Oliver Twist (1838) is Charles Dickens' second novel. The book was originally published in Bentley's Miscellany as a serial, in monthly installments that began appearing in the month of February 1837 and continued through April 1839, originally intended to form part of Dickens' serial The Mudfog Papers.[1][2][3] George Cruikshank provided one steel etching per month to illustrate each installment.[4]
Oliver Twist is the first novel in the English language to centre throughout on a child protagonist[5] and is also notable for Dickens' unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives.[6] The book's subtitle, The Parish Boy's Progress alludes to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress and also to a pair of popular 18th-century caricature series by William Hogarth, "A Rake's Progress" and "A Harlot's Progress".[7]
An early example of the social novel, the book calls the public's attention to various contemporary social evils, including the Poor Law that states that poor people should work in workhouses, child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals. Dickens mocks the hypocrisies of the time by surrounding the novel's serious themes with sarcasm and dark humour. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of his hardships as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s.
Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous film and television adaptations, and is the basis for a highly successful musical, Oliver!.
Plot summary
Oliver Twist is born into a life of poverty and misfortune in a workhouse in an unnamed town[8] within 75 miles north of London. Orphaned almost from his first breath by his mother’s death in childbirth and his father’s unexplained absence, Oliver is meagerly provided for under the terms of the Poor Law, and spends the first eight years of his life at a "baby farm" in the 'care' of a woman named Mrs. Mann. Along with other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws, Oliver is brought up with little food and few comforts.
Around the time of the orphan’s ninth birthday, Mr Bumble, a parish beadle, removes Oliver from the baby farm and puts him to work picking oakum at the main branch-workhouse (the same one where his mother worked before she died). Oliver, who toils with very little food, remains in the workhouse for six months, until the desperately hungry boys decide to draw lots; the loser must ask for another portion of gruel. The task falls to Oliver, who at the next meal tremblingly comes forward, bowl in hand, and makes his famous request: "Please, sir, I want some more."
A great uproar ensues. The board of well-fed gentlemen who administer the workhouse, while eating a meal fit for a king, are outraged by Oliver's 'ingratitude'. Wanting to be rid of this troublemaker, they offer five pounds sterling to any person wishing to take on the boy as an apprentice. A brutal chimney sweep almost claims Oliver, but, when he begs despairingly not to be sent away with "that dreadful man" a kindly old magistrate refuses to sign the indentures. Later, Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker employed by the parish, takes Oliver into his service. He treats Oliver better, and, because of the boy's sorrowful countenance, uses him as a mute, or mourner, at children's funerals. However, Mr. Sowerberry is in an unhappy marriage, and his wife takes an immediate dislike to Oliver – primarily because her husband seems to like him – and loses few opportunities to underfeed and mistreat him. He also suffers torment at the hands of Noah Claypole, an oafish but bullying fellow apprentice who is jealous of Oliver's promotion to mute, and Charlotte, the Sowerberry's maidservant, who is in love with Noah.
One day, in an attempt to bait Oliver, Noah insults the orphan’s late mother, calling her "a regular right-down bad 'un". Oliver flies into an unexpected passion, attacking and even besting the much bigger boy. Mrs. Sowerberry takes Noah's side, helps him subdue Oliver, punches and beats Oliver, and later compels her husband and Mr. Bumble, who has been sent for in the aftermath of the fight, into beating Oliver again. Once Oliver is sent to his room for the night, he does something that he hadn't done since babyhood - breaks down and weeps. Alone that night, Oliver finally decides to run away. He wanders aimlessly for a time, until a well-placed milestone sets his wandering feet towards London.
