Previous
Foreshadowing
Chapter 20
Explanation and Analysis—Mixed-Genre Bildungsroman:
The novel generally conforms to the genre of the bildungsroman, or the coming-of-age novel. In Chapter 41, when Oliver and Mr. Brownlow at last track each other down after their long separation, Mr. Brownlow says that the object all of the adults present have in mind is:
Simply the discovery of Oliver's parentage, and regaining for him the inheritance of which, if this story be true, he has been fraudulently deprived.
Mr. Brownlow may think he is only speaking for the fictional characters present, but he is also speaking for the narrator and the reader. Everything in the novel leads up to the "discovery of Oliver's parentage" and the restoration of his inheritance. A bildungsroman, a genre of novel that was very popular by the 19th century, almost always tells the story of a boy who overcomes a series of obstacles on the way to growing up and inheriting a fortune. Oliver Twist fits that model.
The novel, however, draws on many other popular genres, pulling in readers from multiple sectors of the literary market. For instance, there are many moments when we might consider Oliver Twist a salacious gothic novel. One example occurs in Chapter 20, when Oliver reads a creepy book Fagin has given him to pass the time until he is taken to Sikes for the burglary:
It was a history of the lives and trials of great criminals, and the pages were soiled and thumbed with use. Here, he read of dreadful crimes that make the blood run cold; of secret murders that had been committed by the lonely wayside, and bodies hidden from the eye of man in deep pits and wells, which would not keep them down, deep as they were[…]
Books, crime, and unsettling family histories are all features of the gothic, and this scene has all of them. Oliver does not know what Sikes is going to ask him to do, but he has the sense that he is about to be fully inducted into this family of criminals: the book is about to become not just a history of criminals, but furthermore a history of Oliver's ancestors. Like many gothic protagonists before him, Oliver flips through the pages and discovers horrifying secrets that will now be his secrets to bear. Oliver and the reader alike struggle to look away from the dark story unfolding before their eyes.
Hints of the gothic can still be found in the second half of the book, but after Oliver is taken in by the Maylies, there is a turn toward the conventions of the sentimental novel. For example, there is a bittersweet sentimental moment in Chapter 36:
Tears are signs of gladness as well as grief, but those which coursed down Rose's face as she sat pensively at the window, still gazing in the same direction, seemed to tell more of sorrow than of joy.
Rose thinks Harry Maylie is in "high spirits" as he rides away from the Maylie house because he has decided not to marry her. Wanting to save his reputation from the "stain" on her own reputation, Rose is happy to see Harry leave her behind. Still, she loves him and is therefore sorrowful as well. Tear-jerking moments like this are trademarks of the sentimental novel, in which characters experience both tragedy and romance but are often safe from the gruesome crimes of the gothic. Dickens draws on various genres to emphasize the change in Oliver's fortune.
Related Themes:
Chapter 36
Explanation and Analysis—Mixed-Genre Bildungsroman:
The novel generally conforms to the genre of the bildungsroman, or the coming-of-age novel. In Chapter 41, when Oliver and Mr. Brownlow at last track each other down after their long separation, Mr. Brownlow says that the object all of the adults present have in mind is:
Simply the discovery of Oliver's parentage, and regaining for him the inheritance of which, if this story be true, he has been fraudulently deprived.
Mr. Brownlow may think he is only speaking for the fictional characters present, but he is also speaking for the narrator and the reader. Everything in the novel leads up to the "discovery of Oliver's parentage" and the restoration of his inheritance. A bildungsroman, a genre of novel that was very popular by the 19th century, almost always tells the story of a boy who overcomes a series of obstacles on the way to growing up and inheriting a fortune. Oliver Twist fits that model.
