Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Characters’ Names
The names of characters represent personal qualities.
Oliver Twist himself is the most obvious example. The name “Twist,”
though given by accident, alludes to the outrageous reversals of
fortune that he will experience. Rose Maylie’s name echoes her association
with flowers and springtime, youth and beauty. Toby Crackit’s name
is a lighthearted reference to his chosen profession of breaking
into houses. Mr. Bumble’s name connotes his bumbling arrogance;
Mrs. Mann’s, her lack of maternal instinct; and Mr. Grimwig’s, his
superficial grimness that can be removed as easily as a wig.
Bull’s-eye
Bill Sikes’s dog, Bull’s-eye, has “faults of temper in
common with his owner” and is a symbolic emblem of his owner’s character.
The dog’s viciousness reflects and represents Sikes’s own animal-like brutality.
After Sikes murders Nancy, Bull’s-eye comes to represent Sikes’s
guilt. The dog leaves bloody footprints on the floor of the room
where the murder is committed. Not long after, Sikes becomes desperate
to get rid of the dog, convinced that the dog’s presence will give
him away. Yet, just as Sikes cannot shake off his guilt, he cannot shake
off Bull’s-eye, who arrives at the house of Sikes’s demise before
Sikes himself does. Bull’s-eye’s name also conjures up the image
of Nancy’s eyes, which haunts Sikes until the bitter end and eventually
causes him to hang himself accidentally.
London Bridge
Nancy’s decision to meet Brownlow and Rose on London Bridge reveals
the symbolic aspect of this bridge in Oliver Twist. Bridges exist
to link two places that would otherwise be separated by an uncrossable
chasm. The meeting on London Bridge represents the collision of
two worlds unlikely ever to come into contact—the idyllic world
of Brownlow and Rose, and the atmosphere of degradation in which
Nancy lives. On the bridge, Nancy is given the chance to cross over
to the better way of life that the others represent, but she rejects
that opportunity, and by the time the three have all left the bridge,
that possibility has vanished forever.