During his journey to London, Oliver encounters one Jack Dawkins, who is also affectionately known as the Artful Dodger, although young Oliver is oblivious to this hint that the boy may be dishonest. Dodger provides Oliver with a free meal and tells him of a gentleman in London who will "give him lodgings for nothing, and never ask for change". Grateful for the unexpected assistance, Oliver follows Dodger to the gentleman’s residence. In this way, Oliver unwittingly falls in with an infamous Jewish criminal known as Fagin, the "old gentleman" of whom the Artful Dodger spoke. Ensnared, Oliver lives with Fagin and his criminal associates in their lair at Saffron Hill for some time, naively unaware of their criminal occupations. He believes they make wallets and handkerchiefs.
Later, Oliver innocently goes out to "make handkerchiefs" because of no income coming in, with two of Fagin’s underlings: The Artful Dodger and a boy of a humorous nature named Charley Bates. Oliver realises too late that their real mission is to pick pockets. Dodger and Charlie steal the wallet of an old gentleman named Mr. Brownlow, and promptly flee. When he finds his wallet missing, Mr. Brownlow turns round, sees Oliver, and pursues him. Others join the chase and Oliver is caught and taken before the magistrate. Curiously, Mr. Brownlow has second thoughts about the boy- he seems reluctant to believe he is a pickpocket. To the judge's evident disappointment, a bookstall holder who saw Dodger commit the crime clears Oliver, who, by now actually ill, faints in the courtroom. Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver home and, along with his housekeeper Mrs. Bedwin, cares for him.
Oliver stays with Mr. Brownlow, recovers rapidly, and blossoms from the unaccustomed kindness. His bliss, however, is interrupted when Fagin, fearing Oliver might "peach" on his criminal gang, decides that Oliver must be brought back to his hideout. When Mr. Brownlow sends Oliver out to pay for some books, one of the gang, a young girl named Nancy – albeit reluctantly – accosts him with help from her abusive lover, a brutal robber named Bill Sikes, and Oliver is quickly bundled back to Fagin's lair. The thieves take the five pound note Mr. Brownlow had entrusted to him, and strip him of his fine new clothes. Oliver, dismayed, flees and attempts to call for police assistance, but is ruthlessly dragged back by the Dodger, Charlie and Fagin. Nancy, however, is sympathetic towards Oliver and saves him from beatings by Fagin and Sikes.
In a renewed attempt to draw Oliver into a life of crime, Fagin forces him to participate in a burglary. Nancy reluctantly assists in recruiting him, all the while assuring the boy that she will help him if she can. Sikes, after threatening to kill him if he does not cooperate, sends Oliver through a small window and orders him to unlock the front door. The robbery goes wrong, however, and Oliver is shot. After being abandoned by Sikes, the wounded Oliver ends up under the care of the people he was supposed to rob: Rose Maylie and her elderly aunt. Convinced of Oliver’s innocence, Rose takes the boy in and nurses him back to health.
Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Monks has found Fagin and is plotting with him to destroy Oliver's reputation. Nancy, by this time ashamed of her role in Oliver's kidnapping, and fearful for the boy's safety, goes to Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow to warn them. She knows that Monks and Fagin are plotting to get their hands on the boy again and holds some secret meetings on the subject with Oliver's benefactors.
Meanwhile Noah Claypole has fallen out with the undertaker Mr. Sowerberry, stolen money from him and moved to London together with his girlfriend, Sowerberry's daughter Charlotte. Using the name "Morris Bolter", he joins Fagin's gang for protection. During Noah's stay with Fagin, the Artful Dodger is caught with a stolen silver snuff box, convicted (in a very humorous courtroom scene) and transported to Australia. Later, Noah is sent by Fagin to "dodge" (spy on) Nancy, and discovers her secret. Fagin angrily passes the information on to Sikes, twisting the story just enough to make it sound as if Nancy had informed on him (in actuality, she had shielded Sikes, whom she loves despite his brutal character). Believing her to be a traitor, Sikes murders Nancy in a fit of rage, and is himself killed when he accidentally hangs himself while fleeing across a rooftop from an angry mob.
