Dickens’ attack upon the ideas of serious, intelligent, educated and well-intentioned men presented with an intractable social problem is not relevant to modern readers, nor even Dickens in his often reckless attract upon them mostly saw the truth instead of the statistics which obsessed the legislators. However, the story is one of the most successful social satires in the crowd and society, which, in great degree, deals not in personalities but in human anonymity in ‘society’.
All through his life, Dickens hammered home the point that crime was the result of the terrible Poverty and Ignorance in Victorian society. He worked hard on society’s compassion in order to diminish the poverty and the ignorance (1970: 131).
Chesterton in his Appreciation and Criticism of the Works of Charles Dickens said that the story of Oliver Twist has about two special principles which separate it from all that called realism at the time. First, it has a moral story that means more often a story about immoral people. Second, realism is always associated with some simple view of morals (1911 42). It is stated in the quotation below:
The real poignancy that there is in this idea is a very good study in that strong school of social criticism which Dickens represented. The whole tragedy of that incident is in the fact that he does expect the universe to be kind to him, that he does believe that he is living in a just world. That is to say, he comes, indeed, with gloomy experiences, but he comes with a happy philosophy (1911 42).
Indhy Agiviena Putri in her thesis A Study of Characters and Settings to reveal the Victorian Age Social Stratification in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist
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and the settings portray the condition prevailing at the time. She finds the setting begins in the parochial world, criminal world, and the world of the Victorian middle class. The result of the analysis shows that the characters and the settings truly represent the social stratification of the Victorian Age (Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma, 2007).
Oliver Twist is chosen because the presentation of the characters’ condition, setting, and social background are very interesting to discuss in such a way that they can make the story more vivid through the description through their attitudes and behavior. The setting created in the story lead to the presence of the characters’ conditions, which later reflect and function to reveal social stratification at Victorian Age (2007: 2-3).
According to Normsan Lebrecht, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist contains such a racism because Dickens uses a character named Fagin to describe 'the Jew'. Fagin is from the lower class whose job is to commit himself and many children commit to do crimes. The class of criminal almost invariably is a Jew. It is not once by way of identification, but repeatedly, relentlessly, emphatically, to point out the wicked old receiver of stolen goods like him who is hardly ever mentioned by name and emphasized only by racial and religious origin. There is an unmissable view about Fagin as bad looking and disgusting person, and of the typical Jew who kidnaps Christian boys for their blood. It is stated:
However, there is no evidence to support this, even in the London crime statistics of the 1830s to suggest that Jews control gangs of boy pickpockets. As for Fagin, there is no one knows exactly where he comes from. Dickens admits that he knows no Jews at the time. Dickens' repulsive prejudice might be excused as conventional for its time and it not so excessive where Oliver Twist is described so compelling in the novel as one of the most gripping narratives in the English literary works.
Unlike other thesis discussing the same author of the literary work, this thesis is going to analyze the society in the novel as the representation of the social oppression during the mid 19th
B.
century England society and the idea behind it.
1. Theory of Setting
Review of Related Theories
Setting of a story can make the readers understand the situation or environment that the author creates in a story. Setting gives the readers depiction or portray about the environment or society in a story. The setting of time can give the description about when characters live and relates with the year at that time. It is important for the readers to know the setting of a story, because they can decide whether the setting is based on actual event or just a creation (fictional).
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place. It also refers to the "historical time" that shows when the story takes place. In a large sense, setting refers to "the social circumstances that are situation or conditions, and environments in which the character live. It is stated:
The general local and the historical time in which its action occurs, the setting of an episode or scene within a work is the physical location in which it takes place (Abrams, 1981: 175)
From the definition above, the actual setting consists of not only setting of place and setting of time, but also it is about the social circumstances where the story occurs.
Abrams’ understanding on setting can be added by Holman and Harmon’s definition. Holman and Harmon in their book A Handbook to Literature
describes setting as “the play, and sometimes spiritual background against which the action of a narrative (novel, drama. Short story, poem) takes place” (1986: 465). Moreover, they propose four elements that are making up a setting.
1. The actual geographical location that includes the topography and scenery, the setting may also be the indoor location like physical arrangements of the furniture or the position of windows and door of a room
2. The occupation and daily manner of living of the characters
3. The time of era in which the action happens, for example: the year, the season, or it might be an epoch in history etc.
Kennedy and Dana Gioia in their book Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 7th
1. Place
Edition (1999: 92-93) describe the definition of setting simply, call it place and time. The idea of setting includes:
The setting of place refers to the place where the action of novel occurs. It can refer to the actual place or imaginary place created by the author. It also includes the physical environment of a story, such as a house, a street, a city, a landscape, a region. Physical place is actually vital to a regional writer who usually sets the story in one geographic area. Such a writer, who is often a native of the place, tries to bring the story alive to readers who live somewhere else.
