full title
Oliver Twist: The Parish Boy’s Progress
author
Charles Dickens
type of work
Novel
genre
Children’s story; detective story; novel of social
protest
language
English
time and place written
1837–38, London
date of first publication
Published in serial form between February 1837 and
April 1839; first book edition published
in November 1838
publisher
First published serially in Bentley’s Miscellany, a
periodical edited by Dickens
narrator
Anonymous narrator
point of view
The narrator is third person omniscient, and assumes
the points of view of various characters in turn. The narrator’s
tone is not objective; it is sympathetic to the protagonists and
far less so to the novel’s other characters. When dealing with hypocritical
or morally objectionable characters, the narrative voice is often ironic
or sarcastic.
tone
Sentimental, sometimes ironic, hyperbolic, crusading
tense
Past
setting (time)
1830s
setting (place)
London and environs; an unnamed smaller English city;
the English countryside
protagonist
Oliver Twist
major conflict
Although Oliver is fundamentally righteous, the social environment
in which he is raised encourages thievery and prostitution. Oliver
struggles to find his identity and rise above the abject conditions
of the lower class.
rising action
Oliver is taken care of by a gang of London thieves,
but refuses to participate in their thievery. An upper-class family
takes him in, but the thieves and a mysterious character, Monks,
continue to pursue him.
climax
Nancy is murdered for disclosing Monks’s plans to Oliver’s guardians.
Mr. Brownlow gets the full story of Oliver’s origins from Monks.
falling action
Fagin is executed and Sikes dies; Oliver and his new
family live out their days in happiness.
themes
The failures of charity; the folly of individualism;
purity in a corrupt city; the countryside idealized
motifs
Disguised or mistaken identities; hidden family relationships; surrogate
families; Oliver’s face
symbols
Characters’ names; Bull’s-eye; London Bridge
foreshadowing
The truth about Oliver’s parentage is foreshadowed
by the portrait in Mr. Brownlow’s house, by the locket that Old
Sally has stolen, and by Monks’s pursuit of Oliver.
