Oliver Twist By

Charles Dickens Lesson 1

LO: To find out background information about the

Victorian era to help you place Oliver Twist in a

social and historical context

7/02/1812

9/06/1870

This includes historical information on workhouses and life in

Victorian London, helping you to develop a picture of what Britain

was really like at the time. Using this historical information, you can

contrast the lives of rich and poor during Victoria's reign and

consider how Dickens' novel reflects this.

Oliver’s London

Paired work:

• Research about Oliver’s London, Rich and Poor, about

Dickens on the website www.filmeducation.org .

• Make notes for each topic and try to analyse what you

found out by comparing with today’s society:

Examples:

• Oliver’s London vs. Teacher’s London

• Rich & Poor in Victorian times vs. Rich & Poor

today

Plenary Lesson 1

Answer questions correctly to avoid the three

terrible fates that await you. If you don't know the

correct answer then you can take a guess but be

careful: if you fail to answer enough questions

correctly this orphan's story may not have a happy

ending!

Play the game

Lesson 2

LO: To explore a range of

themes contained within the text

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often

universal ideas explored in a literary work.

• The Failure of Charity

• Purity in a Corrupt City

• The Countryside Idealized

The Failure of Charity

• Much of the first part of Oliver Twist challenges the organizations of

charity run by the church and the government in Dickens’s time.

• Poor could only receive government assistance if they moved into

government workhouses. Residents of those workhouses were

essentially prisoners whose rights were severely reduced by a host

of difficult regulations. Work was required, families were almost

always separated, and rations of food and clothing were miserable.

The workhouses operated on the principle that poverty was the

consequence of laziness and that the dreadful conditions in the

workhouse would inspire the poor to better their own circumstances.

Purity in a Corrupt City

Throughout the novel, Dickens confronts the question of whether the

terrible environments he portrays have the power to “blacken [the soul]

and change its hue for ever.” By examining the fates of most of the

characters, we can assume that his answer is that they do not. Certainly,

characters like Sikes and Fagin seem to have sustained permanent

damage to their moral sensibilities. Charley Bates maintains enough of a

sense of decency to try to capture Sikes. Oliver is above any corruption,

though the novel removes him from unhealthy environments. Most telling

of all is Nancy, who, though she considers herself “lost almost beyond

redemption,” ends up making the ultimate sacrifice for a child she hardly

knows. In contrast, Monks, perhaps the novel’s most inhuman villain, was

brought up amid wealth and comfort.

The Countryside Idealized

All the injustices and privations suffered by the poor in Oliver Twist occur

in cities—either the great city of London or the provincial city where Oliver

is born. When the Maylies take Oliver to the countryside, he discovers a

“new existence.” Dickens states that even people who have spent their

entire lives in “close and noisy places” are likely, in the last moments of

their lives, to find comfort in half--imagined memories “of sky, and hill

and plain.” Moreover, country scenes have the potential to “purify our

thoughts” and erase some of the vices that develop in the city. Hence, in

the country, “the poor people [are] so neat and clean,” living a life that is

free of the dirtiness that torments their urban counterparts. Oliver and his

new family settle in a small village at the novel’s end, as if a happy ending

would not be possible in the city.

Task: Diary entry

Describe the life

in the city.

Consider the

advantages and

disadvantages:

Date:……………

Living in London

Every morning I wake up hearing some sort of

noises, but being still half asleep, I cannot

figure out what those noises are. When the

alarm goes off I realise I woke up 30 minutes

earlier than I should have and probably

thanks to the noises coming into my room…

Plenary Lesson 2

Read your diary entry and conclude how many

of us like living in a city and how many wished

to have lived in a rural place.

Structure Lesson 3

Objectives:

• Reading: To learn how structure is a

crucial part of the writing process.

• Writing: To construct a timeline to plot

the main events of ‘Oliver Twist’.

What is Structure?

Word Association

Think of the word structure.

What comes into your mind?

A building? A large tower? A bridge?

Maybe someone building or

creating something

What is Structure?

If you search for the word structure in

Google images you find a wide range of

pictures:

Structure

What is Structure?

So what does the word structure mean?

Look again at some of the images from

Google. What do they all have in common?

Building

Many of the images show buildings. From Stonehenge

and the Great Wall of China to the Empire State Building

the pictures display man made creations. The Oxford

Dictionary defines structure as: ‘the way something is

constructed or organised’ and explains that the word

derives from the Latin struere meaning build.

Building in English

Just like the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower

writing requires structure. Before any of the structures

below were built they would have been carefully

thought out and a plan would have been drawn up.