2. Time
The setting may crucially involve the time of the story, such as hour, year, or century. It might matter greatly that a story takes place at dawn, or on the day of the first moon landing Setting may also include the weather which in some stories may be crucial. Setting of time has two meanings. First, it refers to the time when the author wrote the story. Second it refers to the time of the story itself.
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references to physical and temporal objects and artifacts. There may be several settings in a work, and the term setting refers to all the places mentioned. There are two types of setting (1987:190-191):
1. Natural
It is seen as a force that shapes action and therefore directs and redirects lives. Nature is one of the major forces leading the circumstances of characters who attempt facing the conflicts in which the plots of stories depend.
2. Manufactured
It always reflects the people who make it. Ugly and impoverished surroundings may contribute to the weariness, insensitivity, negligence, or even hostility of the characters living in them.
2. Theory of Representation
representation is just a physical representation. Second is deep representation. It also means penetrating the visible or the unseen from the seen. This is the representation of essences, general features, types which depends on and expresses ontological conviction. Deep representation is even prior to surface or empirical representation (1996: 82). This kind of representation does not only give the same description about the real object that is being represented but it can lead us to discover the facts that stand behind the representation.
The object produced in representation must be understood as merely a certain position for the existent. Representation is a practice of forcing the existent back into a relation with oneself. The practice determines the existent as present, before and near but also apart from oneself as subject (1996: 83). Since this study discusses the representation of the society through setting in the novel, then it is a surface representation. The depth representation reveals the idea behind it. It reveals the unseen from the seen in the text to get the real meaning and fact in it.
3. The Relation between Literature and Society
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customs, setting and locality because society in the novel does not aim at a faithful mirror of existent things (Langland, 1984: 5).
According to Langland, society comes out from patterned, formal relationships among aspects of our life experiences (1984: 5). He also says that society does not only concern people and their classes but also their customs, conventions, belief values, religion and culture, and their physical environment. Society considers everything we have seen to be norms, conventions, background, places, people, and institution. How a writer uses society depends both on the relationship that it has to the characters and on the overall role it plays in a developing action (1984: 6-7).
Society in a wider sense, comprehending not merely peoples and their classes but also their customs, conventions, beliefs and values, their institutions―legal, religious, and cultural―and their physical environment (1984: 6).
Henkle in his Reading the Novel said that some novels emphasize and concerns themselves with the nature of a society (1977: 21). It seems realistic, recreating a world resembling ours and with people much like us, that is then called as social novels.
The social novels present lifelike characters in recognizable, probable social situations. It imparts a strong sense of place through detailed descriptions of rooms, houses, countrysides, town streets and buildings, and characteristic sounds and activities (1977: 22).
novels tend to define themselves through their contact with other people in society (1977: 23). Social interaction ―how people behave toward one another ― is one
of the crucial activities of the book.
C. Review on England Condition in the mid 19th 1.
century Social Life Condition
It is necessary for the writer to investigate the nature of the England society; in this case its social structure and social life. It will be helpful to help the writer understands the condition of the England society when the novel was written.
The rapid growth of the industrial cities did pay attention to sanitation or comfort produced foul slums where the people lived in horrible squalor. The large numbers of women and particularly children ranging in ages from six years up were employed and harshly exploited.
Children of pauper parents were farmed out to factory owners on terms that amounted to slavery, unprotected even by the “property interest” that mitigated the rigors of true slavery, and were literally worked to death (Littlefield, 1973: 8).
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1. The Aristocracy Class / Upper Class
The top class is known as the aristocracy. They belong to the royal family, includes the lords spiritual, the clergy, and nobility who have great power and wealth. The person included to this class is determined by heredity (1983:846). This class was the richest class that had influenced the economic, political, military and intellectual policies. These people are privileged and avoided taxes.
2. The Middle Class
They are separated into three smaller groups. They are the upper-middle class, the middle-middle class, and the lower-middle class (1983:847). The upper-middle class composed mainly of the most successful business families from banking, industry, and large scale commerce. These families were the prime beneficiaries of modern industry and scientific progress. The number of servants was an important indicator of wealth and standing for the middle class, as it had always been for the aristocracy. The middle-middle class was found moderately successful industrialist and merchants, as well as professionals in law and medicine. They are solid and quite comfortable, but lacking great wealth (1983:848). The lower-middle class was independent shopkeepers, small traders, and tiny manufacturers.
3. The Working Class / Lower Class
class were even less unified and homogeneous that the middle classes. This class are separated into highly skilled (“labor aristocracy” class), semiskilled and unskilled urban workers (1983:851).