Monks is forced by Mr. Brownlow (an old friend of Oliver's father) to divulge his secrets: his real name is Edward Leeford, and he is Oliver's paternal half-brother and, although he is legitimate, he was born of a loveless marriage. Oliver's mother, Agnes, was their father's true love. Mr. Brownlow has a picture of her, and began making inquiries when he noticed a marked resemblance between her face, and the face of Oliver. Monks has spent many years searching for his father's child — not to befriend him, but to destroy him (see Henry Fielding's Tom Jones for similar circumstances). Brownlow asks Oliver to give half his inheritance (which proves to be meager) to Monks because he wants to give him a second chance; and Oliver, to please Brownlow, complies. Monks then moves to America, where he squanders his money, reverts to crime, and ultimately dies in prison. Fagin is arrested and condemned to the gallows; in an emotional scene, Oliver goes to Newgate Gaol to visit the old reprobate on the eve of his hanging.
On a happier note, Rose Maylie turns out to be the long-lost sister of Oliver's mother Agnes; she is therefore Oliver's aunt. She marries her long-time sweetheart Harry, and Oliver lives happily with his saviour, Mr. Brownlow. Noah becomes a paid informant and friend to Oliver; The Bumbles lose their jobs (under circumstances that cause him to utter the well-known line "The Law is a Ass") and are reduced to great poverty, eventually ending up in the same workhouse where they once lorded it over Oliver and the other boys; and Charley Bates, horrified by Sikes' murder of Nancy, becomes an honest citizen, moves to the country, and works his way up to prosperity. This novel is loved by people around the world, while the book itself is now translated into more than 25 languages.
Characters
• Oliver Twist – the title character, an orphan boy born in a workhouse. He is a young boy who is very passionate and very kind hearted, but he is very naive. He does not yet know the dangers of the world.
• Fagin – an old man recruits and trains boys for thievery.
• Bill Sikes – a violent thief and eventual murderer of Nancy.
• Jack Dawkins aka The Artful Dodger – one of Fagin's youth pickpockets.
• Charley Bates – another of Fagin's boy pickpockets.
• Nancy – Bill's girl; a thief trained by Fagin who longs for a better life.
• Bullseye – Bill Sikes' faithful canine companion.
• Betsy –(nearly always called simply Bet) a thief of Fagin's and friend of Nancy.
• Noah Claypole – untalented apprentice to Mr Sowerberry, and something of a bully.
• Mr. Brownlow – Oliver's saviour, a kindly old gentleman.
• Monks, aka Edward Leeford – Oliver's half-brother, a criminal type bent on destroying Oliver.
• Rose Maylie– who turns out to be Oliver's aunt.
• Mr Bumble – the parish Beadle and leader of the orphanage. He is officious, corrupt, a chronic mangler of the King's English, and a great source of comic relief.
• Mrs Bumble/Mrs Corney – a widow who marries Mr Bumble and becomes his shrewish nemesis.
• Mr. Sowerberry – an Undertaker who takes Oliver into his service. He is not a bad sort, and rather likes Oliver.
• Mrs. Sowerberry – Mr. Sowerberry's shrewish wife, who dislikes Oliver and treats him cruelly.
• Charlotte – servant to Mrs Sowerberry; in love with Noah Claypole.
• Gamfield – a vicious chimney-sweep who nearly claims Oliver as apprentice.
• Fang – a harsh, unjust magistrate who almost sentences Oliver to three months hard labour. Dickens based him on a real magistrate named Laing.
• Mrs Bedwin – Motherly housekeeper to Mr Brownlow who nurses Oliver back to health.
• Mr Grimwig – an old friend of Mr Brownlow's who pretends to be a great cynic, but is really a sentimental softy.
• Harry Maylie – Mrs Maylie's son, who wants to marry Rose.
