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Write a note on Dicken’s treatment of child life.

How far Dickens has been successful in drawing the attention of the peopole towards the problems of orphan children?

Why is it that in most of the novels of Dickens, the child is the hero? Discuss ‘Oliver Twist’ as a novel which deals with the problems of orphan children.

‘Oliver Twist’ tells the misadventures of a child born in a work-house and thrown among thieves and murderers.” Analyse the statement.

Oliver Twist is study in crime and villainy and the punishment which encircle wrong-doers. Discuss.

Discuss Dickens’ treatment of child-life with special reference to ‘Oliver Twist’.

Discuss Dickens’ portrayal of childhood with reference to the novel ‘Oliver Twist’.

It is Dickens in the whole realm of English literature who can be called a child specialist. He deals with the themes of child life realistically and powerfully. In most of the novels of Dickens the child is the hero. Pip is the hero in ‘Great Expectaion’. Oliver is the hero in ‘Oliver Twist.’ Comton-Rrickett has rightly remarked that Dickens is, undoubtedly “a capital at a baby.” Steeped in atmosphere now dark with a sinister magic, now bright with pity and kindness, now radiant with the most enchanting high spirits, Dickens makes childhood as one of the main themes of his novels.” The descriptions of childhood in his novels are very real and life-like. He writes as an adult describing his childhood.

Dickens presents with infinite sympathy the woes and sufferings of child life. He presents the sorrows, sufferings and privations suffered by his child characters. Oliver Twist wins our sympathy for the cruel treatment met out to him by the parish administrators and mentors of work-houses. Oliver Twist is a convincing portrayal of childhood. It has been said that Dickens did not merely describe a child but he himself became a child for the time being. His child characters – Oliver Twist, David Coperfield, Pip, Paul Dombey and little Nell have been presented in the best possible manner. In fact no novelist has shown the same power of entering into the child’s point of view as Dickens.”

Dickens has provided real and psychological treatment of child life. It seems that childhood enchants him and holds him in its magic spell. It is evident that not a single impression is left out, not a single memory is forgotten. Everything appears fresh and novel. He portraits sorrows, sufferings and hardships of children. Gissing holds that Dickens shows true sympathy with childhood. His descriptions of childhood are autobiographical.

In ‘Oliver Twist’ there is a realistic presentation of child-life. Dickens reveals how children had to live in the most inhuman conditions in the workhouses. They were not properly fed. They were not properly looked after. They were ill treated. Bad characters misused them. They tried their best to convert them into criminals. Oliver Twist was also brought up on a baby and in a workhouse. In ‘Oliver Twist’ Dickens has depicted major characteristics of a child’s mind. (i) They carve for genuine affection, (ii) The child yearns for a sympathatic look and gets emotionally attached to anyone, (iii) He considers everyone innocent. Oliver believes even Artful Dodger and Fagin to be innocent. His mind is usually curious and sensitive. Every fresh experience provides a sense of newness.

According to Arnold Kettle, “It is notable that Dickens makes no serious effort to present Oliver with any psychological realism, his reactions are not the reactions of any child of nine or ten years old, he is not surprised by what would surprise a child and his moral attitudes are those of an adult. And yet something of the quality of preconcious suffering, of childlike terror, is somewhat achieved.” Oliver is the hero of the novel. All episodes are related with him. With the help of Brownlow and with the sacrifice of Nancy, Oliver is rescued from the clutches of bad characters.