During the early 19th
2.
century, the Poor Law was often heavily criticized for its humanity and was said to discourage the unemployed from seeking work. It was found three main groups of inmates in the parish workhouses; the old and infirm, orphaned and illegitimate children, and unmarried pregnant women, as the last a group that was generally treated harshly (Black, 2000: 185). The working classes in England suffered under many forms of exploitation. They may not have grown. Workers could be hired and fired at will and had to sell their labor for whatever the going rate was. Women and children were absorbed into the work force as well, often preferred because they cost much less than men
The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) introduced national guidelines, but the workhouse system that it created was not generous to its inmates. The abolition of out-relief for poor led to a harsh institutionalization (2000: 185).
Economic Condition
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leading to unemployment among workers
.
In Black’s A New History of England, it is stated thatthe 19th century, on the global scale, developed the most important theme in England. Post war depression and demobilization worsened the situation from 1815. The spread of empire, the growth of the economy, the changes in society, and the development of the political system reflected the changes and development that was unprecedented (2000: 177). More generally, the strains of industrialization in the early 19th century caused much social and political tension (2000: 184). Economic change produced social pressure and population growth led to unemployment.
The 1833 Act established a factory inspectorate to oversee its enforcement, a major step, and prevented the employment of children under 9; but 9-10 year-olds could still work 9 hour days, and 11-17 year olds 12 hours…Nevertheless, working conditions remained harsh, especially for those paid on a low piece-rate basis (2000: 184-185).
In the long run, the total increase in wealth led to a general rise in standards of living. As production for profit in a free market replaces production for use, and as innovations of method upset the balance in established industries, the phenomena of large scale “booms” and “depression” introduced a new element into economic life (Littlefield, 1973:7).
The period 1760-1830 was the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. It was characterized by the great invention, by improved transport on roads and canals, a changing organization of production, a greatly increased output, a growth of population, and an expansion of towns. In the period 1830-1850, which marked the second phase of the Industrial Revolution, there were no inventions whose effects on production were so profound as those which transformed the textile industries in the first period (Gregg, 1950: 98).
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D. Theoretical Framework
Firstly, the writer uses the theory of setting to portray the England condition in the mid 19th century.
Secondly, the writer uses the theory of representation. This theory is used to find out what is represented in the novel and to identify the relationship between the setting in the novel and society at the time based on surface and depth representation.
The review of literature and society are used to find out how the previous analysis signify and relate it to the representation of the society through the setting.
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A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is novel Oliver Twist which was written by Charles Dickens and edited by Grace A. Benscoter, a lecturer of English Department, Emerson High School, Gary, Indiana. It was printed in 1947 and published in United States of America by Laidlaw Brothers, Inc. This novel consists of 310 pages in 34 chapters and 22 pages of appendix.
Dickens’ Oliver twist is one the famous novels among his other novels like The Pickwick Paper, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Our Mutual Friend, Great
Expectations, A Christmas Carol. It can be seen from many appreciations given to this novel. It is also presented as a musical film directed by Carol Reed in 1968. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris. The film version was a Romulus Films production and was distributed internationally by Columbia Pictures. It was filmed in studio in London and won an Academy Award for Best
Picture .
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environment. He has ever been sold to Mr. Gamfield and then to Mrs. Soweberry. However he could run away to London. That was the first time he met Fagin, a master of crime school who trained orphan boys to steal pocket for him. At the end of the story, Oliver met Mr. Brownlow, a wealthy old gentleman whose pocket was stolen by him. Mr Brownlow was surprised when he saw Oliver’s resemblance with the picture of a young woman that hung in his house. He was actually Monk’s half-brother, one of Fagin’s pupils. Their father, Mr. Leeford was unhappily married with a wealthy woman and had an affair with Oliver’s mother, Agnes Fleming. Finally, Oliver lived happily with Mr. Brownlow.
B. Approach of the Study
As we know that the social condition has influenced the development of the story. This study contains problems that have connection with the social and historical-fiction literary work. That is why the writer applies socio-cultural historical approach. It is chosen because this approach is suitable to know the background of the social condition in Britain. The writer then is going to find out also the condition of the setting background depicted in the story. In analyzing literary work is not only the intrinsic element, but also involves other extrinsic elements, such as sociological and historical background of the work.
from its social milieu and literary work (1979:272). It means that this approach is applied to see a literary work as a reflection of and commentaries on something in certain society. There is a close interaction between social environment and literary work. This approach concerns to the society including the condition of the society and the historical background of the story.
According to Rohberger and Wood in his Reading and Writing about Literature, it is defined that sociocultural-historical approach is used to locate a real work by relating the civilization as the attitude and action as its subject matter. It is used to learn the specific group of people connected with the literary work in order to observe the attitudes, actions, and the influences of the specific group of people in relation with literature. It is also necessary for a critic to use this approach in order to investigate the social environment where in a vacuum and literature embodies idea significant to the culture that produces it (1971:9). It is stated:
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C. Method of the Study
This study used the library research method. The research for this study will take many sources to get valid data. There were three sources used in analyzing the story. Those were primary sources, secondary sources and additional sources. The primary sources were taken from the novel Oliver Twist. The secondary sources were taken from the books that can support the research, such as the theories of literature, the theories of society, the history of England society in the nineteenth century, etc. The additional sources were used to get more information. For this source, the writer browsed some sites from internet.
