Oliver Twist Son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming, he is thought to be an orphan. A dear, grateful, gentle child, who “instead of possessing too little feeling, possessed rather too much.” He had not learned “that self-preservation is the first law of nature.” Sally Thingummy An old pauper woman […]
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In his preface to Oliver Twist, Dickens emphatically expressed resentment at the practice in popular literature of depicting rogues, like Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera, as dashing figures, leading lively and colorful lives. He considers such misrepresentations as a potentially harmful influence on impressionable minds. Dickens firmly maintains that the […]
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Oliver Twist’s mother dies after the birth of her child in a workhouse. The infant’s father is unknown, and the orphan is placed in a private juvenile home. After nine years of mistreatment, the boy is returned to the workhouse for even more abuse. After representing his fellow sufferers in […]
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