Oliver Twist & The Industrial Revolution: Using Art To Fight Social Injustice

Over the many years since the publishing of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist in 1838, many have come to know it as not only art but also as an account of the social and economic problems of the industrial revolution. Along with his other works, he would eventually inspire others to put an end to child labour, one of the most horrific examples of human exploitation that went on in the industrial revolution.

Ernst Fischer, a renowned Austrian artist of the 19th century once said that, "In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it for the better."

This classic book praises the purity and health of the rural environment and claims outright that even a lifelong city-dweller has in his blood a chance to better himself and society as a whole. "Who can describe the pleasure and delight, the peace of mind and soft tranquility, the sickly boy felt in the balmy air and among the green hills and rich woods of an inland village! Who can tell how scenes of peace and quietude sink into the minds of pain-worn dwellers in close and noisy places, and carry their own freshness deep into their jaded hearts! 

Men who have lived in crowded, pent-up streets, through lives of toil, and who have never wished for change--men to whom custom has indeed been second nature, and who have come almost to love each brick and stone that formed the narrow boundaries of their daily walks--even they, with the hand of death upon them, have been known to yearn at last for one short glimpse of Nature's face, and, carried far from the scenes of their old pains and pleasures, have seemed to pass at once into a new state of being." Dickens goes on to note that, in the country, even "the poor people" are "neat and clean." 

What is the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, and the development of machine tools. It also included the change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal. Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested; the textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and spread to Western Europe and the United States within a few decades. The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes GDP per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy, while the Industrial Revolution began an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist economies. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals, plants and fire.

The First Industrial Revolution evolved into the Second Industrial Revolution in the transition years between 1840 and 1870, when technological and economic progress continued with the increasing adoption of steam transport (steam-powered railways, boats and ships), the large-scale manufacture of machine tools and the increasing use of machinery in steam powered factories.

Now let’s talk about how Industrial Revolution plays its role in Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist & The Industrial Revolution Child labour played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. In 1860, perhaps only half a children in London who actually had any schooling. Many children worked 16-hour days under atrocious conditions, as did their parents. As more people commuted to town to work, the demand for clothes and food grew. There were more things needed as the cities grew. More and more machines were beings built in factories and with that, the companies needed cheap labour.

In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens describes some issues that occurred during the Industrial Revolution: children of the poor were forced by economic conditions to work, some kids were used as commodities, and there was a great difference between the first, middle, and third classes. Some parents sent their kids to work because they did not have enough money to support the family. Kids were being paid 3s (shillings) a week. If there were no work available at the factory kids would just go back to the farm, or others would end up going on the streets and becoming prostitutes.  
Most prostitutes were between the ages of 15 and 22 years old during the Industrial Revolution. In Oliver Twist, the character Nancy is a prostitute. She had no education and the only means of getting money was if she was on the street. Dickens was showing the times of the Industrial Revolution, and through this, the story seems very real. During the Industrial Revolution, kids were used as possessions. In the beginning of the novel, Oliver is used to pick oakum. He lives in an orphanage where the kids are used as slaves. They were sold door to door to the right buyer. In chapter III, Oliver's future darkens when Mr. Gamfield, a chimney sweep, applies to take the boy. Mr. Gamfield cares so little about Oliver, that he does not care if the chimney catches on fire, as long as Oliver does his job. 

With the rise of capitalism during the Industrial Revolution, individualism was very much in vogue as a philosophy. Victorian capitalists believed that society would run most smoothly if individuals looked out for their own interests. Ironically, the clearest pronunciation of this philosophy comes not from a legitimate businessman but from Fagin, who operates in the illicit businesses of theft and prostitution.

He tells Noah Claypole that “a regard for number one holds us all together, and must do so, unless we would all go to pieces in company.” In other words, the group’s interests are best maintained if every individual looks out for “number one,” or himself. The folly of this philosophy is demonstrated at the end of the novel, when Nancy turns against Monks, Charley Bates turns against Sikes, and Monks turns against Mrs. Corney. Fagin’s unstable family, held together only by the self-interest of its members, is juxtaposed to the little society formed by Oliver, Brownlow, Rose Maylie, and their many friends. This second group is bound together not by concerns of self-interest but by “strong affection and humanity of heart,” the selfless devotion to each other that Dickens sees as the prerequisite for “perfect happiness”.

“So they established the rule that all poor people should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they) of being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With this view, they contracted with the waterworks to lay on an unlimited supply of water, and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small quantities of oatmeal, and issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week and half a roll on Sundays. They made a great many other wise and humane regulations . . . kindly undertook to divorce poor married people . . . instead of compelling a man to support his family, as they had theretofore done, took his family away from him, and made him a bachelor! There is no saying how many applicants for relief, under these last two heads, might have started up in all classes of society, if it had not been coupled with the workhouse; but the board were long-headed men, and had provided for this difficulty. The relief was inseparable from the workhouse and the gruel, and that frightened people.”

Cold Reality of Workhouses Depicted in Oliver Twist :-

Charles Dickens realistically portrayed the horrible conditions of the 19th century workhouses in his novel Oliver Twist.  Dickens attempted to improve the workhouse conditions and as a result, his novel helped influence changes in the problem. Not only is child's labour a crime in our society today, but Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" instigated the abolishment of such practices.

I guess Oliver Twist isn't just a book anymore to you right? Please drop a comment below.