Major themes and symbols
Introduction
In Oliver Twist, Dickens mixes grim realism, and merciless satire as a way to describe the effects of industrialism on 19th-century England, and to criticise the harsh new Poor Laws. Oliver, an innocent child, is trapped in a world where his only alternatives seem to be the workhouse, Fagin's thieves, a prison, or an early grave. From this unpromising industrial/institutional setting, however, a fairy tale also emerges: In the midst of corruption and degradation, the essentially passive Oliver remains pure-hearted; he steers away from evil when those around him give in to it; and, in proper fairy-tale fashion, he eventually receives his reward – leaving for a peaceful life in the country, surrounded by kind friends. On the way to this happy ending, Dickens explores the kind of life an orphan, outcast boy could expect to lead in the London.[9]
Poverty and social class
Poverty is a prominent concern in Oliver Twist. Throughout the novel, Dickens enlarges on this theme, describing slums so decrepit that whole rows of houses are on the point of ruin. In an early chapter, Oliver attends a pauper's funeral with Mr. Sowerberry and sees a whole family crowded together in one miserable room.
This ubiquitous misery makes Oliver's few encounters with charity and love more poignant. Oliver owes his life several times over to kindness both large and small.[10] The apparent plague of poverty that Dickens describes also conveyed to his middle-class readers how much of the London population was stricken with poverty and disease.[citation needed] Nonetheless, in Oliver Twist he delivers a somewhat mixed message about social caste and social injustice.Oliver's illegitimate workhouse origins place him at the nadir of society; as an orphan without friends, he is routinely despised. His "sturdy spirit" keeps him alive despite the torment he must endure. Most of his associates, however, deserve their place among society's dregs and seem very much at home in the depths. Noah Claypole, a charity boy like Oliver, is idle, stupid, and cowardly; Sikes is a thug; Fagin lives by corrupting children; and the Artful Dodger seems born for a life of crime. Many of the middle-class people Oliver encounters—Mrs. Sowerberry, Mr. Bumble, and the savagely hypocritical "gentlemen" of the workhouse board, for example— are, if anything, worse.[11]
Oliver, on the other hand, who has an air of refinement remarkable for a workhouse boy, proves to be of gentle birth. Although he has been abused and neglected all his life, he recoils, aghast, at the idea of victimizing anyone else.This apparently hereditary gentlemanliness makes Oliver Twist something of a changeling tale, not just an indictment of social injustice. Oliver, born for better things, struggles to survive in the savage world of the underclass before finally being rescued by his family and returned to his proper place—a commodious country house.
In a recent film adaptation of the novel, Roman Polanski dispenses with the problem of Oliver's genteel origins by making him an anonymous orphan, like the rest of Fagin's gang.
Symbolism
Dickens makes considerable use of symbolism. The many obstacles Oliver faces symbolises are primarily good versus evil, with the evil continually trying to corrupt and exploit the good, but the good winning out in the end. The "merry old gentleman" Fagin, for example, has satanic characteristics: he is a veteran corrupter of young boys who presides over his own corner of the criminal world; he makes his first appearance standing over a fire holding a toasting-fork; and he refuses to pray on the night before his execution.[12] The London slums, too, have a suffocating, infernal aspect; the dark deeds and dark passions are concretely characterised by dim rooms, and pitch-black nights, while the governing mood of terror and brutality may be identified with uncommonly cold weather. In contrast, the countryside where the Maylies take Oliver is a pastoral heaven.
Food is another important symbol; Oliver's odyssey begins with a simple request for more gruel, and Mr. Bumble's shocked exclamation, represents he may be after more than just gruel..[13] Chapter 8 — which contains the last mention of food in the form of Fagin's dinner — marks the first time Oliver eats his share and represents the transformation in his life that occurs after he joins Fagin's gang.
The novel is also shot through with a related motif, obesity, which calls attention to the stark injustice of Oliver's world. When the half-starved child dares to ask for more, the men who punish him are fat. It is interesting to observe the large number of characters who are overweight.
