Oliver Twist is a classic book by Charles Dickens that most of us have read. It tugs at our heartstrings during the beginning and middle and gets us anxious at the end. It’s no wonder why this book is a popular classic and a must-read worldwide.
The plot of the book is simple: it revolves around a boy named Oliver who is an orphan. He escapes the workhouse he lived in, joins a gang of thieves and manages to escape them until they take him back, he then runs away and lives happily ever after. But it’s not the plot that makes this book amazing; it’s the characters.
Oliver is a young orphan who always tries his best to persevere even when he’s in a tough situation. He is the epitome of always trying to escape a bad situation. Seeing his failures makes readers angry at his surroundings- but when he succeeds, you can’t help but regain a bit of hope for humanity.
Dodger seems like Oliver’s friend at the beginning of the novel, but it turns out he’s just trying to trick him into becoming a pawn of Fagin. Fagin (the antagonist) has no redeeming character traits, which is usually a bad thing, however, in this case, the author doesn’t allow him any traits that are redeemable because then, you’d sympathise with this monster.
All the other characters help put together the story and interact very realistically with each other. Nancy is shown from the get-go to dislike Fagin, which gives more time for her to develop her character arc of trying to destroy him. Bill is a mysterious character as we don’t know much about him except that he’s the true antagonist and that Fagin is one of his pawns.
If you haven’t read this book, do give it a read, especially if you like classics. Words cannot express how amazing this book is and I’d personally easily place it in my top 5 books of all time. In fact, this book is so well-loved that the lower school production this year is based on it!
