Skip to main content

Oliver Twist.

Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens.


Plot Overview-
In this novel Oliver is an orphan child, who born in a workhouse in a small town near London in the early part of 19th century. His mother died immediately after his birth. Nobody knows who she was. It was clear that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Oliver lived in a “Child Farm” and brought up here until he is 8 years old. At the age of eight the Parish official running the child farm decided that it is time to start working. So at the age of 8 years, an orphan child has to start working. Then Oliver also sends to work house. At the working house Oliver ask for more foods with famous quotation:

“Please sir, I want some more.”

At the orphan house Oliver made some misbehave, Oliver commits the unpardonable offense of asking for more food when he is close to starving. So the parish officials offer five pounds to anyone who is willing to take Oliver on as an apprentice. Here authority got some persons who wanted to, adopt him and took Oliver to his home. The parish officials eventually send Oliver off with a coffin-maker. Here, At the coffin-maker’s shop, Oliver got good food, Good clothes and batter condition of living life. At the coffin-maker’s shop, Oliver is treated much better than he was at the workhouse or the child farm. The coffin-maker, Mr. Sowerberry, isn’t so bad, but his wife, Mrs. Sowerberry, and the other apprentice, Noah Claypole, have it in for Oliver from the start.  Noah told something bad about mother of Oliver, so he got angry and both of the fought. Oliver badly beat Noah. Oliver gets in trouble for knocking Noah down. After being abused some more, Oliver decides to set out for London on foot.
Now Oliver ran away from that family and went to London. When he’s almost there, he runs into an odd-looking young man named Jack Dawkins. He Dodger buys him lunch and offers to introduce him to a "gentleman" in London who will give him a place to stay. Once in London, it quickly becomes clear to the reader that the Dodger and his friends are an unsavory bunch. Then Dodger introduces Oliver with Fagin. Fagin was a inhuman and cunning person. The old "gentleman," Fagin, trains kids to be pickpockets, and then he sells off what they steal. But Oliver doesn’t Realize what’s up until he’s actually out with the Dodger and another one of the boys, named Charley Bates. Oliver sees the pair steal the pocket handkerchief out of a nice-looking old man's pocket.
 When Oliver turns to run away, the nice-looking old man sees him run and yells, "stop, thief!" Oliver is tackled in the street, but by then the nice old man - his name is Mr. Brownlow has taken a better look at him.  He realized that Oliver looks too sweet and innocent to be a pickpocket. In fact, Oliver isn’t so much a pick-pocket as he is a very sick little boy. So Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver home and cares for him until he’s well. Unfortunately Fagin, the Dodger, Nancy (a prostitute), and Bill Sikes (another criminal) are worried that Oliver will rat them out to the police, so they keep a watch on Brownlow’s house.


One day, when Brownlow entrusts Oliver with some money and an errand to run in the city, Fagin and the criminals nab the poor kid once again. Nancy feels guilty and steps in to defend Oliver when Fagin tries to smack him around. Fagin keeps Oliver shut up in a dreary old house for weeks, all the while still trying to turn him into a criminal. How long can a Nine-year-old hold out?  Not long afterwards, Bill Sikes and another thief say they need a small boy to help them break into a house outside of London; Fagin volunteers Oliver. The plan goes awry when the servants of the house wake up and catch Oliver in the act of sneaking in. The servants don’t realize that Oliver is there against his will, and was actually about to wake up the household to warn them about the robbers. So poor Oliver takes a bullet and is left behind when the rest are all running away. Fortunately, Oliver is picked up by the people who shot him, a family that turns out to be as nice as Mr. Brownlow. 

