middle-class audience, shocking them into action by his dramatic
storytelling. Oliver Twist, which began to appear in serial form in
1837, was only the first of Dickens' novels to increase social
concern and help bring about reform.
Ironically, Dickens' own death at age 58 is linked inadvertently to
Oliver Twist. Dickens was a frustrated actor who eagerly took part
in amateur and professional theatrical performances. Reading from
his own works, he drew huge, enthusiastic crowds whose admission
tickets helped to pay the novelist's bills and support his large
family. His final dramatic program, a reading of Nancy's murder and
Sikes' hanging, was physically and emotionally exhausting. His body
wasn't equal to the demands he made on it. On June 8, 1870, as he
was working on his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, he
collapsed and died.
OLIVER TWIST: THE PLOT
Oliver Twist is born an orphan when his pretty vagrant mother dies in
a parish workhouse to the annoyance of Bumble the beadle. Oliver is
raised by parish charity, unloved, underfed, and overworked. At the
age of nine, after he dares to ask for seconds at dinner one night,
he is sold as an apprentice to a local undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry.
Taunted by another apprentice, Noah Claypole, about his unmarried
dead mother, Oliver valiantly gets into a fistfight and is eventually
locked in the cellar for punishment. Then, taking matters into his
own hands, Oliver runs away to London.
The first person he meets in London is the enthusiastic Artful
Dodger, who offers him a home with a "gentleman" named Fagin and his
group of boys. Oliver is happy there, until he discovers to his
horror that they're thieves. One day, while being trained by other
boys, Oliver is falsely arrested for picking an elderly gentleman's
pocket. In the courtroom, however, Oliver collapses. He attracts
the pity of his accuser, Mr. Brownlow, who takes him home. Oliver
gets his first taste of kindness and wealth there as he is nursed
back to health.
The first time Oliver leaves the house, Fagin's gang kidnaps him so
he won't give evidence against them. Back in the London slums,
Oliver earns the affections of a young prostitute named Nancy who
sticks up for Oliver when Fagin and her lover, Bill Sikes, try to
abuse him.
Unfortunately for Oliver, he's just the right size to help Sikes
commit a robbery, and he is taken along on a dangerous job. But,
Oliver is wounded in the attempt and is taken in by the Maylies, the
people Sikes wanted to rob.
In the idyllic months that follow, Oliver stays with Mrs. Maylie and
