Montreal Dickens Fellowship Study Questions: “Oliver Twist”
Westmount Public Library
March 4, 2014 2:30-4:30
Chapters 33-40
- Rose Maylie has some “blemish” on her past that would be a hindrance to Harry’s success in society. Can you guess what this might be? Even Mr. Brownlow refuses to reveal why he went abroad, adding more mystery. Dickens teases us by slowly revealing small pieces of information. Discuss.
- Did Oliver really see Fagin and Monks? Why is there no trace of them?
- Dickens’s sister-in-law died suddenly of a heart aneurysm (supposedly in his arms) while Dickens was writing “Oliver Twist”. Do you think that writing about Rose Maylie’s illness and recovery gave Dickens an outlet for his grief and a fantasy about a recovery that in real life was never to be? It is said she lived on as a “perfect” seventeen year old in many of his female characters throughout his novels. Comment.
- Do you think Rose is justified in turning down Harry? Do you think Harry is justified in using Oliver as a secret correspondent?
- Dickens hilariously uses a paper fly cage as a metaphor for Mr. Bumble’s marriage. He often described henpecked husbands and overbearing wives, but with the Bumbles he takes it to a new extreme of husband abuse, both physical and mental. Do you think this was purely for comic relief in this ever so dark novel, or might this reflect, in part, his own parents’ situation, where his father was weak with money and his mother was a strong character?
- Do you agree with Dickens that bullies are cowards and vice-versa?
- Describe how the setting of the meeting between the Bumbles and Monks with its darkness, dangerousness, vermin, cut-throats, pestilence and danger of falling into the river (very reminiscent of the old Blacking factory on Hungerford stairs where Dickens worked as a child) adds enormously to the mood and tone of the evil deeds done there.
- What do you think of Sike’s treatment of Nancy? And of her response to it? Do you think he loves her? Does she love him? Is she a true heroine?
- Dickens often portrays the lower classes as exhibiting behavior similar to fashionable society. The same debasing of values and self-esteem occur in order to cow-tow to the fashionable and attain status by association. Discuss in terms of the thieves’ card game.
- Many scenes in “Oliver Twist” appear theatrically staged with the “cast” making entrances and exits. (e.g.: the last scene of Chapter 40) Discuss.