TTYP: Why would that have been incredibly important?

What could happen if the builders did not use a plan?

Structuring Writing

Just like the Eiffel Tower would have collapsed without

being built to a plan your writing requires careful thought

and planning otherwise it will fall apart.

But how do I

plan a piece of

writing?

Actually, it’s pretty easy once

you know a few simple rules

Chronological Sequencing

Chronological is the structure found most frequently in

writing. It means placing events in the order in which

they happened.

Below are a few facts about the life of Charles Dickens.

Can you put them into chronological order?

Published Oliver Twist in 1838

Died of a stroke in 1870

Father sent to prison in 1824

Born in Portsmouth in 1812

Almost killed in a train crash in 1865

Timeline

Task:

Produce a timeline for Oliver Twist. Use an

A3 page. As you read through the website,

list key events along the timeline that cause

happened in the 19th century Britain.

Sir Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police

1829

Oliver Twist is one of the most widely read and best loved

books in the history of English literature, but what do you

know about it? You may have read it or seen a film or theatre

version. Jot down what you already know about the story.

Oliver Twist

Oliver

Twist

Rich &

Poor

"Please, sir, I

want some

more."!

Oliver Twist

Plenary Lesson 3

Consolidate understanding of key terms:

1. Structure

2. Planning

3. Chronological order

Volunteers give a fun, concise chronological

account. (E.G: their life story in 60 seconds, a

famous person’s biography in less than a minute)

Lesson

4

Infer

and

Deduce

Oliver Twist

Who is Oliver Twist?

Presenting

Characters

Objectives:

• To learn how to infer and deduce

information about character from a text

• To understand how to use Point ->

Evidence when writing about characters

Infer and Deduce Look at this picture very

carefully. What can you

see?

We all see different things

when we look at an image

or read a book. Being able

to infer and deduce is about

looking closely and picking

up clues that tell us more

about the character or plot.

What can you see?

What can you see?

Infer & Deduce

What does the picture

below suggest about

Oliver Twist?

What does this

image tell us about his

where he lives?

Look carefully at

this Victorian

illustration.

What can you infer

and deduce from it

about Oliver Twist?

Infer & Deduce

Oliver Twist

What are your first impressions of Oliver Twist?

Write down 5 adjectives that describe Oliver

Twist then find an example of something that

he says or does which reinforces that idea.

Adjective Evidence

naïve when he sees the members of Fagin's gang

practicing picking Fagin's pockets and when he

goes out with them to steal but has no idea they are

thieves until they run off and he is apprehended for

the deed

First Impressions last… Use your adjective and

evidence grid to write

a paragraph about

Oliver.

Think about…

What does he look

like?

Where does he live?

What does he do for

living?

What is his character

like?

Date:……………

Oliver Twist

My first impression of Oliver Twist is that he is a…

Plenary Lesson 4

Feedback :

Read your lists out to a partner or the rest

of the class.

Explain why you have chosen particular

adjectives, say how your examples

reinforce your choice of adjectives.

Remember: adjectives describe a noun.

Oliver Twist

Lesson 5

Creating characters Fagin Mr Brownlow

Mr Sowerberry

Nancy

Oliver Twist

Creating

Characters

L.O.:

• To learn how authors

use description,

dialogue and action to

create characters

First Impressions last…

Remember your description of Oliver Twist? You

wrote about his appearance and behaviour.

TTYP: What was your first impression and

where did those ideas come from?

Authors create characters through

description, dialogue and action but

do you know exactly what those

things are?

Description, Dialogue, Action! Can you match up the word with its correct definition?

Description What the character says

Dialogue What the character does

Action How the character looks, feels and behaves

Description, Dialogue, Action! Can you match up the word with its correct definition?

Description What the character says

Dialogue What the character does

Action How the character looks, feels and behaves

Describing Oliver Twist Read Dickens’ description of Oliver Twist.

Find words to describe his character.

“[His] ninth birthday found him pale child,

somewhat diminutive in stature, and decidedly

small in circumference. But nature or

inheritance had implanted a good sturdy spirit

in [his] breast; it had plenty of room to expand,

thanks to the spare diet of the establishment;

and perhaps to this circumference may be

attributed his having any ninth birthday at all.”

p.49

Oliver Twist and Noah Claypole

Read Oliver’s dialogue with Noah. Write down at least two differences between Noah and Oliver.