Toward the end of the novel, the gaze of knowing eyes becomes a potent symbol. For years, Fagin avoids daylight, crowds, and open spaces, concealing himself in a dark lair most of the time: when his luck runs out at last, he squirms in the "living light" of too many eyes as he stands in the dock, awaiting sentence. After Sikes kills Nancy, he flees into the countryside but is unable to escape the memory of her dead eyes. Charlie Bates turns his back on crime when he sees the murderous cruelty of the man who has been held up to him as a model.
With Oliver Twist, Dickens allows the public to become knowledgeable. Oliver lives in a terrifying world of crime and harsh punishments; and although Dickens eventually contrives a more-or-less miraculous escape for his title character. He demonstrates life during these times for young orphans.
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 void. The meeting on London Bridge represents the collision of two worlds unlikely ever to come into contact—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.[14]
When Rose gives Nancy her handkerchief, and when Nancy holds it up as she dies, Nancy has gone over to the "good" side against the thieves.Her position on the ground is as if she is in prayer, this showing her godly or good posistion.[15]
Characters
In the tradition of Restoration Comedy and Henry Fielding, Dickens fits his characters with appropriate names. Oliver himself, although "badged and ticketed" as a lowly orphan and named according to an alphabetical system is, in fact, "all of a twist."[16] Mr. Grimwig is so called because his seemingly "grim", pessimistic outlook is actually a protective cover for his kind, sentimental soul. Other character names mark their bearers as semi-monstrous caricatures. Mrs. Mann, who has charge of the infant Oliver, is not the most motherly of women; Mr. Bumble, despite his impressive sense of his own dignity, continually mangles the berries", a reference to Mrs. Sowerberry's perpetual scowl; to Mr. Sowerberry's profession as an undertaker; and to the poor provender Oliver receives from them. Rose Maylie’s name echoes her association with flowers and springtime, youth and beauty, while Toby Crackit’s is a reference to his chosen profession–housebreaking.
Bill Sikes’s dog, Bull’s-eye, has “faults of temper in common with his owner” and is an emblem of his owner’s character. The dog’s viciousness represents Sikes’s animal-like brutality, while Sikes's self-destructiveness is evident in the dog's many scars. The dog, with its willingness to harm anyone on Sikes' whim, shows the mindless brutality of the master. Sikes himself senses that the dog is a reflection of himself and that is why he tries to drown the dog. He is really trying to run away from who he is. This is also illustrated when Sikes dies and the dog does immediately also.[17] After Sikes murders Nancy, Bull’s-eye also 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.
Dickens employs polarised sets of characters to explore various dual themes throughout the novel; Mr. Brownlow and Fagin, for example, personify 'Good vs. Evil'. Dickens also juxtaposes honest, law-abiding characters such as Oliver himself with those who, like the Artful Dodger, seem more comfortable on the wrong side of the law. 'Crime and Punishment' is another important pair of themes, as is 'Sin and Redemption': Dickens describes criminal acts ranging from picking pockets to murder (suggesting that this sort of thing went on continually in 1830's London) only to hand out punishments with a liberal hand at the end. Most obviously, he shows Bill Sikes hounded to death by a mob for his brutal acts, and sends Fagin to cower in the condemned cell, sentenced to death by due process. Neither character achieves redemption; Sikes dies trying to run away from his guilt, and on his last night alive, the terrified Fagin refuses to see a rabbi or to pray, instead asking Oliver to help him escape. Nancy, by contrast, redeems herself at the cost of her own life, and dies in a prayerful pose.
Nancy is also one of the few characters in Oliver Twist to display much ambivalence. Although she is a full-fledged criminal, indoctrinated and trained by Fagin since childhood, she retains enough empathy to repent her role in Oliver's kidnapping, and to take steps to try to atone. As one of Fagin's victims, corrupted but not yet morally dead, she gives eloquent voice to the horrors of the old man's little criminal empire. She wants to save Oliver from a similar fate; at the same time, she recoils from the idea of turning traitor, especially to Bill Sikes, whom she loves. When he was later criticised for giving a "thieving, whoring slut of the streets" such an unaccountable reversal of character, Dickens ascribed her change of heart to "the last fair drop of water at the bottom of a dried-up, weed-choked well".[18]
Film, TV, theatrical, and graphic novel adaptations
There have been many theatrical, film, television, and graphic novel adaptations of Dickens' novel:
• Beginning in 1868, Dickens himself frequently performed a dramatic reading called "Sikes and Nancy" from Oliver Twist. His family begged him to desist because he flung himself into the performance with such energy that he undermined his by-then precarious health.[19]
• Several stage versions of the novel played England and the U.S. during the nineteenth century, often to Dickens's dismay and outrage; copyright laws were not enforced strictly then, and Dickens seldom received royalties from the stage versions.
