Oliver Twist is novel of crime and cruelty discuss

Oliver Twist is an amazing contrast of the time in which Dicken's lived. It's filled with evil and goodness, ugliness and beauty, wealth and poverty, hate and love, despair and madness.

In order for you to really answer this question you have to research Dickens a bit. His novels have much in common. Workhouses were supposed to "be a place to care for the needy," in Oliver's case this meant the city's orphans- widows- ect. Far from being cared for these people were used as slaves to perform tasks for food and keep. Owners felt themselves to be doing their duty......... gifting care on these people. But Dicken's own experiences shine through his novels and expose these places for what they really were.

Oliver is good; his circumstances change because he finds more "goodness" in the world. What happened to him exposes evil and cruelty on many different levels. The workhouse.......... Fagan's lair.

Fagan is a thief. He takes young boys and trains them to do crime, but he makes sure they have a roof over their heads and food to eat. Is his crime any worse that the crimes of those who run the workhouse? Aren't they all using the needy in criminal and cruel ways? This novel is about survival for those who have no means to survive. It's Victorian society turning a blind eye. Crime and cruelty parallel survival, and the main characters move in between the two because their circumstances have left them with no other choice. Oliver is able to overcome because he's found goodness in the world. Dodger catches a glimpse of the goodness, but that same goodness has never opened its arms to him. Nancy loses her life for goodness, and the other characters have no comprehension of what goodness is because they've never experienced it. The closest Sykes and Fagan have ever come is Nancy, but in the end they destroy her because her goodness becomes a threat to what they see as their survival. Her goodness is seen as betrayal.