There were some steps that the writer took. The first step, the writer started to read and reread the novel comprehensively to get the deeper understanding of the content. the writer were interested in the social condition of England society since the writer noticed that in Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens wanted to represent the social condition in England. After that, the writer was going to decide the main points, as stated in the problem formulation to be discussed.
The second step, the writer started to collect the data about the related studies, other opinions and information related to the novel by the same author. Review on the England condition in the mid 19th century will be very helpful to understand deeply about the condition of England society at the time.
the novel. Secondly, the writer will portray how the setting represents the social oppression during the mid 19th century England society. For these two parts, the theory of setting and review on England condition in the mid 19th century as a historical background will be used to look at the condition of England at the time as it is described in the story. Thirdly, the writer will find out the idea that is represented through social oppression during the mid 19th century England society. In this step, the writer would apply theory of representation.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the writer answers the problems that have been formulated in previous chapter. There are three parts that are going to be analyzed. The first part is how the setting in the novel is revealed. The second is analyzing the representation of social oppression during the mid 19th century England society through the setting in the novel. The last part is to reveal the idea behind the representation of social oppression during the mid 19th England society.
A. The Setting of Oliver Twist
1.
The setting of place is described through the actual geographical location in the novel. It is visible background that can be seen in the description of the districts all around. It is showed in the beginning of the story when a baby boy named Oliver is born in a certain town which is not mentioned by the author.
Early in the nineteenth century, in a town some seventy miles north of London, on a cold winter night, a young woman in a dying condition was brought into the county poorhouse. (pg. 3)
We can also see that many children in the early year spend their childhood in a workhouse where many poor and young orphans live. It is dark and guided by the parish officers. The quotation below shows the physical arrangement of the place.
The room in which the boys were fed was a large stone hall with a great copper kettle at one end, out of which the master, assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at mealtimes…Oliver remained a close prisoner in a dark and solitary room. (pg. 8-11)
Another place is also set in another town in London where Oliver runs away from the undertaker’s house. The condition of the society’s life can be seen from the condition of the landscape and the environment around it. It is described as an empty and silent, far away from the cheerful situation. It shows an isolated society.
Early on the seventh morning after he had left his native place, Oliver limped slowly into the little town of Barnet. The window shutters were closed, the street was empty; not a soul had awakened to the business of the day. (pg. 44)
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As stated by Roberts and Jacobs that nature is one of the major forces leading the circumstances of characters who attempt facing the conflicts in which the plots of stories depend (1987: 191). In the novel, the natural setting is described through the uncomfortable and miserable places. Streets in London are dirty. It is described as a bad road with dry land in which there are less wood, trees or plants. Conditions of life are also very difficult. Many children live in the street. Many children are very ill. The places where most people live are not clean. The industrial revolution brings much noise and pollution.
Through various narrow and winding alleys and courts, they came at last to a dirty, wretched street and along the Dodger hurried at a rapid pace, directing Oliver to follow close at his heels. The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was thick with filthy odors. There were a good many small shops and many public-houses. Covered ways and yards disclosed little knots of houses, where drunken man and women went in and out. In several of the doorways great ill-looking fellows lounged. (pg. 48)
The physical arrangement is also described in a poorhouse way. Many people’s houses are built poorly. The room is limited, small and undesirable with simple furniture. It tells about the condition of the people or the society who builds and lives in it. It exposes the social condition that focus on the poverty.
His dwelling was in the same part of the town, but was not so desirable as his old quarters. It was a small and badly furnished room, lighted only by one little window in the slanting roof. The furniture was scanty, and the whole place showed extreme poverty. (pg. 203)
the uncomfortable atmosphere of living. The room is very dirty without any lights and decorated accessories.
It was a very dirty place. The rooms upstairs had high wooden chimney-pieces, large doors, and paneled walls. In all rooms, the mouldering shutters were fast closed; the bars which held them were screwed tight into the wood. The only light which was admitted made its way through round holes at the top, which made the rooms more gloomy. There was a back-garret window with rusty bars outside, which had no shutter. (pg. 120)
On the other side, the comfortable life of both the upper and middle class is described also through the physical arrangement. It can be seen from the condition of the room where they live and the scenery around it.
The study was a little back room, quite full of books, with a window looking into some pleasant little gardens. Mr. Brownlow was seated reading at a table drawn up before the fire. (pg. 90)
The quotation reveals the social condition of the upper and middle class people who live in prosperous and comfortable place.
2.
This novel Oliver Twist also presents the occupation and daily manner of living of the characters. Most people have a challenging and hard life. There is no income at all for the unemployment unless they can find alternative work. The poverty becomes an ordinary thing that can be seen in every corner of the city and the districts all around it. In order to survive, sometimes the poor tend to turn into crime, while others beg to make their life continue.