One day, Oliver and Noah had descended into the kitchen at the usual dinner-hour, to

banquet upon a small joint of mutton -- a pound and a half of the worst end of the neck --

when Charlotte being called out of the way, there ensued a brief interval of time, which

Noah Claypole, being hungry and vicious, considered he could not possibly devote to a

worthier purpose than aggravating and tantalising young Oliver Twist.

Intent upon this innocent amusement, Noah put his feet on the table-cloth; and pulled

Oliver's hair; and twitched his ears; and expressed his opinion that he was a "sneak;" and

furthermore announced his intention of coming to see him hanged, whenever that desirable

event should take place; and entered upon various other topics of petty annoyance, like a

malicious and ill-conditioned charity-boy as he was. But, none of these taunts producing

the desired effect of making Oliver cry, Noah attempted to be more facetious still; and in

this attempt, did what many small wits, with far greater reputations than Noah, sometimes

do to this day, when they want to be funny. He got rather personal.

Oliver Twist and Noah Claypole

"Work'us," said Noah, "how's your mother?"

"She's dead," replied Oliver; "don't you say anything about her to me!"

Oliver's colour rose as he said this; he breathed quickly; and there was a curious working

of the mouth and nostrils, which Mr. Claypole thought must be the immediate precursor of

a violent fit of crying. Under this impression he returned to the charge.

"What did she die of, Work'us?" said Noah.

"Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me," replied Oliver: more as if he were

talking to himself, than answering Noah. "I think I know what it must be to die of that!"

"Tol de rol lol lol, right fol lairy, Work'us," said Noah, as a tear rolled down Oliver's cheek.

"What's set you a snivelling now?"

"Not you," replied Oliver, hastily brushing the tear away. "Don't think it."

"Oh, not me, eh!" sneered Noah.

Highlight examples of Oliver’s speech that

reveal his character.

Oliver Twist and Mr. Brownlow

"Poor boy, poor boy!" said Mr. Brownlow, clearing his throat. "I'm rather hoarse this

morning, Mrs. Bedwin. I'm afraid I have caught cold."

"I hope not, sir," said Mrs. Bedwin. "Everything you have had, has been well aired, sir."

"I don't know, Bedwin. I don't know," said Mr. Brownlow; "I rather think I had a damp

napkin at dinner-time yesterday; but never mind that. How do you feel, my dear?"

"Very happy, sir," replied Oliver. "And very grateful indeed, sir, for your goodness to me."

"Good boy," said Mr. Brownlow, stoutly. "Have you given him any nourishment, Bedwin?

Any slops, eh?"

"He has just had a basin of beautiful strong broth, sir," replied Mrs. Bedwin: drawing

herself up slightly, and laying a strong emphasis on the last word: to intimate that between

slops, and broth well compounded, there existed no affinity or conexion whatsoever.

Read Oliver’s dialogue with Mr Brownlow. Write down at

least two similarities between Mr Brownlow and Oliver.

Oliver Twist and Mr. Brownlow

"Ugh!" said Mr. Brownlow, with a slight shudder; "a couple of glasses of port wine would have

done him a great deal more good. Wouldn't they, Tom White, eh?"

"My name is Oliver, sir," replied the little invalid: with a look of great astonishment.

"Oliver," said Mr. Brownlow; "Oliver what? Oliver White, eh?"

"No, sir, Twist, Oliver Twist."

"Queer name!" said the old gentleman. "What made you tell the magistrate your name was

White?"

"I never told him so, sir," returned Oliver in amazement.

This sounded so like a falsehood, that the old gentleman looked somewhat sternly in Oliver's

face. It was impossible to doubt him; there was truth in every one of its thin and sharpened

lineaments.

"Some mistake," said Mr. Brownlow. But, although his motive for looking steadily at Oliver no

longer existed, the old idea of the resemblance between his features and some familiar face

came upon him so strongly, that he could not withdraw his gaze.

Read Oliver’s dialogue with Mr Brownlow. Write down at least two

similarities between Mr Brownlow and Oliver.

Oliver Twist and Mr Brownlow

Why does Oliver speak in

standard English?

Compare Oliver’s dialogue with Mr Brownlow and Oliver’s dialogue with Noah.

Think about similarities & differences in the language used by Oliver to converse with these

two characters.

Oliver’s Actions Look at his gut reaction when he sees the Dodger and

Charley pick Mr. Brownlow’s pocket:

“In one instant the whole mystery of the handkerchiefs, and the watches, and the

jewels, and the Jew, rushed upon the boy’s mind. He stood for a moment with the

blood tingling so through all his veins from terror, that he felt as if he were in a

burning fire; then, confused and frightened, he took to his heels, and, not knowing

what he did, made off as fast as he could lay his feet to the ground”. (10.15)

Oliver's response to the book of criminal biographies that Fagin offers another example:

“In a paroxysm of fear the boy closed the book and thrust it from him. Then, falling

upon his knees, he prayed Heaven to spare him from such deeds, and rather to will

that he should die at once, than be reserved for crimes so fearful and appalling.”

