Dec 23, 2009

Oliver Twist | Social Sensitivity

Some of Dickens's original readers objected to Oliver Twists comparatively frank portrayal of thieves, pickpockets, and prostitutes. But what was considered explicit then is quite mild today. Dickens carefully avoids direct quotation of offensive language and offers only the most oblique descriptions of objectionable behavior. The novel was written for a Victorian audience, after all, and as Dickens himself points out in the preface, "a lesson of the purest good may ... be drawn from the vilest evil."

Dickens's treatment of Jewish characters will be more objectionable to...