Oliver TwistBy: Charles DickensOliver Twist provides an insight into the experience of the poor in England in the 1830s. Behind the novel's raucous humor and flights of fancy lies a scathing critique of Victorian middle-class attitude towards the poor. Oliver is a near-perfect example of the hypocrisy and venality of the legal system, workhouses, middle-class moral values, and marriage practices of 1830s England. As a child, Dickens endured the harsh conditions of the poverty. His family was imprisoned for debt, and Dickens was forced to work in a factory at age 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 endures the cruelty of hypocritical workshop 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 the right to vote. Therefore, the poor had no say in the laws that governed their lives, and the poor laws strictly regulated the ability to seek redress. Since begging was illegal, the workshops were the only source of relief. The workshops were deliberately designed to be unpleasant in order to discourage the poor from seeking help. 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 the workshops. Dickens' Oliver Twist is a sympathetic portrait among dozens of vicious and stereotypical portraits of the poor. However, Dickens himself displays prejudice towards the middle class. He reproduces the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes in Fagin, the “evil old Jew”. The portrait of Noah Claypole, the dirty alms boy, reveals some of the stereotypes of the poor criticized by Dickens..