Dickens's Perspective on Social Grievances, Crime, and Penal Issues in the Victorian Era and Its Reflection in Oliver Twist

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 14, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Anglistik), course: Seminar: Political Dickens, language: English, abstract: The era of Victorian England was a time of great social and reformatory transformation driven by the consequences of the industrial revolution. The metropolitan areas, particularly the city of London, underwent enormous demographic and social changes. In order to cope with crime, different legal measures were applied. Until 1815, criminality was handled according to the Bloody Code, which came close to draconian punishment.The problem of poverty was tackled with the establishment of parish workhouses under the New Poor Law. They were built to relieve the poor and segregated them from the rest of society. In the course of the 19th century public executions ceased to exist in England, prison reform was initiated, the importance of hygiene as a basic need was recognized, and the catalog of offences punished by death was significantly reduced.¿All of these reforms resulted from political endeavors of groups and individual people who fought for the realization of their political intentions over a long period of time. One of them was Charles Dickens. He was a political writer who engaged himself strongly in penal issues and the improvement of the social circumstances under which the poor suffered. He was an influential journalist and novelist whose writings aimed at catching the readers' attention on an emotional level. In his life, he developed a strong, but ambivalent standpoint on issues such as prison reform and capital punishment. It was not only due to common interest that crime and punishment were matters of great concern to Dickens. In fact, it was a very personal matter for him deriving from a traumatic childhood experience. At the age of twelve his father was sent to debtors prison and his family joined him shortly after. On top of that, Dickens's himself - still a child - had to work in a blacking warehouse in order to provide for his family. In his later life, he witnessed several executions, alterations in the administration of criminal law, prison acts and the introduction of the Metropolitan Police. These transitions contributed to the development of his critical standpoint concerning the cause of crime and the treatment of criminals.The story of Oliver Twist is Dickens's second and probably most renowned publication. It critically deals with the social grievances of the Victorian era such as poverty and juvenile crime and contains a satirical tone, subtly attacking the social system and those who exert power over others.