Oliver Twist By: Charles Dickens Oliver Twist provides insight into the experience of the poor in 1830s England. Beneath the novel's raucous humor and flights of fancy lies an undercurrent of harsh criticism of attitude of the Victorian middle class towards the poor. Oliver is a near-perfect example of the hypocrisy and venality of the legal system, workhouses, moral values, and marriage practices of middle-class England in the 1830s. As a child, Dickens endured harsh conditions of poverty. His family was imprisoned for debt and Dickens was forced to work in a factory at the age of twelve. These experiences haunted him for the rest of his life. The poverty of his childhood is a recurring theme in his novels. Oliver Twist expresses the unfortunate situation of the orphaned child. Oliver suffers the cruelty of hypocritical workhouse officials, prejudiced judges and hardened criminals. Throughout the novel, his virtuous nature survives the incredible misery of his situation. Oliver's experiences demonstrate the legal silence and invisibility of the poor. In 1830s England, wealth determined voting rights. Therefore, the poor had no say in the laws that governed their lives, and the Poor Laws strictly regulated one's ability to ask for help. Since begging was illegal, workhouses were the only sources of relief. The workhouses were deliberately built in an unsightly manner to discourage the poor from seeking relief. The Victorian middle class believed that the poor were uncontrollable due to their state of nature and immorality. Since the poor did not have the right to vote, the state chose to recognize their existence only when they committed crimes, died or entered workplaces. Dickens's Oliver Twist is a sympathetic portrait among dozens of vicious and stereotypical portraits of the poor. However, Dickens himself displays middle-class prejudice. He reproduces the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes in Fagin, the "evil old Jew". The portrait of Noah Claypole, the dirty charity boy, reveals some of the stereotypes of the poor criticized by Dickens.