1015010305 英语3班 吴冰姿

Book report of Oliver Twist

——analysis of symbolism in Oliver Twist

The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin, naively unaware of their unlawful activities.

The setting of this novel is fog in London as the background. It uses the complex plots and characters show the British social reality, and uses exaggeration and irony reflects the dark side of society. At the same time, everywhere in the work embodies the romantic, the author uses the kind-hearted of a gentleman to show fantasies and hopes of the society.

The author who himself was born in a poor family wrote this novel in his twenties with a view to reveal the ugly masks of those cruel criminals and to expose the horror and violence hidden underneath the narrow and dirty streets in London.

Oliver Twist was thrown into a world full of poverty and crime. He suffered enormous pain, such as hunger, thirst, beating and abuse. While reading the tragic experiences of the little Oliver, I am really impressed by his kind-hearted and lenient. And it is so adamant of him after being through all the twist. What he has been through is just like his name, and I have to say the author is really adept at using symbols. This novel is full of symbolism. For the characters’ names, they have their own meanings. The names of characters represent personal qualities. Oliver Twist himself is the most obvious example. The name “Twist,” though given by accident, alludes to the outrageous reversals of fortune that he will experience. Rose Maylie’s name echoes her association with flowers and springtime, youth and beauty. Toby Crackit’s name is a lighthearted reference to his chosen profession of breaking into houses. Mr. Bumble’s name connotes his bumbling arrogance; Mrs. Mann’s, her lack of maternal instinct; and Mr. Grimwig’s, his superficial grimness that can be removed as easily as a wig.

London Bridge is another symbol. Nancy’s decision to meet Brownlow and Rose on London Bridge reveals the symbolic aspect of this bridge in Oliver Twist. Bridges exist to link two places that would otherwise be separated by an uncrossable chasm. The meeting on London Bridge represents the collision of two worlds unlikely ever to come into contacts—the idyllic world of Brownlow and Rose, and the atmosphere of degradation in which Nancy lives. On the bridge, Nancy is given the chance to cross over to the better way of life that the others represent, but she rejects that opportunity, and by the time the three have all left the bridge. that possibility has vanished forever. The dog in Oliver Twist is an important symbol too. He seems to mirror the

wicked nature of his owner, Bill Sykes. After Sikes murders Nancy, Bull’s-eye comes to represent Sikes’s guilt. The dog leaves bloody footprints on the floor of the room where the murder is committed. Not long after, Sikes becomes desperate to get rid of the dog, convinced that the dog’s presence will give him away. Yet, just as Sikes cannot shake off his guilt, he cannot shake off Bull’s-eye, who arrives at the house of Sikes’s demise before Sikes himself does. Bull’s-eye’s name also conjures up the image of Nancy’s eyes, which haunts Sikes until the bitter end and eventually causes him to hang himself accidentally.

The author makes considerable use of symbolism. The many symbols Oliver faces are primarily good versus evil, with evil continually trying to corrupt and exploit good, but good winning out in the end. Briefly, the author manages to skilfully paint a picture of the dark, dirty and dangerous alley-ways of Victorian London by symbolism.

With these symbols, I find the novel deeper, richer, more meaningful and colorful. The author uses symbolism to allude to a mood or feeling without coming out and stating that particular emotion. As the result, this novel become very well known and it has a huge effect in English literature. It successfully presents the underworld and problems of poverty through the typical figure Oliver. The works deeply reveals the ugly masks of those cruel criminals and the tragic life of downer class citizen in 18th century in Britain.

 

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