In some villages, large painted boards were fixed up, warning all persons who begged within the district that they would be sent to jail. (pg. 43)
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In the novel we can see that most of the people are the hardened pickpocket. Even some of them pretend to be good by employing and recruit the children to join the gang. An old crime gentleman, named Fagin, is the one who leads the young boy gang and trains them to be a thief.
“Well,” said Fagin, glancing slyly at Oliver, and addressing himself to the Dodger, “I hope you’ve been at work this morning, my dears?”
“Hard,” replied the Dodger. “As nails,” added Charley Bates.
“Good boys, good boys!” said Fagin. “What have you got, Dodger?” “A couple of pocket-books,” replied the young gentleman.
“Lined?” inquired Fagin, with eagerness.
”Pretty well,” replied the Dodger, producing two pocket-books; one green, and the other red. (pg. 55)
There is no choice for them to be free from the bad situation around them. They are forced to do this kind of job since it is not optional. The people’s occupation can be described through the character’s experience, like Nancy. She finds that she cannot escape from the environment where she can survive so far, though it is not like what she wishes.
“I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as this!” pointing to Oliver. “I have been in the same trade, and in the same service, for twelve years since. Don’t you know it? Speak out! Don’t you know it?”….“It’s my living; and the cold, wet, dirty streets are my home; and you’re the wretch that drove me to them long ago; and that’ll keep me there, day and night, day and night, till I die!” (pg. 113)
pretend to not see it. They have a bad thinking and always distrust the lower class people or the poor because they do not have good daily manner of living.
“I’ll tell you what,” whispered that gentleman to Mr. Brownlow; “he won’t come up to you tomorrow morning. I saw him hesitate. He is deceiving you, my good friend… He’ll join his old friends the thieves and laugh at you. If ever that boy returns to this house, sir, I’ll eat my head.” (pg. 95-98)
People tend to judge to which class of a person do not belong from their manner. It is showed in the novel that the manners of the upper class are well-educated, though sometime they are very strict and conservative toward the lower. The gentlemen and ladies are expected to have good educations and to behave appropriately in any numerous social situations. From their point of view, an educated person will have a good manner. Education is a very important aspect needed to have a wide perspective and knowledge. They will respect and appreciate persons with a good education background and a wide perspective. They really concern on their or other's people manner. It can be seen from the quotation below:
“Where does he come from? Who is he? What is he? He has had a fever. What of that? Fevers are not peculiar to good people; are they? Bad people have fevers sometimes; haven’t they, eh?” (pg. 94)
The quotation above shows that they will under estimate the people below their class. They assume that the uneducated person, who usually comes from the lower class, will have bad mannerism.
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3.
The setting of time in Oliver Twist is during the early of nineteenth century or about 1830’s when England was undergoing many changes. During this time, England was a desperate society where many people are poor and suffered from economic condition. It can be seen from the quotation below.
Early in the nineteenth century, in a town some seventy miles north of London, on a cold winter night, a young woman in a dying condition was brought into the country poorhouse. (pg. 3)
It is mentioned in the novel also that the story is begun when the season is winter. It can be seen from the quotation below.
Every morning, though it was winter, Mr. Bumble took him to the pump in the yard to wash in the freezing water. (pg. 11)
From the quotation above, the setting uses the description of morning as bitter cold in which the snow lay on the ground, frozen into a thick, hard crust around the workhouse. It is perfectly brings the condition of the season at the time. It is also able to show the time accurately through the description from month to month continually.
Later in March, when the spring weather has really begun, the Maylies left the house at Chertsey. (pg. 176)
The Time or Period of the Story
4.
The social setting is presented through the general environment of the character through which the people in the narrative move. It can be seen from the life in the workhouse in which most of the people are religious, especially the parish and the workhouse officers. The workhouse itself where the orphans live is
a very “Christian” institution that concerns with the souls of its inmates. The officers of the workhouse believe that they are improving the inmates’ morality as well as saving them from decline and destitution. We see also that the tendency of the workhouse is to support the economic and security condition of the poor. In fact, that is not the real condition. The condition of a workhouse is not a good place to be lived in because it is a place where people have to work hard. It is strict and cruel inside. It only brings suffering to the poor. In this story we see that Oliver has struggled for many times in order to be alive and got a better life.
Her chief interest was in saving for herself as much as possible of the fee paid her by the parish for each child. The result was that all the children were under-nourished and that some of them died of starvation. Oliver Twist, however, survived, a half-starved little drudge like the others. (pg. 4)
From the quotation above we see that compassion, care and humanity moral value given by the workhouse is to be contrary with the fact. The workhouse is supposed to provide the virtue of worthwhile employment to the poor. In fact, violence and slavery become the characteristics of the workhouse. Many orphans get suffer from ill-treats. They are treated badly there; even they do not get food more sufficiently.
