Oliver Twist, the English name of the hero in Oliver Twist, means "twisted, twisted and distressed", which means that Oliver's life is very bumpy and he has to go through a lot of pain. In this melodramatic novel against society, Oliver is regarded as a hero, whose purpose is not to touch our literary sensitivity, but to touch our emotions.
Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse in England from 65438 to 2009 in 1930s. His mother kissed the child's forehead affectionately with cold and bloodless lips, then fell down and swallowed it. Oliver had a miserable childhood without parents. In the first nine years, he lived in a poorly managed orphanage, and then he was transferred to an adult workhouse. The workhouse was established by the Victorian middle class to adopt poor children, because people think that poor people have innate bad habits, and poor families have created such bad habits. In order to prevent this bad habit, poor couples should be separated to prevent them from having children, thus reducing the number of lower classes. But it can be described as the workhouse at that time: the workhouse provided the poor with the opportunity of chronic hunger, but they starved to death quickly in the street. Oliver and his friends are suffering from "chronic hunger". One scene that impressed me particularly was that one night at dinner, a child told other children that if he was not given an extra bowl of porridge, he might eat people. The children were very scared, so the lottery decided who lost and had to order more food for that child. Oliver lost, so after lunch, the other children insisted that Oliver order more food at dinner. His request shocked the authorities, and as a result, they offered 5 pounds as a reward for taking it from them. Therefore, Oliver Twist is a severe criticism of the social situation of the poor in Victorian era.
The plot of Oliver Twist is that Oliver flees at dawn and runs to London. On the outskirts of London, he was hungry and tired. He met a boy his age-Jack, who let him live in his benefactor Fagin's house-which was actually a thief's house. Fagin, a skinny old Jewish man, trained orphans to steal for him part-time. After several days of training, Oliver and two other children were sent to steal things. Oliver started to run when he saw that they had stolen an old gentleman's handkerchief. He was caught, but he narrowly escaped the charge and was not convicted of stealing. Mr. Brown, who stole the handkerchief, took Oliver home with a fever, fed him and made him recover. He thought the dark life would leave him, but two adults in Fagin's gang, Sykes and his lover Nancy, caught Oliver and sent him back to Fagin. Nancy is a controversial figure in Oliver Twist. Nancy's moral complexity is unique among several main roles. Nancy has been a thief, an alcoholic and a prostitute since she was a child. Her sin was despised by her society, but when she sacrificed her life to protect Oliver, a child she was not familiar with, her behavior was the noblest. It is because of Dickens' hidden identities of Nancy and Oliver that they gradually surfaced.
Later, Fagin sent Oliver to help Sikes rob. Oliver was shot and killed by the servant of that family, and Sikes abandoned the injured Oliver and ran away. God has mercy on good Oliver. He was taken in by Mrs. Merry and her beautiful adopted daughter Lucy, who lived there. Oliver started a new life. He often goes out for a walk with Lucy and Mrs Mailer. Sometimes Lucy reads to him, and he studies hard. He felt as if he had left the world of sin, hardship and poverty forever. In the novel, the role of mother played by Mrs Mele and Lucy makes Oliver live in a normal family for the first time. With their motherly care, Oliver spent a wonderful summer in the country. With the help of Meles, Mr. Brown Rowe and Oliver got back together and cleared up their misunderstanding. Later, Mr. Brown went to Monks and asked about Oliver's real life. The truth finally came out. It turned out that Monks was Oliver's half-brother, and conspired with Fagin to frame Oliver, making him notorious. He was a morbid bad brother with bad conduct, and he also found out that Lucy was Oliver's biological aunt.
At the end of the novel, Dickens' moral and religious thoughts are summarized: without strong love, fraternity and gratitude to God who takes compassion as the criterion and fraternity as the highest symbol, happiness is absolutely impossible. Therefore, those who are guilty are severely punished, and those who are extremely vicious will eventually bear the guilt. Accordingly, good people will be rewarded in the end. Mr. Brown adopted Oliver, who is good in character, noble in morality, tolerant and kind.