“BOY FOR SALE”

Sixth group Discussion

by Charles Dickens
 SUMMARY
Oliver Twist is a crime story by Charles Dickens set in England during Poor Law
Amendment Act. The New Poor law was a piece of legislation to deal with
unemployment and the cost of poor relief.

DISCUSSION
Class Work and Discussion Question 6-10
6. Sometimes Dickens sounds....
7. What, would you say, are the
8. Consider the first paragraph of....
9. Compare Mr. Gamfield with....
10. People complain that Oliver Twist.... FIRST
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6. Sometimes Dickens sounds amused and detached; sometimes intensely
angry. Where in this extract does he seem to you to be most angry? What
other emotions are conveyed?

“You’re a rough speaker, my friend,

but you look an honest, open-
hearted man,’ said the old
gentleman: turning his spectacles in
the direction of the candidate for
Oliver’s premium, whose villainous
countenance was a regular stamped
receipt for cruelty. But the
magistrate was half blind and half
childish, so he couldn’t reasonably
be expected to discern what other
people did.” (p. 50)

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7. What, would you say, are the main targets of Dickens’s attack in this
passage? Is it possible to discern a main method of attack, or has Dickens
various ways of going to work?

“For a week after the commission of

the impious and profane offence of
asking for more, Oliver remained a
close prisoner in the dark and
solitary room to which he had been
consigned by the wisdom and mercy
of the board” (p. 42).

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8. Consider the first paragraph of the extract in the light of questions 4 and 6.
You will notice a distinct difference in tone in the latter part of the paragraph.
Can you point to where the change of tone occurs? Can you say what it is
about the latter part that makes it a quiet different type of writing from the
earlier?
“He only cried bitterly all day; and,
when the long, dismal night came
on, spread his little hands before his
eyes to shut out the darkness, and
crouching in the corner, tried to
sleep: ever and anon waking with a
start and tremble, and drawing
himself closer and closer to the wall,
as if to feel even its cold hard
surface were a protection in the
gloom and loneliness which
surrounded him” (p. 43).

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9. Compare Mr. Gamfield with Mr. Squeers (Chapter I). To what extent is
Dickens trying to achieve the same effect in both portrayals? Is Mr. Gamfield
amusing? Horrifying? Horrifying enough?

• “As Mr. Gamfield did happen to

labor under the slight imputation
of having bruised three or four
boys to death already” (p. 46).
• “—rather than send him away
with that dreadful man” (p. 51).

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10. People complain that Oliver Twist himself isn’t interesting enough. What
would be your comment on that?

The sad story about an orphan boy

named Oliver Twist. It is depicted
mostly in the whole of story that
Oliver always experienced the bad
lucks even from his birth.

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