CliffsNotes on Dickens' Oliver Twist by Harry Kaste

Author:Harry Kaste
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Analysis

While the setting in most parts of the book is in keeping with the tenor of the action, in this section contrast is employed with poignant effect. Rose is in the prime of her life and has been flourishing like the springtime flowers. It is a painful incongruity that the blooming girl should be singled out for death at this time. Oliver finds the threatening calamity impossible to deal with until the funeral of a young person in the graveyard teaches him that no life is safe.

The arrival of Harry Maylie on the scene marks the beginning of a romantic subplot. Coming as it does late in the book, this line of action can be of only secondary importance, but it will at least gratify one of the expectations of many readers. Bringing Harry and Rose together does, however, serve to indicate the existence of yet another mystery. On the surface of things, there has been no sign why Rose should not be a suitable wife for Mrs. Maylie’s son. The reader wants to know what secrets are in force here.

These chapters brim with the mysterious. Monks was not described on the occasion of his nocturnal meeting with Fagin, but the sentiments he expressed then and the disordered behavior of the strange man in the inn yard make it pretty certain that they were the same person. The appearance of Fagin with the mysterious stranger at Oliver’s window revives terror and ends the boy’s illusion of security. He now knows that Fagin has tracked him down again, and that fact must be reckoned with.

It is not encouraging to Oliver’s position that no evidence could be found to confirm the appearance of Fagin and the stranger. The incident repeats some of the characteristics of the Chertsey Bridge episode. As Mr. Losberne observed when he undertook to shelter Oliver from the police, “he can only prove the parts that look ill, and none of those that look well.”

There may be some question of how long Oliver’s benefactors will continue to believe him and offer him protection. The three months of idyllic country life are now a thing of the past. Oliver knows that his old enemies are still active.

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