(20.17)

Remember the three techniques for creating

characters.

Look for these techniques in stories you

read, and try to use them in your own

writing.

Consolidation

Description

Dialogue Action

Think of someone you know well –

perhaps a friend or relative. Jot down a

few quick notes about them under the

headings ‘Description’, ‘Dialogue’ and

‘Action’. Try to make your observations

vivid and specific.

Plenary Lesson 5

Oliver Twist

Lesson 6

Looking at Language

Language Study

Objectives:

• To understand how a dictionary can help

you develop your understanding of language

and expand your vocabulary.

Using a Dictionary

Dictionaries can make a big

difference to our spelling but they offer much more…

Such as what..?

They tell us the meaning of a

word, what kind of word it is and where the word originates from.

Root Words Often a word is listed in a dictionary

under its root word. For example, kept

is found under keep and taught is found

under teach.

Task!

Work out the root words of the following:

sang built caught highway bought

To gain a level 4 or above you need to be able to spell

almost all complex words correctly. This requires you to

develop your spelling and language skills, one way of doing

this is to use a dictionary.

One of the great uses of a

dictionary is to find out the

definition of a word which you

don’t understand.

Here are a few uncommon

words. How many can you

define in five minutes!

Definitions

a) cranium b) tabard c) franchise

d) canker e) laudable f) soliloquy

If you are using a word processing software

package with a computer there will probably be

an in built dictionary that you can use.

Different types of dictionaries

Firstly, place the

cursor over the

word you want to

look up and right

click.

Secondly, click on ‘Look up’ and you will be referred to

the Encarta Dictionary definitions of the word and a

phonetic version to help your pronunciation.

Finally, you will

see options to

search for the

word in a

thesaurus or to

translate it.

Microsoft Word has a dictionary to help you

check the meaning of the words you are using.

Abbreviations

These abbreviations are frequently used in

dictionaries but do you know what they mean?

Abbreviations

prep.

conj.

pl. n.

vb.

adv.

adj.

pron.

Abbreviations

How many did you know?

Abbreviations

preposition

conjunction

plural noun verb

adverb

adjective

pronoun

Some dictionaries give the country of origin of

words. Can you work out what these stand for?

Origins of Words

Hind.

Gk.

U.S.

F.

L.

Think of other countries, other cultures and

ancient languages.

How did you do?

Origins of Words

Hind. - Hindi

Gk. - Greek

U.S. – United States

F. - French

L. - Latin

Many words which we think of as English are

actually from foreign languages.

See if your dictionary tells you what kind of word

(adjective, plural etc) and where that word

originates from for the following:

Dictionary Competition

a)café

b)drama

c)safaris

d)shampoo

e)sherbert

You have

five

minutes!

Plenary

Check your results…

a)café noun - French

b)drama noun - Greek

c)safaris plural - Swahili

d)shampooed verb - Hindi

e)sherbert noun - Turkish

Oliver Twist

Lesson 7

Looking at Language

Language Study

Objectives:

• To learn how Dickens uses language in the

opening chapter of Oliver Twist to engage

the reader.

Language Changes New Words

The English language is constantly changing. Words we use now such as laptop, internet or ipod did not exist twenty years ago. The

development of new technology alone is rapidly expanding the English language. Can you think of any other new words that did not exist until

recently?

Changing Words As well as new words some words also change their meaning over time.

Words such as wicked, sorted and bad developed different meanings in the 1990s. Can you think of any other words that have developed new meanings in recent years?

Old Words The other main change is when words become redundant and fall out of

use. Words such as casement and shaw which would have been common a hundred years ago are now defunct and largely unused.

Use a dictionary to find out the meanings of the words casement and shaw

WICKED!

Casement Shaw

Language changes over time

The next paragraph is from Oliver Twist.