 They become Oliver’s caretakers. Meanwhile, Fagin is at his wits’ end wondering what happened to Oliver. He lets slip that a mysterious man named Monks offered to pay him hundreds of pounds to corrupt the young boy. Nancy pretends not to know what’s going on, but secretly resolves to help Oliver, and to figure out why Monks is so keen on having Oliver turn to crime. While Fagin and the criminals distress, Oliver learns to read and write with his new friends, the Maylies. He's also reunited with his first friend, Mr. Brownlow. Fagin and his gang are still trying to track Oliver down. Monks has managed to get hold of and destroy  one of the few surviving tokens of Oliver’s parentage. Nancy finds out about it and gets in touch with Rose Maylie to warn her about Monks’s plot with Fagin.

 Unfortunately for Nancy, Bill Sikes (her lover) finds out about it and brutally murders her. Sikes tries to escape, but he’s haunted by what he’s done. Eventually, he's killed while trying to escape from the police: he falls off a rooftop while he’s trying to lower himself down, and inadvertently hangs himself.  Meanwhile, Mr. Brownlow has managed to find Monks. Mr. Brownlow was an old friend of Monks’ father and knows all about him. As it turns out, Monks is actually the older half-brother of Oliver, and was trying to corrupt Oliver so that he’d secure the entire family inheritance himself. Monks chooses to admit to everything rather than face the police.  Oliver ends up with what’s left of his inheritance, is legally adopted by Mr. Brownlow, and lives down the road from the Maylies. Everybody lives happily ever after. Except for Fagin, who is arrested and hanged, and Monks, who dies in prison.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Palanquin Bearers.

Palanquin Bearers-  Sarojini Naidu. Summary. Palanquin bearers is a melodious poem. The poem describes the scene of a bride being carried on a palanquin. The poem generates images of royal wives being carried on a palanquin to their husbands house. The men who carried the palanquin felt that their job was special and did it with much happiness. The similies in the poem point to the fact that the men did not feel that their job was tiresome. Some examples of the same are, 'Softly, O softly we bear her along', 'She hangs like a star in the dew of our song' and 'Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing'. Palanquin bearers is melodious and one of the most appealing poems of Sarojni Naidu. The poem describes the beauty of the bride while she is being carried in a palanquin. We are reminded of one of the ancient customs of carrying royal brides in India in decorated carriages to their husband’s home. Occasionally, the men of the royal families would trav

The Dance of the Eunuchs.

The Dance of the Eunuchs - Kamala Das. Summary- Included in the collection Summer in Calcutta(1965), 'Dance of the Eunuchs' is one of the most remarkable poems of Kamala Das. This is another autobiographical poem written in confessional style that symbolically portrays the poetess's personal melancholy in her own life.  'Dance of the Eunuchs' vividly conjures up the atmosphere of a hot, tortured, corrupt, sterile and barren world through vivid symbols and images. The dance of the eunuchs whose joyless life reflects the poet‘s fractured personality is a noticeable piece of autobiographical poetry. Kamala Das has vividly visualized the world of vacant ecstasy and sterility through numerous functional images and symbols in her poetry. In fact Eunuchs try to eke out a livelihood by dancing. Their dancing is mechanical and painful. The conditions and the climate are forbidding. The spectators are merciless. Even God seems to add their woes. The eunuchs

Old Stone Mansion.

Old Stone Mansion – Mahesh Elkunchwar. Plot Overview- The play, Wada Chirebandi, begins on the fifth day after the demise of Tatyaji (Venkatesh) the patriarch of the Deshpande family of Dharangaon. Dharangaon is a small hamlet in the interiors of   Maharashtra where the influences of commercial Bombay has slowly spread its tentacles. The play begins with Aai, the widow of Tatyaji, awaiting the arrival of her second son Sudhir and his wife Anjali from Bombay, to attend the 13th day rites. In the meantime, the eldest son Bhaskar and his wife, Vahini, has taken over the reins of the family by taking charge of the two objects of command, the keys and the ancestral jewellery box. Been a traditional Brahmin family, Bhaskar intends to conduct the rituals in full traditional fanfare even when the family has fallen in difficult lines.   Bhaskar expects Sudhir to bear the expenses, as his image of someone from a big city is that of been financially well off, while Sudhir