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We can see also in the novel that the general environment of the characters is described through the social gap in the society that happen among the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class. The people from middle class develop and begin to exploit the lower class. They like to treat badly members of the lower class. Most of the middle class around the environment where the people live, especially the cruel and hypocritical gentlemen of the workhouse board, are worse. What happen to the poor and how they have a an indictment of social injustice.
“The kind and blessed gentlemen which is so many parents to you, Oliver, when you have none of your own, are a-going to ‘prentice you, and set you up in life, and make a man of you, although the expense to the parish is three pound ten! Think of it, Oliver — all that for a naughty orphan which nobody can’ love.” (pg. 13)
Sometime those poor people are also despised and mistreated by the people come from the same class, often by those who are only slightly above on the social level.
“I’m Mister Noah Claypole, and you’re under me. Take down the shutters, yer idle young ruffian!” With this Mr. Claypole gave Oliver a kick and entered the shop with a dignified air. (pg. 23)
Noah was a charity boy, but not a workhouse orphan. His parents lived near by, his mother being a washer woman and his father a drunken soldier, discharged with a wooden leg and a pension of twopence halfpenny a day (pg. 24)
The streets where the people live are always full of life. Because of the great disgrace attached to workhouse, many poor people choose to live in the streets rather than seek public aid. The poverty then can be seen in every corner of the district. It left people starving. Children have lost their childhood because they have to help their parents work to fulfill their life necessities. It can be seen from Nancy’s testimony below.
“I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as this!” pointing to Oliver. “I have been in the same trade, and in the same service, for twelve years since. Don’t you know it? Speak out! Don’t you know it?”… “It’s my living; and the cold, wet, dirty streets are my home; and you’re the wretch that drove me to them long ago; and that’ll keep me there, day and night, day and night, till I die!” (pg. 113)
B. The Representation of Social Oppression during the mid 19th
As it is showed in the review on England condition in the mid 19
Century England Society in Oliver Twist
th
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so that some people turn into crimes in order to survive. Those conditions lead the society treat harshly to the poor and seem oppressive toward such people.
Dickens’ Oliver Twist realistically represents many things of England society in the mid 19th century, especially the social oppression during that time. The characteristics of setting in Oliver Twist have some similarities with England society at the time. The writer tries to match up the setting in the novel with the actual condition of England society. That is why in this chapter the writer will analyze the representation of social oppression during the mid 19th
1. Poverty
century England society. Here the writer tries to find out the surface representation as it is revealed in the story. First, the writer will analyze the representation of poverty. Second, the writer will analyze the high rite of crimes. The last, the writer will analyze the humiliating and degrading society.
In the mid of nineteenth century of industrial revolution, England is rapidly undergoing a transformation from a rural agricultural economy to an urban industrial society.
A result was the displacement of the domestic by the factory system, which altered completely the conditions of the life of the industrial workers, developed a new group of industrial capitalists who became influential in politics and society, and affected more or less the living conditions of all classes of society. (Lunt, 1945: 571)
creates the social stratification in society, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, and forces them to live in new urban slums.
During this time England is really experiencing many changes. Poverty becomes the very real issues that people deal with during this time. The workers in the big cities had a very hard and challenging life. Along the streets in the city are always full of life, full of people from pickpockets to elegant people. The poverty in certain areas leave people suffer from starving, many children dies because of disease and prostitutes work in wicked conditions.
Poor relief was thus a disservice to the poor, for it created a vicious circle of expanding population, lower wages, and pressure upon subsistence, and so destitution and further poor relief. (Gregg, 1950: 184)
Dickens’ Oliver Twist accurately portrays many parts of society during this period. As the story begins, it is showed that many children are born into poverty. Usually they are sent to live in a workhouse as poor-working children. The workhouses that children stay in are very poorly run.
“Oliver being now too old to remain here,” the beadle had explained to Mrs. Mann, “the board has determined to have him back into the workhouse.” The board to which he referred was the poor-board, consisting of those members of the parish chosen to be responsible for the poor and to dispense relief, either in the poorhouse or outside it. (pg. 4-5)
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In some villages, large painted boards were fixed up, warning all persons who begged within the district that they would be sent to jail. Then the land lady generally ordered one of the post-boys to drive that strange boy out of the place, for she was sure he had come to steal something. If he begged at a farmer’s house, usually they threatened to set the dog on him; and when he showed his nose in a shop, they talked about the police. (pg. 43)
The quotation above shows that no one would care of such people, like Oliver, though they know and see the suffering and exhausted condition happening to the poor. Everybody would not take any notice of such people’s condition. Even they will say that to get money is to work. It seems that many people already lose their heart for they can not be touched anymore by anything else around him. The stratification class structure also causes separation and social gap toward the society. It takes out the right of others, like the poor, to have a better life.
