Oliver Twist

“What a novel illustration of the tender laws of England! They let the paupers go to sleep!” 

In a description of the workhouses in Victorian London, Dickens unabashedly mocks and satirizes the terrible conditions. This passage reflects Dickens’s tone throughout most of the novel, wherein he actively seeks to critique the church and the government’s treatment of the impoverished populace.

“Please, sir, I want some more.” 

This line is undoubtedly the most famous line from the novel. Said by young Oliver to a church workhouse employee, Oliver is not only not given more food, but he is also treated like a dreadful sinner and criminal. Most of the board are unable to believe his audacity in asking for more food. The torture and starvation that Oliver has to overcome is highlighted throughout the novel, a technique that allows Dickens to gain the reader’s ear and actively criticize church and state institutions.  

“Let it not be supposed by the enemies of ‘the system,’ that, during the period of his solitary incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the pleasure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation. As for exercise, it was nice cold weather, and he was allowed to perform his ablutions every morning under the pump, in a stone yard, in the presence of Mr. Bumble, who prevented his catching cold, and caused a tingling sensation to pervade his frame, by repeated applications of the cane.”

Dickens’s tone is undoubtedly derisive when he speaks of the “system.” By emphasizing and describing the many tortures that Oliver, an innocent child, is forced to overcome, Dickens is able to sway the reader to his point of view.