• The earliest film adaptation is a silent film made in 1909.
• A 1912 version starring Nat Goodwin as Fagin.
• A 1916 version with Tully Marshall as Fagin, Hobart Bosworth as Bill Sikes, and Marie Doro in a trouser role as Oliver.
• The 1922 film, the most famous silent version of the classic ever made, starring Jackie Coogan as Oliver and Lon Chaney, Sr. as Fagin.The film was lost for almost 50 years, until a print was rediscovered in Europe in the 1970s.[citation needed]
• A low-budget 1933 version of the novel (the first with sound), starring Irving Pichel as Fagin, Dickie Moore as Oliver Twist, and Doris Lloyd as Nancy.
• Oliver Twist, a feature film from 1948 by David Lean, starring Alec Guinness in one of his most defining roles as Fagin and Robert Newton as Bill Sikes, is still considered the classic film version.
• In 1960, Lionel Bart's musical play Oliver! opened to rave reviews in London. It became the longest-running musical there up to that time, playing six years. Producer David Merrick brought the show to the United States. The show toured nationally in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit before opening at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway on January 6, 1963, where it received less ecstatic reviews and did not run nearly as long as it did in London. The show will return to the West End in 2008.
• Lionel Bart's musical was adapted for the big screen in Oliver! (1968), it received eleven nominations and won six including the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1969. It featured Mark Lester as Oliver, Ron Moody as Fagin, Oliver Reed as Sikes, Shani Wallis as Nancy, and Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger. It received better reviews than the show had. The film also won an Oscar for its director, Sir Carol Reed. Moody and Wild were also Oscar-nominated, but did not win. This is still the only film version of the novel to receive Oscar nominations.
• George C. Scott played Fagin in a 1982 television movie.
• A 1985 BBC television drama adaptation in their Classic Serial strand, produced by Terrance Dicks and starring Eric Porter as Fagin.
• An animated interpretation by Disney called Oliver & Company (1988), inspired by Dickens, about an orphaned cat named Oliver who meets a dog called Dodger. It takes place in New York City instead of England.
• The children's television series Wishbone adapted the story for the episode "Twisted Tail".
• Another television movie version of the novel, Oliver Twist, starring Richard Dreyfuss as Fagin, was released in 1997.
• An ITV/PBS production, Oliver Twist, from 1999, adapted by Alan Bleasdale and starring Robert Lindsay as Fagin, Andy Serkis as Bill Sikes and Marc Warren as Monks, who is portrayed as a more sympathetic character in the shadow of a domineering mother whom he later murders. This makes him guilty of a worse crime than in the novel, though the mother is portrayed as a nasty piece of work herself. Monks finally settles in the Caribbean. The film adds more than an hour's worth of backstory not included in the novel focusing on Oliver's father and his relationship with his wife, son and mistress (this was its major selling point), but also drastically alters what is left.
• In 2001, Oliver Twist: A Theatrical Adaptation, was done at the Centaur theatre in Montreal ,starring James Mariotti-Lapointe as Oliver.
• The 2003 movie Twist by director Jacob Tierney is loosely based on the novel but set in modern-day Toronto with male prostitution and drugs, rather than pickpocketing.
• The renowned comic book creator, Will Eisner, disturbed by the anti-semitism in the typical depiction of Fagin, created a graphic novel in 2003 titled Fagin the Jew.In this book, the back story of the character and events of Oliver Twist are depicted from his point of view.
