The Theme of Childhood in Charles Dickens Novel (Oliver Twist)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze childhood theme in Charles Dickens' (Oliver Twist) novel. Its main aim is to study the theme of childhood in the Victorian era; an era that witnessed huge industrial revolution that brings with it the most cruel childhood abuse ever. The paper argues that orphans and poor children were generally subjected to abuse and exploitation in Victorian era. And intending to find an answer for some questions as to: How did the upper class society in Victorian era regards the poor and what was their attitude towards poor children in particular? And how Charles Dickens did handled the theme of childhood in his novel Oliver Twist. Multiple research approaches are adopted to analyze the novel theme. The results of the analysis of the written literature confirmed the paper's hypothesis, that indeed orphans and vulnerable children are prone to various types of abuse, starting with depriving them from basic education to training them as criminals or send to prostitution markets; paths that led them to either prison or murder