THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SOCIAL TATUS OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN CHARLES DICKENS’S OLIVER TWIST AND GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Abstract

Abstract: This thesis-based article investigates the representation of the social status of children and adolescents in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist (1838) and Great Expectations (1861) within the socio-historical and literary framework of Victorian England. The study focuses on how Dickens portrays childhood and adolescence as socially constructed categories shaped by poverty, class hierarchy, institutional control, education and moral development. Drawing on historical studies of Victorian childhood and major critical interpretations of Dickens’s fiction, the research argues that child and adolescent characters function as central instruments of social criticism and moral evaluation. Through a comparative textual analysis, the study demonstrates that Oliver Twist presents childhood primarily as a condition of vulnerability and victimization within oppressive welfare institutions, while Great Expectations explores adolescence as a stage of social aspiration, identity formation and ethical conflict. Despite these differences, both novels expose the moral contradictions of Victorian society and challenge dominant ideologies of class mobility, respectability and success. The findings reveal that Dickens’s representation of children goes beyond sentimentalism and instead constitutes a systematic critique of social injustice, institutional failure and moral hypocrisy. The thesis concludes that Dickens’s child characters serve as enduring symbols of social responsibility and ethical consciousness, reinforcing the relevance of his work to contemporary discussions of childhood and inequality.