The novel, however, draws on many other popular genres, pulling in readers from multiple sectors of the literary market. For instance, there are many moments when we might consider Oliver Twist a salacious gothic novel. One example occurs in Chapter 20, when Oliver reads a creepy book Fagin has given him to pass the time until he is taken to Sikes for the burglary:
It was a history of the lives and trials of great criminals, and the pages were soiled and thumbed with use. Here, he read of dreadful crimes that make the blood run cold; of secret murders that had been committed by the lonely wayside, and bodies hidden from the eye of man in deep pits and wells, which would not keep them down, deep as they were[…]
Books, crime, and unsettling family histories are all features of the gothic, and this scene has all of them. Oliver does not know what Sikes is going to ask him to do, but he has the sense that he is about to be fully inducted into this family of criminals: the book is about to become not just a history of criminals, but furthermore a history of Oliver's ancestors. Like many gothic protagonists before him, Oliver flips through the pages and discovers horrifying secrets that will now be his secrets to bear. Oliver and the reader alike struggle to look away from the dark story unfolding before their eyes.
Hints of the gothic can still be found in the second half of the book, but after Oliver is taken in by the Maylies, there is a turn toward the conventions of the sentimental novel. For example, there is a bittersweet sentimental moment in Chapter 36:
Tears are signs of gladness as well as grief, but those which coursed down Rose's face as she sat pensively at the window, still gazing in the same direction, seemed to tell more of sorrow than of joy.
Rose thinks Harry Maylie is in "high spirits" as he rides away from the Maylie house because he has decided not to marry her. Wanting to save his reputation from the "stain" on her own reputation, Rose is happy to see Harry leave her behind. Still, she loves him and is therefore sorrowful as well. Tear-jerking moments like this are trademarks of the sentimental novel, in which characters experience both tragedy and romance but are often safe from the gruesome crimes of the gothic. Dickens draws on various genres to emphasize the change in Oliver's fortune.
Related Themes:
Chapter 41
Explanation and Analysis—Mixed-Genre Bildungsroman:
The novel generally conforms to the genre of the bildungsroman, or the coming-of-age novel. In Chapter 41, when Oliver and Mr. Brownlow at last track each other down after their long separation, Mr. Brownlow says that the object all of the adults present have in mind is:
Simply the discovery of Oliver's parentage, and regaining for him the inheritance of which, if this story be true, he has been fraudulently deprived.
Mr. Brownlow may think he is only speaking for the fictional characters present, but he is also speaking for the narrator and the reader. Everything in the novel leads up to the "discovery of Oliver's parentage" and the restoration of his inheritance. A bildungsroman, a genre of novel that was very popular by the 19th century, almost always tells the story of a boy who overcomes a series of obstacles on the way to growing up and inheriting a fortune. Oliver Twist fits that model.
The novel, however, draws on many other popular genres, pulling in readers from multiple sectors of the literary market. For instance, there are many moments when we might consider Oliver Twist a salacious gothic novel. One example occurs in Chapter 20, when Oliver reads a creepy book Fagin has given him to pass the time until he is taken to Sikes for the burglary:
It was a history of the lives and trials of great criminals, and the pages were soiled and thumbed with use. Here, he read of dreadful crimes that make the blood run cold; of secret murders that had been committed by the lonely wayside, and bodies hidden from the eye of man in deep pits and wells, which would not keep them down, deep as they were[…]
Books, crime, and unsettling family histories are all features of the gothic, and this scene has all of them. Oliver does not know what Sikes is going to ask him to do, but he has the sense that he is about to be fully inducted into this family of criminals: the book is about to become not just a history of criminals, but furthermore a history of Oliver's ancestors. Like many gothic protagonists before him, Oliver flips through the pages and discovers horrifying secrets that will now be his secrets to bear. Oliver and the reader alike struggle to look away from the dark story unfolding before their eyes.
Hints of the gothic can still be found in the second half of the book, but after Oliver is taken in by the Maylies, there is a turn toward the conventions of the sentimental novel. For example, there is a bittersweet sentimental moment in Chapter 36:
Tears are signs of gladness as well as grief, but those which coursed down Rose's face as she sat pensively at the window, still gazing in the same direction, seemed to tell more of sorrow than of joy.
Rose thinks Harry Maylie is in "high spirits" as he rides away from the Maylie house because he has decided not to marry her. Wanting to save his reputation from the "stain" on her own reputation, Rose is happy to see Harry leave her behind. Still, she loves him and is therefore sorrowful as well. Tear-jerking moments like this are trademarks of the sentimental novel, in which characters experience both tragedy and romance but are often safe from the gruesome crimes of the gothic. Dickens draws on various genres to emphasize the change in Oliver's fortune.
Related Themes:
