Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Oliver Twist (Dickens, Charles)'

Oliver Twist is a novel loved by many, read by more. It is a classic novel by Charles Dickens, portraying the life and hardships of a young boy named Oliver Twist, who was born in a work house. Oliver is bright and righteous, the exact opposite of his brother Edward “Monks” Leeford. This essay will follow Oliver and Monks and analyse their characters in the light of the literary hero and the literary villain and in doing so see how Dickens use the characters as literary tools to convey his view of a dark, uncaring Victorian society as well as his hopes for a brighter future. Their strong characteristics make way for a fascinating story, a story that do not only tell us about Oliver’s bravery and Monks’ egoism, but one that do also prove that they are characters created by Dickens to show both the Victorian society that he lived in as well as the society that it could become.

La fiction dickensienne met en scene ce qui permet l'avenement d'un sujet a l'ordre symbolique de la parole. La diegese des trois romans choisis illustre comment le desir vient s'articuler a la loi de l'interdit, lorsqu'un processus de substitution permet a l'innommable de se faire entendre a travers les rets du discours, regulant ainsi le rapport du sujet a l'objet du desir. Notre tache, en tantque lecteur, a consiste a etre a l'ecoute de cette parole venue d'ailleurs, d'etudier le travail d'un texte qui voile et devoile a la fois le desir qu'il tait et l'impuissance a le dire, tout en disant sous une forme travestie son incapacite a taire ce desir. Notre but a ete de recenser les elements textuels et narratifs contribuant a l'elaboration de cette parole inconsciente, de voir "comment cela se fait texte" a l'aide de l'ecran de la fiction, et parfois de deceler ce qu'un langage apparemment chaotique vient a convoquer et invoquer. Ce parcours nous a permis d'entrevoir, dans des instants fugitifs, la beaute poetique des textes dickensiens, lorsque la lettre inconsciente, en frolant les bords de l'impossible a dire, ouvre une voie a la voix du desir, nous faisant ainsi parvenir les echos de ses cris dans l'ecrit.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Sydney, 2000.
Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 21, 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts to the Dept. of English, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2000; thesis submitted 1999. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

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A presente dissertação analisa as versões impressas em português do romance Oliver Twist(1837-38) do escritor inglês Charles Dickens (1812-1870), com referência especial à representação do fenômeno do anti-semitismo, manifestado no personagem de Fagin. O trabalho insere-se na área descritiva dos estudos da tradução, direcionado, por um lado, à história das traduções, uma vez que as versões abrangem quase 140 anos; e por outro, à tradução intersemiótica, considerando que a maioria das versões tem fortes aspectos pictóricos, umas sendo dominadas por tais. As versões receberam uma classificação em quatro grupos distintos: as traduções integrais, as condensações, as adaptações infantis ilustradas e as histórias em quadrinhos. Cada grupo foi investigado no que concerne sua história e seu lugar nos sistemas literários de origem e brasileiro, bem como as políticas tradutórias envolvidos na criação dos trabalhos individuais. Os textos dos mesmos foram analisados, usando cotejo e análise estatística, tanto dos aspectos verbais, quanto das ilustrações. Concentrou-se, nessas análises, nas imagens verbais e visuais de Fagin. Sempre se procurou identificar traços nessas imagens, que indicassem uma contextualização especificamente brasileira, em consideração à natureza distinta do anti-semitismo social no Brasil, mas poucos foram encontrados. Dentre as ferramentas teóricas utilizadas na análise, aproveitou-se, especialmente, do conceito dos memes, paralelo cultural aos genes da biologia,desenvolvido nos anos 1970 pelo biólogo Richard Dawkins.
Universidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Letras. Salvador-Ba, 2010.

The legal system of Victorian England is integral to Charles Dickens' novels and to their moral intent. Dickens was acutely conscious of the way in which the Victorian novel operated as a form of moral art. As a novelist he is concerned about the victims of his society and the way in which their lots can be improved. He therefore chooses to construct representative victims of legal institutions such as the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Court of Chancery in his novels to highlight flaws in his world and the changes that might be made to improve social conditions. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' fictional enquiry into the social world his characters stand to inherit is focused on the legal system and its institutions, most particularly, the law of succession. By discussing three novels from different periods of his writing career, Oliver Twist (1837), Bleak House (1853) and Our Mutual Friend (1862-1865), I will suggest how his engineering of moral outcomes shows his development as a writer. The law of succession and related legal institutions such as the Court of Chancery, dealing with wills and inheritance, recurs in Dickens' novels, providing the novelist with social, moral and legal identities for his characters. These identities, as unveiled during the texts, propel the characters and plot development in particular directions in response to the novels' moral intent. The role of inheritance in Victorian society largely provides Dickens with a means to explore the adequacies of existing legal institutions, such as the means by which to prove and execute wills and the operation of the Court of Chancery. The role of inheritance also allows Dickens to examine the social condition of those who are deprived of an inheritance or who are unable to enforce their legal rights. In this respect Dickens concentrates on the appalling conditions of institutions such as workhouses and poorhouses in Victorian society and on resultant criminal activity and prostitution in the community as the disinherited struggle to survive. Dickens' study of crime in particular sheds invaluable light on the prevailing moral standards of, and difficulties with, his society. Dickens acknowledges his pedagogical role as an author, providing synopses of his lessons in the prefaces to his books and forewarning his audience of the literary devices (such as grotesquerie) that are necessary to communicate them effectively. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' engineering of moral outcomes through the convenient use of the law of succession becomes increasingly sophisticated as he develops as a writer. The stock plot device of the impoverished orphan child, a representative victim of such a Victorian legal institution as the Poor Laws who is morally saved when elevated into gentility by a secret inheritance, sustains the plot of Oliver Twist. The simplistic and somewhat improbable fortunes of Oliver, however, give way to the more probable moral and legal outcomes of characters such as Jo and Richard Carstone in Bleak House. In Bleak House Carstone, who is certainly a more interesting central protagonist than Esther Summerson in terms of Dickens' examination of legal institutions and their effect on moral and social outcomes in the novel, makes a ruinous attempt to manipulate the legal system and gain control over his fortune by joining the suit of Jarndyce v Jarndyce. In Our Mutual Friend, however, a complex and successful manipulation of the legal system is achieved by Harmon/Handford/Rokesmith, an adult and extremely resourceful character who, in conjunction with other characters such as Bella Wilfer and Mr Boffin, is testament to the inseparability of individual and legal identities as far as moral and social outcomes are concerned. Throughout the novels it can be seen that the abilities of Oliver Twist, Richard Carstone and John Rokesmith to manipulate the law of succession correlate directly to stages of Dickens' maturity as a writer and his increasing confidence about layering texts and developing more complex and sophisticated structures in his novels. Dickens' focus on the role of inheritance, however, entails the development of perspectives on the legal system in entirety. Oliver Twist as a novel drawing upon the traditions of sensation, and turning on events such as 'legacies, birthrights, thefts and deeds of violence', focuses intensely on the criminal justice system and establishes Dickens' famous attraction to repulsion and use of grotesquerie and popular entertainment. Oliver Twist also develops analogies between law and drama, establishing the foundation from which Dickens can employ legal metaphors to great effect in his quest for reforms of the legal system and society at large in Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. Oliver Twist further establishes the milieu of a stratified society in which finances govern social behaviour and in which the class system is reflected in the legal system through the denial of access to justice to those who are unable to afford it, or suffer gender inequality. Bleak House builds upon the problems outlined in Oliver Twist. It explores the criminal system, particularly the defeminisation of the law and access to justice issues, including the problem of delay in litigation. Specific legal institutions such as the jury system and, most notably, the civil branch of the Victorian legal system with a particular focus on the equitable procedures in the Court of Chancery are examined. Jo is a transmutation of Oliver as representative victim of the Poor Laws, and his fate as such appears more probable. Richard Carstone is, however, the central character in the novel in terms of his construction as the representative victim of the civil system and of the law of succession. In Our Mutual Friend Dickens refines his use of the law of succession and other legal institutions to propel characters into directions suited to his own agendas. The entire plot is constructed from the premise of the execution of a will arising out of the death of John Harmon whose murder is a crime that has never, in fact, been committed. The ramifications of the execution of this will and subsequent codicils are extremely interesting. The novel further examines problems of access to justice and gender inequality under the prevailing legal system, particularly through Bella Wilfer. As part of the development of Dickens' use of the legal system there is a perceptible development of his powers of characterisation. Richard Carstone is a more substantial and believable character than Oliver; John Harmon offers the opportunity for Dickens to experiment with a chameleon identity. This aspect of Dickens' development, however, has received substantial attention already, particularly by Arnold Kettle, Barbara Hardy, Monroe Engel and Grahame Smith. There has been, to the best of my knowledge, little work done on his use of the law of succession, and it is here that I wish to concentrate my argument. Much of Dickens' interest in the law appears to stem from his early career as a legal clerk in Lincoln's Inn and Doctors' Commons. His first job, as a writing clerk in the office of Ellis and Blackmore, a small set of chambers in Holborn Court, involved duties such as copying documents, administering the registration of wills and running errands to other legal offices and law courts. Public offices with which Dickens came into contact in the course of this job were the Alienation Office, the Sixpenny Receivers Office, the Prothonotaries Office, the Clerk of the Escheats, the Dispensation Office, the Affidavit Office, the Filazer's, Exigenter's and Clerk of the Outlawry's Office, the Hanaper Office and the Six-Clerk's office . This employment gave Dickens an exposure to a wide range of jurisdictions and legal precedents. Through this contact with a variety of legal practices, Dickens experienced a broad range of litigation which enabled him to develop opinions on the contemporary operation of the law and its efficacy in the administration of justice. Such experience almost certainly sowed the seeds for much of the critique of the legal system found in his novels. In 1829 when he joined Doctors Commons, Dickens was exposed to ecclesiastical and naval jurisdictions including a Consistory Court, A Court of Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Delegates Court and the Admiralty Court. In this role Dickens was employed by a firm of proctors to take notes on evidence and judgments. This job as a shorthand reporter granted Dickens the opportunity to observe at close range members of the legal profession such as clerks, proctors, secretaries and Doctors. Probably as much through a process of osmosis as anything else, Dickens gained an understanding of the mechanics of basic legal procedures through this type of employment. In order to work as a court reporter, Dickens was required to use shorthand, a method of taking notes that perhaps allowed Dickens to develop the skill to think and write quickly. It was probably at this early stage in his career that the duality of law and literature began to come together for Dickens, developing at a later stage into his volumes of legal fiction. The anonymity of the law writer's existence, as captured later in Dickens' description of Nemo the law-writer in Bleak House, who either lived or did not live by law-writing according to Krook, also may have prompted Dickens to begin writing original works with legal themes.

Cette thèse examine des trajectoires imaginaires décrites dans l’œuvre de Charles Dickens et à partir d’elle. On y étudie le texte et les réincarnations de Great Expectations (1860-61), Oliver Twist (1837-39) puis The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), trois romans qui, depuis l’ère victorienne, pénètrent l’imaginaire collectif et alimentent des discours divers, toujours influencés par leurs conditions de production. Ainsi, cette thèse pratique des microanalyses de ses sources primaires tout en prêtant attention au contexte de chaque œuvre. Son corpus comprend des adaptations filmiques mais aussi des reprises plus indirectes, telles que des réécritures, séries télévisées ou jeux vidéo faisant apparaître des éléments identifiables comme « dickensiens ». Cet adjectif qualifie des objets imaginaires et des phénomènes culturels dont on s’attache ici à préciser la nature. En particulier, le dickensien et ses persistances sont étudiées au prisme de l’excentricité, un terme souvent utilisé pour évoquer la qualité truculente et insolite des écrits de Dickens. Mais ici, la définition de cette notion est approfondie : l’excentrique, toujours situé entre un centre et ses marges, sert à penser les ambivalences du dickensien. Au gré des contextes socio-culturels et esthétiques dans lesquels il s’incarne, l’imaginaire créé par Dickens nourrit des discours tantôt normatifs et maîtrisables, tantôt subversifs et déroutants. La cartographie chaotique dressée dans ce travail aboutit à une réflexion méthodologique : les persistances du dickensien forment des trajectoires discontinues et imprévisibles, qui contrarient les classements bibliographiques, périodisations et barrières disciplinaires
This thesis looks at the text and afterlives of Great Expectations (1860-61), Oliver Twist (1837-39) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), by Charles Dickens. Ever since the Victorian era, these three novels have penetrated our collective imagination and have fed into various kinds of discourses, which are always determined by their conditions of production and reception. Thus, this thesis both performs microanalyses of its primary sources and explores the context in which each work was published. Its corpus includes filmic adaptations as well as more indirect reincarnations, such as rewritings, TV series and videogames featuring elements identifiable as ‘Dickensian’. The latter adjective points to a variety of fictional objects and cultural processes, which are gradually circumscribed throughout this thesis. In particular, the Dickensian and its afterlives are defined in connection with the ‘eccentric’, a term often used to conjure up the colourful and sometimes queer quality of Dickens’s texts. Here, however, a broader definition of this notion is adopted: the eccentric, which always stands halfway between a centre and its margins, is used to examine the many ambiguities of the Dickensian. For, as they move into new aesthetic and socio-cultural contexts, the fictions created by Dickens feed into discourses which can be normative and/or subversive, stereotyped and/or disturbing. My cartography of Dickensian afterlives gradually appears as chaotic, which eventually leads me to reconsider some of my methodological assumptions: Dickens’s fictions move in irregular and unpredictable ways, which often upset bibliographical, periodical and disciplinary boundaries

This dissertation explores the ways in which Charles Dickens writes Nancy in Oliver Twist, Anthony Trollope writes Carry Brattle in The Vicar of Bullhampton, and Elizabeth Gaskell writes Esther in Mary Barton to represent and examine some very personal and painful anxiety. About Dickens and Trollope, I contend that they turn their experiences of shame into their prostitute's shame. For Gaskell, I assert that the experience she projects onto her prostitute is that of her own maternal grief in isolation. Further, I argue that these authors self-consciously create biographical parallels between themselves and their prostitutes with an eye to drawing conclusions about the results of their anxieties, both for their prostitutes and, by proxy, for themselves. In Chapter II, I assert that in Nancy, Dickens writes himself and his sense of shame at his degradation and exploitation in Warren's Blacking Factory. This shame resulted in a Dickens divided, split between his successful, public persona and his secret, mortifying shame. Both shame and its divisiveness he represents in a number of ways in Nancy. In Chapter III, I contend that Trollope laces Carry Brattle with some of his own biographical details from his early adult years in London. These parallels signify Carry's personal importance to her author, and reveal her silences and her subordinate role in the text as representative of Trollope's own understanding and fear of shame and its consequences: its silencing and paralyzing nature, and its inescapability. In Chapter IV, I posit that Gaskell identifies herself with Esther, and that through her, Gaskell explores three personal things: her sorrow over the loss of not one but three of her seven children, her possible guilt over these deaths, and her emotional isolation in her marriage as she grieved alone. In her creation of Esther, Gaskell creates a way both to isolate her grief and to forge a close companion to share it, thus enabling her to examine and work through grief. In Chapter V, I examine the preface of each novel and find that these, too, reflect each author's identification with and investment of anxiety in his or her particular prostitute.

