Charles Dickens Great Expectations And Oliver Twist

People tend to naively see orphans and those without caring families as hopeless and loveless creatures. However, the benevolence of strangers can easily prove such thoughts wrong as people can provide an abundance of support and love to those with no blood relation to them and can embrace strangers as family. Charitable strangers can also teach children to act with benevolence and give them an honorable role model to follow. These acts of kindness can drastically change the character of the poor child. In Charles Dickens’ two novels, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, Dickens challenges the conventional idea of parentage and suggests that through generosity anyone can become a guardian and have a major impact on the emerging†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, when Oliver, once again, falls ill and appears to have committed a crime, strangers nurture him back to health and tend to him like family. Oliver is â€Å"eager to serve [Rose and Mrs. Maylie] with his whole heart and soul† after he realizes that â€Å"their charity had rescued [him] from misery, or death,† demonstrating how much of a positive impact people can have regardless of their blood relation to someone (Oliver Twist 294). The altruism of Rose and Mrs. Maylie inspires Oliver to act selflessly, cleansing the orphan of the evil that Fagin had begun to instill within him. Mr. Bumble predicts Oliver will hang and the other street urchins see him as a willing assistant to their capers; however, through the moral guidance of Rose, Mrs. Maylie, and the housekeeper, Oliver remains untainted by crime, epitomizing the power of magnanimity on even a vagrant child. Overall, through the compassion shown by the two women, readers see how loving strangers can still rear a child and save him or her from corruption. Orphans or those in dysfunctional families can still have a proper upbringing by someone who cares for them, even if those people are not blood relatives. In Dickens’ Great Expectations, Pip has no family to care for him but an uncompassionate sister; however, he still receives good moral and practical guidance from others around him: â€Å"I [Pip] reflected thatShow MoreRelatedImportance Of Children In The Victorian Era1669 Words   |  7 Pagesera were raised and perceived as adults. In the story Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens wrote about a young orphan raised in a workhouse, where he was abused and overworked. Charles Dickens displayed in his literature how Victorian children were thrown around and were looked as nothing more than workers. He focused on this because he wanted to show how children were treated, and how people during that time did not see it as wrong. Charles Dickens revealed ways in which children in the Victorian era whoRead MoreThe Evidence Of Unbound Loy alty1746 Words   |  7 PagesEvidence of Unbound Loyalty in Oliver Twist As young Oliver, ill-treated and hungry, approaches his masters saying â€Å"Please, sir, I want some more† (Dickens 11), Charles Dickens enthralls his readers in the harsh, twisted journey of Oliver Twist. Through a series of exciting events full of abuse, loyalty, hatred, and love, Dickens portrays the overlooked difficulties of the poor, lower class that Oliver Twist’s action-packed life has been subject to. Some of Dickens most loved characters, includingRead MoreCharles Dickens : The Greatest Author Of His Time Essay1885 Words   |  8 PagesMarch 2016 Charles Dickens Charles Dickens is often regarded as the greatest author of his time. His works are notorious for engaging the popular imagination with its comic elements, memorable characters, and highly detailed rendering of life in Victorian England. 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