2. High Rite of Crimes
In the nineteenth century, England suffered from many forms of exploitations. They are not able to fend off starvation and homelessness. There is no income at all during periods of unemployment unless they could find alternative work. Sometimes the poor are forced to turn to crime, while others beg to make ends meet (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/socialism.html). In the eyes of middle-class English society, those who cannot support themselves are considered immoral and evil. Therefore, such people should enjoy no comforts or luxuries in their dependence on public assistance.
situation sometime come and offers them what they wish, but it is not as well as they think. The poverty forces them to turn and commit to do crimes. In the story it is showed that people like Fagin takes this situation as their opportunities to find any kind jobs in order to survive. Even they take in homeless children and train them to do pick pocketing. They rarely commit themselves to do crimes and prefer to employ the children to commit. Here we can see the novel represents the world of thievery and crime.
“Well,” said Fagin, glancing slyly at Oliver, and addressing himself to the Dodger, “I hope you’ve been at work this morning, my dears?” “Hard,” replied the Dodger.
“As nails,” added Charley Bates.
“Good boys, good boys!” said Fagin. “What have you got, Dodger?” “A couple of pocket-books,” replied the young gentleman.
“Lined?” inquired Fagin, with eagerness.
”Pretty well,” replied the Dodger, producing two pocket-books; one green, and the other red. (pg. 55)
Happy to have a “family” that respects and cares of them, many poor under-age children then learn the art of thievery. They are initiated into the rites of pickpocketing, theft, and criminal occupation. They fall among thieves. It seems like many people are being trapped and not allowed by the situations to find out their fortune and happiness.
Oliver wondered what picking the old gentleman’s pocket in play had to do with his chances of being a great man. But thinking the old gentleman must know best, he followed him quietly to the table and was soon deep in his new study. (pg. 59)
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situation of what they wish. They are trapped into the criminal world and then get involved deeply in new study of pickpocketing, robbery, and other kind of crimes. Sometimes they do not realize what they are doing now. They become the victims of the social condition happen around them at the time. The poverty and many things that force their lives lead people to turn into crime as the way for them to survive. Most of them who commit to stealing, burglary and other crimes are the young people. It is stated:
Firstly the pickpocket suggested a level of skill and thus training. For the social commentators of the early nineteenth century this opened a frightening vista of an organized sub-culture in which adult agents trained the children of the street into crime. Secondly, there was progression beyond picking pockets: the most skilful thieves became burglars.
readings/juvcrime19cbr.html)
3. Humiliating and degrading society
We can see that the novel never loses the sight to the poor and the weak as the criticism toward the social oppression in England society at the time. This novel realistically portrays the horrible conditions of the 19th century condition. It attempts to improve the environment as the focus the society live. The story of
Oliver Twist is started in a workhouse in a small town seventy five miles north of London where many little poor orphan are born. They are a little poor boy who is born into a misfortune life. As we know that workhouse is a place to look after the poor who cannot support their own lives, because it is very difficult to get a job at that time. It is provided by the parish as their purpose to save the parish money.
By the workhouse system is meant having all relief through the workhouse, making this workhouse an uninviting place of wholesome restraint, preventing any of its inmates from going out or receiving visitors, without a written order to that effect from one of the overseers, disallowing beer and tobacco, and finding them work according to their ability: thus making the parish fund the last resources of a pauper, and rendering the person who administers the relief the hardest taskmaster and the worst paymaster that the idle and the dissolute can apply to. (Gregg, 1950: 183)
The 1834 Poor Law Amendment has created a workhouse as a suffering and do not give any comfortable situation to its inmates, especially to the poor orphans. Black states in his A New History of England that “the Poor Law Amendment Acts (1834) introduced national guidelines, but workhouse system that it created was not generous to its inmates. The abolition of out-relief for the poor led to a harsh institutionalization.” (2000: 185). The running of workhouse as an institution provided by the parish is to house and feed the poor. It is to support the economic and security condition of the poor and weak people. However, the parishes do not do their duty and do not handle the life of the poor as well. The workhouse buildings itself are often just ordinary local houses or rented for the purpose. This is just like “a farming” for the poor because they are asked to work any time for income generated. As stated by Gregg that “in accordance with the second principle, the condition of any workhouse inmate was to be “less eligible” — that is, more miserable — than that of the lowest-paid labourer” (1950: 183).
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him, but nobody want because he does not have any relatives. Then they leave the boy in a baby farm in the care of the matron of the orphanage, named Mrs. Mann.
His remarks about Oliver’s name were addressed to Mrs.Mann, the matron of the orphan asylum connected with the poorhouse, to whom he had brought the baby to be cared for. (pg. 4)
The poor orphan stays as the worker and lives in the circumstances under the grim workhouse system. It is strict and cruel inside. It makes the condition in workhouse is really terrible for everybody living there. Violence and slavery become its characteristics. Most of them get bad treatment and sent to workhouse where it is actually for adults. Not only that, they always suffers hunger and under pressure. They do not get more attention, and even they get punishment, for example when Oliver wants to get more food, the parish officer punishes him. Many children are starved, neglected, inappropriately dressed, and mistreated.