When the workhouse decided that Oliver should be

apprenticed, Gamfield, the chimney-sweep,

happened to come by the workhouse and offering to

be his master, answered the questions of the board of

the workhouse. The following speech of Gamfield is a

good example of Cockney, showing typically vulgar or

substandard pronunciation:

Language changes over time

“That’s acause they damped the straw afore they lit it in the

chimbley to make ‘em come down agin, said Gamfield; ‘that’s

all smoke, and no blaze; vereas smoke ain’t o’ no use at all in

making a boy come down, for it only sinds him to sleep, and

that’s wot he likes. Boys is very obstinit, and wery lazy,

gen’lmen, and there’s nothink like a good hot blaze to make

‘em come down with a run. It’s humane too, gen’lmen,

acause, even if they’ve stuck in the chimbley, roasting their

feet makes ‘em struggle to hextricate theirselves.”

Language changes over time

The words of Cockney pronunciation are: “acause”= because,

“afore” = before, “chimbley”= chimney, “agin”= again,

“sinds”= sends, “vereas”= whereas, “vith”= with, “wot”=

what, “wery”= very, “nothink”= nothing, “hextricate”=

extricate, “ain’t”= isn’t, “gen’lmen”= gentlemen, “em”=

them, “o”= of, “obstinit”= obstinate.

Chapter One – Oliver Twist

Read the opening to A Christmas Carol again.

Chapter I: Treats of the place where Oliver Twist was born, and of the

circumstances attending his birth.

“Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be

prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is

one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this

workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat,

inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the

business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this

chapter.

For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by the parish

surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to

bear any name at all; in which case it is somewhat more than probable that these

memoirs would never have appeared; or, if they had, that being comprised within a

couple of pages, they would have possessed the inestimable merit of being the most

concise and faithful specimen of biography, extant in the literature of any age or country.”

Dickens’ Technique

What clue does the chapter title give us?

What narrative hook is used here?

Why does Dickens address the reader here?

How does the opening try to keep the reader engaged?

What technique is used here?

Feedback : Read your answers out to a

partner or the rest of the class. Explain

what techniques you have discovered and

provide examples from the text.

Plenary Lesson 7

Oliver Twist Lesson 8

Objective:

To represent characters from script to

screen

Script to screen

Choose from one of the following then make a

storyboard from the script:

• Think about how you will communicate a sense of the status of various

characters and also the time period in which the film is set. Compare

your ideas to the sequences from Oliver Twist (Polanski:2005).

• Remember there is not a 'right' way to adapt a novel or other source

material. The way you do this will depend on the various choices and

experiences that you make and bring to the text.

• Look at the script and consider how many characters there are, their

actions, the dialogue and their movements, what sort of mood is

developed, is it tense, sad etc. How will you communicate this to

your audience? This is exactly the same information that the director

and storyboard artists would have used to create what we see on

screen. You will need to read the script carefully to pick up the

information that you want to use to when you construct the storyboard.

Plenary Lesson 8

Plan a scene that has

not been included in

the novel.

Lesson 9

Objective:

• To understand how to use Point -> Evidence when writing about characters

• To understand how Dickens make the reader feel sympathetic towards Oliver

Motifs and Symbols in Oliver Twist

Today we are going to look at the text and quotations and try to

analyse how the writer is trying to make the reader feel sympathetic

towards the characters.

When we look at a quote we try to analyse what the writer is expressing

by using the point/ evidence and analyse structure.

The point is when you look at the text and find the theme or the main

idea you extracted from the text/ quote.

The evidence is the actual text/ quote.

Analysis/ explanation represents finding out the motifs and symbols in

the story.

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can

help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colours used to represent

abstract ideas or concepts.

Motifs

Symbols

Disguised or

Mistaken Identities

Hidden Family

Relationships

Surrogate Families

Oliver’s Face

Characters’ Names

Bull’s-eye

London Bridge

Motifs and Symbols in Oliver Twist

Choosing and analysing quotations

Extract Point/ Evidence/ Analysis

“But now that he was

enveloped in the old

calico robes, which had

grown yellow in the same

service, he was badged

and ticketed, and fell into

his place at once – a

parish child – the orphan

of a workhouse - the

humble half-starved

drudge – to be cuffed and

buffeted through the

world, - despised by all,

and pitied by none.”

Chapter 1

Point:

From the beginning of the novel, Dickens presents

Oliver as bullied and vulnerable and that this is

because of his position as an orphan born in the

workhouse.

Evidence:

“the humble half-starved drudge – to be cuffed and

buffeted through the world”

Analysis/ Explanation:

Even though Oliver is only a baby, because he is

in the workhouse the way his life will go is already

decided: he will not have enough to eat, he will

have no control over what happens to him and he

will be abused by those around him.

Talk about your table with the rest of the

class. Discuss the points you have made,

provide evidence and explain what the

evidence tells the reader about Oliver.

Plenary

Lesson 9