• Boy called Twist by director Timothy Greene (2004) is set in Cape Town, South Africa, in the street-kid scene. With its unglamorous but sympathetic account of city poverty, the film is true to Dickens' story.
• In 2005 director Roman Polanski released a new big-budget version of Oliver Twist.
• In December 2006, Twist, a new musical (with no connection to the 2003 film), with book and lyrics by Gila Sand and music by Scissor Sisters composer and collaborator Paul Leschen with Gila Sand (additional music by Garrit Guadan), opened at the Kraine Theatre in New York. The score was nominated for a 2007 Drama Desk Award to Outstanding Music (Paul Leschen with Gila Sand).
• Winter of 2007, the BBC showed a new Oliver Twist, written by Sarah Phelps and directed by Coky Giedroyc.[20]
• In the Fall of 2008 Starlight Community Theatre performed the Broadway version of Oliver starring Jacob Woolfenden as Oliver, and directed by Chris Cox.
Adaptations of the novel tend to simplify the original story. The way the book is normally interpreted on screen causes modern readers to focus on Bill Sikes as the villain. They thus fail to recognise how Fagin has trained Sikes and made him what he is; part of Dickens' message is that he might have done the same with Oliver had chance not intervened. (In Alan Bleasdale's version, Dodger is very much a younger version of Sikes).
Oliver Twist
Film ini adalah film yang diangklat dari buku fiksi karya Charles Dickens. Film ini sangat bagus sekali. Dengan setting cerita London sekitar abad 18-19.
Film ini menceritakan seorang anak kecil yatim piatu yang bernamaq Oliver Twist yang harus bekerja rodi di sebuah prabik hanya karena dia seorang anak yatim piatu. Pabrik itu banyak mempekerjakan anak-anak. Sementara itu dikalangan anak-anak pekerja itu selalu dibuat undian, siapa yang mendapat sumbu yang penek dia harus meminta makanan yang lebih kepada penjaga. Secara kebetulan yang mendapatklan sumbu itu adalah Oliver.
Akibatnya adalah jelas. Oliver akhirnya harus menerima hukuman. Dia bahkan disuri dan dijual kepada majikan yang baru, seorang penjual peti mati. Mr. Bumble. Mr. Bumble adalah seorang pria tua yang sangat takut akan istrinya. Istrinya sangat sadis dan tidak menghargai oliver sama sekali, sangat berbeda dengan suaminya. hal yang sama juga berlaku kepada anaknya yang sama dengan ibunya.
Stelah mengalami penyiksaaan, Oliver memutuskan untuk melarikan diri dari rumah itu. Dia berangkat menuju London. Butuh waktu 6 hari untuk sampai di London. Sepatunmya sudah hancur bahkan kakinya sudah mengalami luka-luka.
Di London dia mengenal dengan seorang anak yang ternyata seorang pencur yang bernama Dodger. Dodger membawa Oliver ke rumahnya dan diperkenalkan dengan anak-anak yang lain. Di rumah itu Oliver diajari oleh Fagin, pria tua pemimpin pencuri anak-anak, untuk menjadi seorang pencuri.
Saat oliver dirasa sudah siap, maka Oliver dilepas bersama Dodger dan Charley. Saat mereka berdua menjalankan aksinya, aksi pencurian itu ketahuan. Oliver yang tidak tahu apa-apa langsung dikejar-kejar banyak orang.Akhirnya Oliver dibawa ke pengadilan.
Beruntung sang pemilik tko buku, Mr. Brownlow, menjelaskan bahwa bukan Oliver yang mencuri hingga Oliver lepas dari tuduhan. Oliver yang terluka dan jatuh pingsan akhirnya dibawa ke rumah Mr. Brownlow. Disana dia dirawat. Mr. Brownlow melihat bahwa dalam diri Oliver Twist ada keluguan dan kebaikan, karena itu dia mempercayai Oliver, hal yangat ditertawakan oleh temannya, mengingat oliver berasal dari jalanan.