The result was that all the children were under-nourished and that some of them died of starvation. Oliver Twist, however, survived, a half-starved little drudge like the others. By the time he was ten years old, he was a pale, thin child, small for his age but possessing a sturdy spirit. (pg. 4)
Oliver Twist and his companions, being no exceptions to this rule, suffered the tortures of slow starvation for three months. (pg. 8)
The novel also shows compassion toward poor and lower class people is reflected through the description of the workhouse. People choose to live in workhouse for some reasons, and it is because usually they are poor and cannot support their necessities. In the novel, we can see that the upper class, like parish officers, seems to be the oppressor toward the poor and the weak. They are pompous and self-important, works for the workhouse. Though they preach and understand about the Christian values and morality, they behave without compassion toward the poor under their care, especially the orphan. Sometimes they remove the poor orphan from the workhouse and try to offer them for anyone who wanted to take them away.
“The kind and blessed gentlemen which is so many parents to you, Oliver, when you have none of your own, are a-going to ‘prentice you, and set you up in life, and make a man of you, although the expense to the parish is three pound ten! Think of it, Oliver — all that for a naughty orphan which nobody can’ love.” (pg. 13)
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C. The Idea behind the Representation of Social Oppression during the mid 19th
In the previous analysis, the writer has analyzed the description of the setting in the novel and the representation of England social oppression during the mid 19
Century England Society
th
century through the setting. In this part, the writer is going to analyze the idea behind the representation of social oppression during the mid 19th century. This is the representation of essences that is the idea portrayed in the story. It is called the representation of depth. As it is stated by Gibson that representation of depth means penetrating the visible or the unseen from the seen (1996: 82). In analyzing the essence behind the representation of England society during the mid 19th
cruel inside. It makes the condition in workhouse is really terrible for everybody living there. As a child, they get bad treatment and sent to workhouse where it is actually for adults. They also always suffers hunger and under pressure. They do not get more attention, and even they get punishment when they ask for some more food.
The result was that all the children were under-nourished and that some of them died of starvation. Oliver Twist, however, survived, a half-starved little drudge like the others. By the time he was ten years old, he was a pale, thin child, small for his age but possessing a sturdy spirit. (pg. 4)
From the quotation above we see how children are starving, neglected, inappropriately dressed, and mistreated. Here the novel portrays that the upper class, like the parish officers in the workhouse who manages the orphan and the poor people do ill-treatments and protect the orphan under control of the workhouse system. The novel tries to portray the idea of hypocrisy through social oppression differently. It compares the real situation that happens in the England society at the time with the society in the novel. The condition that is showed in the story is deliberately harsh and humiliating. The workhouse has actually to be “a place where poor homeless people work and in return they are fed and housed”
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oppress the weak and takes control of them. The power and freedom then belong to them.
In the novel we can see also the social oppression and social injustice happen, especially the wicked treatment toward the poor in the society. The novel reveals the hypocrisy of the bureaucrats, who treat a small child harshly while looking at their belief as Christian who seems religious and have a charity to the misfortunate and poor people. They have already abandoned the value of humanity and morality as it is taught by their belief. It can be seen from the people, like parish officers of the workhouse around the poor children, who always treat him roughly. The gentlemen who administer the workhouse are irritated by some of the orphan's ingratitude. They offer an amount of money to any person who wants to take on the boy as an apprentice.
Mr. Bumble instructed Oliver that all he would have to do would be to look very happy, and say, when the gentleman asked him if he wanted to be apprenticed, that he should like it very much indeed (pg. 13)
higher social status makes them feel more honorable and better than people from the lower classes. The result, they often despise the lower classes people.
The society seems to allow those situations to happen. As a result it also influences to the social behaviors of the middle class to behave like that toward the lower class. They think it is not something wrong and prohibited. People do treat the poor and the weak harshly. The ill-treatment is something usual for the lower class people for they are the working people who always do all what the owner asks. They often suffer new torments at the hands of the society.
Also during these months he submitted meekly to the ill-treatment of Noah Claypole, who was jealous at seeing the new boy taking part in all the funeral processions, while he himself was left to mind the shop. Charlotte treated Olivet badly because Noah did; and Mrs. Sowerberry was his enemy because her husband was kind to him (pg. 30).
From the quotation it is obvious that people from the same social class tends to be the superior of others. Here we can see that Noah Claypole is just the same boy as Oliver. He is Mr. Sowerberry’s apprentice and a worker from the lower class. People like him tend to take a position as if they are a powerful and higher man. They behave like that because they feel unsatisfied with their condition. It shows that a person from lower class like sometimes behaves not as his nature and never realizes that he should not do that.
