Abstract Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realists in English literature history. Oliver Twist is one of his early masterpieces. As is known to all, Oliver’s miserable experience is based on Charles Dickens’ own experience. Different from William Thackeray who wrote the famous novel Vanity Fair, Dickens is familiar with the life of lower class, which results in his better understanding of virtue and vice of the lower class. Through the portrayal of the various characters, it exposes good and evil aspect of humanity. This paper aims to analyze the various characters and the writing background to express the perception that virtue is rewarded and vice punished .59073

Keywords: Charles Dickens; virtue; vice

摘要 查尔斯·狄更斯是英国文学史上最伟大的批判现实主义作家之一。《雾都孤儿》是他的早期的杰作之一。奥利弗悲惨境遇是基于狄更斯的亲身经历。与写作了《名利场》的威廉·萨克雷不同，狄更斯对底层人民生活很熟悉，因此他对于底层人民的善恶有更深的理解。通过塑造不同的人物形象，揭露了19世纪中期英国人性的善恶。本文旨在通过分析书中人物和写作背景来表达出观点：善有善报，恶有恶报。

毕业论文关键词：查尔斯·狄更斯；善；恶

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. Representatives of Virtue from Oliver Twist 2

3.1 Mr.Brownlow 2

3.2 Mr.Rose 3

3.3 Mrs.Nancy 4

4. Representatives of Vice from Oliver Twist 5

4.1 Mr.Bumble 5

4.2 Mr. Fagin 6

4.3 Mrs. Nancy 6

5. Causes of Dickens’ View of Virtue and Vice 7

5.1 The background in Britain in the Mid 19th century 7

5.2 Charles Dickens’ personal reasons 9

6. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction 

     During the 19th century in Britain, there were springing up lots of famous writers, including some female writers. These writers were concerned about the whole society on all sides. Some explored the relationship between marriage and love; some tried to evoke the sense of equality; others might devote themselves to assisting the people in need. In a world, they were inclined to show solicitude to the dark side of society.   

     As a member of these fantastic novelists, Charles Dickens also had a strong tendency to pay more attention to the lower class. Obviously, most of his novels were related to the bottom society, such as Hard Times, A Tale of Two cities, especially the book Oliver Twist I am ready to make a research on. On the contrary, there were also other writers focusing on the other class. William Thackeray was another typical representative. His novel Vanity Fair showed the decadent life among the people of upper class. Therefore, we can have an overall knowledge of British people’s life from the description of the writers. 源[自*优尔^`论\文'网·www.youerw.com/

2. Literature Review

As we all know, in this novel Oliver Twist, Dickens pays closely attention to the lower class, which differs from William Makepeace Thackeray’ s novel Vanity Fair. Faced with the differences, many commentators at home and abroad have spoken out their views. Vanity Fair is mainly about a story along the pilgrim's route: a never-ending fair held in a town that is called Vanity, representing man's sinful attachment to worldly things. However，Oliver Twist is aimed at expressing Dickens's unromantic portrayal of criminals and their contemptible lives, as well as exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid–nineteenth century.