Riassunto "Oliver Twist", Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica Riassunto "Oliver Twist" e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! OLIVER TWIST – CHARLES DICKENS INTRODUCTION “Oliver Twist” is a novel written by Charles Dickens and published between 1837 and 1839 as a serial, on an English literary magazine and tells about the troubled life of an innocent orphan named Oliver. AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth in 1812. Charles didn’t have a simple life: his father, was constantly in debt with money and he was imprisoned. Because of this, Charles was withdrawn from school and forced to work to help the family. This experience left profound psychological and sociological effects on Charles. It gave him a firsthand acquaintance with poverty and made him the most vigorous and influential voice of the working classes in his age. When his father was released from prison Charles was allowed to go back to school. At fifteen years old he ended his formal education. From 1830 he started to work for a newspaper. Over the time he started to became more and more famous and he adopted the pseudonym Boz. Dickens's first book, a collection of stories titled Sketches by Boz, was published in 1836. Some examples of his works are for example “Oliver Twist”, “Nicholas Nickleby” and “The Old Curiosity Shop” In the closing years of his life Dickens showed symptoms of mild stroke. He retreated to Gad's Hill and began to work on “Edwin Drood”, which was never completed. Charles Dickens died at home on June 9, 1870 after suffering a stroke. PLOT Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s in the fictional town of Mudfog (the story is written and takes place in the period of Victorian Age). His mother is found on the street and dies just after Oliver’s birth so Oliver spends the first nine years of his life in a badly orphanage and then is transferred to a workhouse for adults. One day, the other boys punished Oliver because he committed the mistake of asking for more gruel at the end of a meal and Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, offers five pounds to anyone who will take the boy away from the workhouse. So, Oliver is sold initially to a brutish chimney sweep and next the second man who bought him was an undertaker (becchino) who takes Oliver into his service. He was a good man, but his wife treated him very badly and the poor Oliver was also tormented by Noah who bullied him, for example making bad comments about Oliver’s mother, only because he was jealous of his promotion to MUTE (play the role of mourner during funerals thanks to his melancholic face). Desperate, Oliver escapes and decides to run away to London looking for a better life. Outside London, Oliver, hungry and exhausted, meets Jack Dawkins , a boy his own age. Jack offers him shelter in the London house of his benefactor Fagin , who is a criminal who trains orphan boys to pick pockets for him. After a few days of training, Oliver is sent on a pickpocketing mission with two other boys but when he sees them steal from an old gentleman, Oliver is horrified and runs off. He is caught by the police, but he’s saved by Mr. Brownlow , the man who has been robbed, who couldn’t believe that an innocent child like Oliver could be a thief, so he takes him to his home and takes care of him. After a while living there, two young adults in Fagin’s gang, Bill Sikes and his lover Nancy, capture Oliver and return him to Fagin. During a burglary in a house, Oliver is shot by a servant and, he’s taken in by the women who live there, Mrs. Maylie and her beautiful adopted niece Rose. They grow fond of Oliver, and he spends a summer with them in the countryside. But Fagin and a mysterious man named Monks are set on recapturing Oliver . Monks had asked Fagin to turn Oliver into a criminal to destroy Oliver's reputation, and he also wanted to make sure he does not find out about his past. When the Maylies come to London, Nancy meets secretly with Rose and informs her of Fagin’s designs, but a member of Fagin’s gang overhears the conversation. When Sikes discovers it, he brutally murders her. Mr. Brownlow confronts Monks and wrings him the truth about Oliver’s parentage. It is revealed that Monks is Oliver’s half-brother. Their father, Mr. Leeford, was unhappily married to a wealthy woman and had an affair with Oliver’s mother, Agnes Fleming. Monks has been pursuing Oliver all along in the hopes of deprive him of his part of the family inheritance. Mr. Brownlow forces Monks to sign over Oliver’s share. Moreover, it is discovered that Rose is Agnes’s younger sister, so Oliver’s aunt. Fagin is hung for his crimes and finally Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, they and the Maylies retire to a happy existence in the countryside. THEMES The author decides not to give the point of view of the protagonist, but uses a sympathetic spectator. The entire novel is based on the opposition between good and evil which can be seen in the different characters. This vision is related to a protestant religious point of view. The fate of each character depends on its own attitude in life. The good people are saved while the bad ones are damned. Oliver Twist is born good and he only acts as a good person. For this reason, at the end good wins and evil is defeated. However, the protagonist is not a hero because his story is only used to show and criticise the reality of a poor boy who lives in the English society of the 18th century, a society characterised by exploitation, hypocrisy, crime, many orphans, prostitution, misery. CHARACTERS 1. OLIVER TWIST He is about 10 years old and is orphaned at birth. Despite the abuse he receives in the workhouse, Oliver is a kind, honest boy who remains true to his nature. The fact that he is good doesn’t prevent him from being able to defend himself. He is motivated by the desire to help those in need and this allows him to be saved. In the end Oliver gathers around him a group of honest friends similar to himself. 2. FAGIN He is the leader of a gang of young thieves, he takes in homeless children and trains them to pick pockets. He rarely commits crimes himself, instead he employs others to commit crimes on his behalf. His face was obscured by a quantity of matted red hair and he is described as something disgusting, ugly, avaricious and miserly.