Disisi lain, Fagin menyuruh nancy untuk mencari tahu keberadaan Oliver. Setelah mengetahui bahwa Oliver dibawa ke rumah Mr.Brownlow, maka mereka mengamati kompleks perumahan itu. Dan disaat ada kesempatan, waktu Oliver ditugaskan untuk menyerahkan setumpuk buiku dan uang hutang untuk diserahkan oleh pengantar buku, maka mereka berhasil menangkap oliver kembali.
Oliver kembali terjebak dalam kehidupan bersama orang-orang gila itu. Bahkan kemudian Bill serta temannya, membawa Oliver untuk mencuri di rumah Mr. Brownlow. Sia-sia Oliver untuk meminta agar dilepaskan dan tidak diajank untuk mencuri rumah Mr.Brownlow, mereka tetap mencuri.
Tapi sebelum aksi itu terjadi, sang pemilik rumah berhasil mengetahui keadaan ini. Oliver yang membangkan akhirnya ditembak oleh Bill hingga akhirnya terluka. Bill segera membawa oliuver keluar dari rumah itu. Oliver segera diserahkan kembali ke tempat Fagin.
Bill melihat bahwa Oliver akan mendatangkan masalah bagi mereka, bahkan umungkin akan membawa mereka ke tiang gantungan. Karena itu mereka menjalankan siasat untuk membunuh bill di sungai segera setelah Bill sehat dan Oliver pulih dari sakitnya.
Hanya saja Nancy mengetahui rencan ini. Dia tidak ingin Oliver yang lugu iotu mati begitu saja. karena itu dia membuat janji dengan Mr. Brownlow untuk bertemu di jembatan London tengah malam. Tingkah laku Nancy yang mencurigakan membuat Fagin menyuruh Dodger untuk memata-matai Nancy.
Di jembatan itu nancy mengatakan apa yang dia katakan, dia tidak menyangka bahwa semua pembicaraaan mereka telah didengar oleh Dodger. Dodger segera melaporkan semua itu kepada Fagin dan Bill. Fagin dan semua anak buahnya segera bersiap-siap. Sementara itu bill yang sangat marah segera mencari nancy dan akhirnya menganiaya Nancy hingga tewas
berita kematian nancy segera termuat di koran-koran, membuat Fagin dan komplotannya bersembunyi. Sementara itu Bill sudah melarikan diri dari London. Penampilan Bill sangat mudah diketahui mengingat dia selalu ditemani oleh anjing putih yang galak. Untuk menghilangkan jejak, Bill mencuba membunuh anjingnya itu, tapi anjingnya keburu untuk melarikan diri.
Bill kemudian mendatangi tempat persembunyian Fagin untuk meminta uang darinya, tapi anjing Bill muncul dan membawa polisi ke tempat fagin. Bill akhirnya tewas terbunuh, sementara Fagin harus mendekam di penjara , Oliver sendiri akhirnya tinggal di tempat Mr. Brownlow.
Film ini cukup bagus dalam menggambarkan kehidupan kota besar london pada abad 19. Kehidupan yang kumuh, ditambah dengan kehidupan pekerja pada masa awal revolusi industri yang membuat anak-anak seperti budak karena harus bekerja keras.
Kostum yang sangat dip[akei pun sangat pas dengan seting cerita, tidak ditambah-tambahi agar terlihat elegan. Begitu juga dengan masyarakat sosialnya,. misalnya para wanita yang sangat gemuk dengan buah dada yang besar. Para wanita jaman dulu memang cantik bukan karena berbadan ramping, tapi bertubuh besar dengan alat reproduksi yang besar. Yang jelas, film ini sangat baik untuk ditonton, apalagi didukuing dengan nama besar Charles Dicken sebagai salah satu pengarang yang masyur di dunia.
