Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and discusses the idea of death in the classic, 'Oliver Twist', by Charles Dickens. According to the paper, 'Oliver Twist' contains dominant themes of social evils, exploitation of the poor and various characters' deaths, near-deaths or circumstances having to do with death.

From the Paper:

"Oliver is (again figuratively) 'scared to death', at that key moment in the novel that that turns out also to define his fate (the extra gruel request scene) when he is selected by the other boys at the workhouse for that most terrifying, unpleasant task. Then, moments after he asks, Oliver becomes equally scared that his still not-quite-to-be-believed question has now caused (so-to-speak) 'all hell to break loose' inside the workhouse, among the comfortably well-off, incredulous, poorhouse administrators. These well-fed individuals in fact cannot fathom, at all, how any boy so "lucky" as to be boarded and fed at their workhouse could possibly be so ungrateful as to request more than his daily starvation-level ration of gruel. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Gutenberg.org [online text]. Retrieved February 7, 2007, from: < www.gutenberg.org/etext/730.html>
• Donovan, Frank. The Children of Charles Dickens. London: Frewin, 1968. 61- 62.
• Dunn, Richard J.. Oliver Twist: Whole Heart and Soul. Twayne's Masterwork Series. No. 118. New York: Macmillan. 1999. 37; 39; 42.
• "Oliver Twist." David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page. 2005. Retrieved February 8, 2007, from: http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/twist.html>.
• Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Paul Schlicke (Ed.). London: OxfordUP, 1999. 141.

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