Non-standard language, or dialect, often serves a specific purpose in a literary work and it is therefore a challenge for any translator to recreate the non-standard language of the source text into a target language.  There are different linguistic tools an author can use in order to convey non-standard language, and the same is true for a translator – who can choose from different strategies when tasked with the challenge of translating dialectal features. This essay studies the challenge of recreating dialectal, non-standard speech in a work of literature and compares four different translations of that same piece of literature into another language. With this purpose in mind, the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens is analysed using samples of non-standard language which have been applied to indicate a character’s speech as dialectal. The same treatment is given to four different Swedish translations. The method consists of linguistically analysing four text samples from the original novel, to see how non-standard language is represented and which function it serves, and thereafter, comparing the same samples to the four Swedish translations in order to establish whether non-standard features are visible also in the translated novels and which strategies the translators have used in order to achieve this. It is concluded that non-standard language is applied in the source text and is represented on each possible linguistic level, including graphology, morphosyntax, and vocabulary. The main function of the non-standard language found in the source text samples was to place the characters in contrasting social positions. The target texts were found to also use features of non-standard language, but not to the same extent as the language used in the source text. The most common type of marker was, in all five of the texts, lexical items. It was also concluded that the most frequently used translation strategy used in the target texts was the use of various informal, colloquial features.

This thesis looks at the criminals of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist as a criminal type: impoverished, unattractive people who lack family roots. It establishes connections between the criminal characters themselves as well as the real-world conditions which inspired their stereotypes. The conditions of poverty and a lack of family being tied to criminality is founded in reality, while the tendency for criminals to be unattractive is based on social bias and prejudice. It also identifies conflicting ideologies in the prevailing Victorian mindset that begins to emerge as a result of research into the criminal type.

Il s'agit d'analyser les enjeux du style dans les oeuvres de jeunesse de Charles Dickens, et de dégager les défis linguistiques que pose ce style d'écriture au traducteur, afin d'apprécier dans quelle mesure ils ont été relevés dans les traductions françaises, et par le biais de quelles stratégies. A cet effet, nous examinerons quatre traductions d'Oliver Twist, un roman typique de cette période de l'écriture de Dickens : les deux premières traductions, produites au XIXe siècle, par Emile de La Bédollière et Alfred Gérardin, et les deux dernières, produites au XXe siècle, par Sylvère Monod et Francis Ledoux. Parmi les enjeux et les défis caractéristiques de cette prose, cinq traits de style principaux seront retenus : le greffage du discours spécialisé dans le discours du narrateur, les constructions nominales, les associations lexicales non conventionnelles, la présence de marques d'oralisation dans le discours, et l'ambiguïté. Face à ce texte hérissé de difficultés du fait de la très grande créativité de l'auteur, et de son extrême sensibilité à la langue, les traducteurs n'adoptent pas toujours la même stratégie globale; les défis posés par le texte ne sont pas tous relevés par les traducteurs, ou pas de la même manière. Globalement, deux tendances sont notables, avec une plus grande " fidélité " des traducteurs du XXe siècle au texte de départ, par rapport aux traducteurs du XIXe siècle, même si les différences s'estompent pour certains traits de style. Nous nous interrogerons alors, d'une part, sur ce que cette " infidélité " implique pour le texte d'arrivée, et d'autre part, sur les limites de cette entreprise de " fidélité ".

