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Industrial Revolution
Posted: Apr 24, 2019
Social classes in Dickens’s Oliver twists
Charles Dickens’s in his novels tries to oppose the industrial revolution. Industrial revolution has changed the way of life completely. It has created different social classes within the community. Each social class is the enemy of the other social classes. In his novel `Oliver twists’ dickens identifies three different social classes. The first social class is the class of the poor in which Oliver belongs. Oliver is an orphan, who lives in the streets of Victoria. He depicts the class of the poor in the society. In the workhouse for the juvenile where Olive early life spends most of his, food is a problem. The children are left to die slowly out of hunger. Dickens says, `so they established the rule that all the poor people should have an alternative of being starved by gradual process in the house or by a quick one out in the streets. Dickens’s words explain how the poor in the society live without food and majority are left to starve in the streets.
The next social class depicted in Dickens’s is the middle class. The middle class consist of the working individuals such the police who are well off in life. The class is recognizable in the society as opposed to the poor who are thought not to have the right to live. Dickens brings out these differences between the poor and the middle class when Nancy a poor street child disguises herself by wearing decent clothing. I the attire of the middle class, Nancy gains both social voice and social visibility as she appears as a person and not a member of the penniless mob. Similarly, Oliver sheds his identity as a poor orphan by wearing a suit and leaving behind his pauper’s clothes. He becomes a gentleman’s son by wearing a gentleman’s son clothes.The other class depicted by Dickens’s is the upper class. The wealthy class is rich and can afford almost anything. The likes of the wealthy mistress whom Oliver went to rob belong to this class. Dickens depicts the class of the wealthy by the description of Mrs. Maylie, the mistress of the house where Oliver got shot and who later takes c.re of Oliver and introduces Oliver to the upper class. The upper class can afford good clothing, proper medication as well as owning house and estates. They also hold the uppermost offices in the government.
In his novels dickens portrays, capitalism as the order of the day as properties are privately owned. The upper class owns most estates, businesses, houses, banks and other institutions. These private properties are managed by individuals with little or no government interference. Families and family members own most estates, and them inherit them from generation to generation.
Dickens depicts life in three perspectives. The first one is the life of the poor. The class of the poor lives in the most adverse conditions with no food, shelter and clothing. Majority of the poor people die from starvation while others will eat anything to survive. The lives of this group are full of struggles, and they rely on the government for support. The other view of living is the lives of the middle class. Their lives are average as they can afford their basic needs as well as comfortable living. The upper class, on the other hand, lives a life full of luxuries and to them life is worth living. They can afford all their requirements, and they can still afford more material to help the poor.
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