MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI BHAVNAGAR
UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Enrollment number: 2069108420200018
Batch year: 2019-21
Victorian Literature
The limits of Justice:
Oliver Twist
Presented by: Ruchi Joshi
ruchivjoshi101@gmail.com

Social justice at the center
Critique
of social
evil
Poor
houses
Industrial
horror
Power
politics
Underworld
Greedy
management
Prominent
three
the abuses of the
new Poor Law
system
the evils of the
criminal world
in London
the
victimization of
children

Charles Dickens
(Oliver Twist)
‘Although I am not disposed to
maintain that the being born in a
workhouse, is in itself the most
fortunate and enviable
circumstance that can possibly
befall a human being, I do mean to
say that in this particular instance,
it was the best thing for Oliver
Twist that could by possibility have
occurred.’

Justice at the end
Murder of Nancy
Fagin and his gang
Brownlow
adopted Oliver
Dickens was keen
observer and satirist.
If he presents facts
through fiction how
he shows social evils
& limitations of social
justice?
Want to bring
‘upbringing by
showing
decrement’

Can justice be read as a blind
representation?
‘Would be to attempt
something that is
needed, and which
would be a service to
society.’
-Charles Dickens
Is Dickens bring social
justice at the end of the
novel or wants to signify
something beyond ?

End of Fagin & member of his gang
• Death of Sikes
• All members of Fagin’s were
caught including Fagin caught
into prison
Mob Mentality
Institutional Cruelty
Powerlessness

Oliver’s end with Mr. Brownlow
Legally accepted, here the
word ‘accepted’ also is not
right way of saying because it
doesn’t question why poor are
rejected but it is in favor of
elite class.
It is good that Brownlow
adopted Oliver but how &
why he adopted means the
process is highly
problematic.
Is Oliver really at the center in
the novel that bears his name?

Dickens does not give social justice as it is nearly
impossible but he encodes limits of social justice
but satires upon
• Good attitudes can overcome evil intentions, even in the
time of darkness but question is that still someone will be
seen if one has a wealth of material or not!
• From this step, the social class gap happens in the
society.

What about
other
characters &
orphans of
the novel?
Is it possible
that there is
certainly one
Brownlow for
each Oliver?
Are poor
only
responsible
for their
poverty?
Why
underworld
exists is any
reason like
they don’t
like upper
world?
Industrialists
blame workers they
are fool, not
intelligent and
scrimshanked but
what about
industrialist horror
which has taken
away their bread?
Limit of social justice

Work Cited
• DICKENS, CHARLES. OLIVER TWIST. SIMON & BROWN, 2018.
• Goldie , Morgentaler. “Dickens and the Aesthetics of Death.” Penn State
Universi https://www.jstor.org/stable/44372007 .
• Ratna , Wulandari. Social Injustice Issues as Reflected in Charles Dickens
... www.researchgate.net/publication/332170691_Social_Injustice_Issues_
as_Reflected_in_Charles_Dickens_Oliver_Twist_A_Sociological_Approac
h.