碩士
東吳大學
英文學系
102
The thesis analyzed the growth processes of two protagonists, Oliver Twist and Philip Pirrip, in Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Readers can be closer to Dickens’ inner and literary world from realizing these protagonists’ life experiences and struggling processes for difficulties. The study will show the created world of Charles Dickens’ childhood and how the influence made him a writer. Like the main character in his novels, Charles Dickens only went to school for some time in his childhood. It is the studying and hard work that made him a famous writer. The first chapter is the introduction and the background. After that, readers will understand the reasons why Charles Dickens always used orphans as protagonists in the second chapter. In this chapter, we will discuss about the connection between his novel and his deprived childhood. In the third chapter, the thesis shows the different experiences of the two characters, Oliver Twist and Philip Pirrip. Their inner worlds and some elements, which included crummy surroundings, hard struggles, and pure and kindhearted nature, influenced and changed the protagonists. Furthermore, in the fourth chapter, the thesis will analyze how the emotion and physical neglect influenced the protagonists. For instance, they may present some violent behaviors and imbalance mental problems. Finally, in the fifth chapter, it will discuss how neglect influences the protagonists’ growth process and the phenomenon that occurs during the deprived childhood.

This diploma thesis deals with the portrayal of child heroes in English and American literature, in works of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. The chosen novels are Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These novels are analysed in the themes of child labour and poverty, racism, religion, the view of the world by children in contrast to the adult perspective, upbringing and education. The last chapter deals with the humour of both novelists. Thus the emphasis is put on the social aspect of the literary output of Dickens and Twain. The main aim of the thesis is to depict these child heroes and their acting in the literature of the 19th century, and to reflect the life experience of both authors.

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
102
The study explores the effects of the cooperative learning (CL) approach on EFL simplified literature curriculum in a junior high school. The novel Oliver Twist is the main reading material. The researcher aims to investigate the subjects’ learning interests in simplified literary texts, their responses to the CL activities, the presentations of their works, their responses to the classroom interaction, and their attitudes toward the simplified literature curriculum in the CL approach. The subjects participated in this study included two classes of 60 ninth-grade students in Taichung Da Ya Junior High School. According to the questionnaire on students’ opinions of their EFL literature learning experience, the researcher designed the literary syllabus of Oliver Twist. Appropriate CL learning activities were applied in the literature curriculum to facilitate students' learning and enhance their reading motivation. The students' responses in the questionnaire on their attitudes towards EFL literature learning in the CL approach were collected and analyzed. Besides, the students' performance of the assign works, their participation in CL activities, and their interactions with the teacher and the peers were also recorded. The main findings of the study are summarized as follows: 1. The application of the literature syllabus Oliver Twist in the CL approach made a positive impact on the students’ attitudes towards literature learning and raised their English reading motivation. 2. The CL approach was considered to be a useful teaching approach because many students in the study accepted and liked the various CL activities. The students were pleased with the dynamic interaction and vivacious atmosphere in the CL literature class. They would do their best in the CL activities actively in order to win in the group competition. 3. Oliver Twist is an appropriate reading material for junior high school EFL students. They were interested in reading the novel. Some pedagogical implications for EFL teachers are made as follows. 1. EFL teachers should be convinced that group discussion is helpful in literature classes and can raise students’ learning motivation. 2. EFL teachers should take CL as an alternative teaching approach and design more suitable CL activities. 3. EFL teachers should regard simplified literature texts as appropriate reading materials for junior high school EFL students.

碩士
國立彰化師範大學
英語學系
99
The thesis attempts to explore the application of English novels to junior high school English teaching. The researcher wants to know whether the students promote the morality through reading Oliver Twist. Besides, the researcher adopts both the Grammar Translation Method and the Communicative Language Teaching Approach to investigate whether the students gain the knowledge of elements of fiction, enlarge the vocabulary, gain the knowledge of the social issues in Britain in the nineteenth century, and gain the knowledge of the social issues in the novel. The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction, which explains the motivation of the thesis, the appropriateness of teaching literature to junior high school students, the appropriateness of teaching Oliver Twist, the purposes and research questions, the biographical background of Charles Dickens, and the significance of this study. Chapter two is the literature review of the social issues in Britain in the nineteenth century, including the condition of the workhouses and the social crimes. Chapter three is the literature review of the social issues in the novel, including the condition of the workhouses and the social crimes. Chapter four is the methodology of the teaching experiment. Chapter five is the results and findings of the teaching experiment. Chapter six is the conclusion of the thesis.