London as a Corrupting Force: Street Life, Class, and Crime in Oliver Twist

Abstract

[eng] Oliver Twist (1838) entails the adventures of an orphan child in the city of London. Oliver is trapped by a criminal organisation and he is brought to live the worst of his times in the city. At the same time, Oliver’s experiences with the criminals serve to present the binary society in which early eighteenth-century London was organised. This paper provides a study of how the urban metropolis, defined as a mighty maze, is presented as a crime-ridden force that corrupts the young protagonist adventures through the harassment that Oliver suffers by the pickpocket gang. Additionally, the way in which the metropolis defines the inhabitants belonging to the poor classes is conveyed by the author in order to show how the city defined their identity as group. This work belongs to the frame of critical analysis of a literary work, paying attention to street life, class, and crime in London at the time that are key to analyse this work. The connection present in metropolitan London during the industrial period between the city as a modern place and the way its population behaves will be explored, as well as how depending on which background the characters come from condition their lifestyles and their perception of the city.