Please sir, I want some more
A long story from an orphan boy who’s born in workhouse and become a thief at the age of ten due to the hard and dark times of London in 19th century. Oliver Twist, young, pale, orphan boy who suffers during his boyhood life in grimy London backstreets. Famous known because tormented due to ‘ask for some more food’ reflects the harsh treatment of children in Victorian times.
Dickens pictures London life at that era very clearly and make me think: “is this really the city I’ve known for its beauty and friendly people?” Also “ the city that known in A Tale of Two Cities as its order, has a cruelty of children?” “Does this city have no sun?” Hahaha.
But that’s not what I’m gonna write in here. The story of love. The quote that gives you goosebumps and (maybe) the insight to make a pick up line for your date, or to make a caption for Instagram stories that will make you look like a poet. Kidding. :)
When I read Oliver Twist and meet the part where Harry Maylie said very beautiful, touching, and pure love quote to Rose Fleming. “That if my world could not be yours, I would make yours mine.” That is the part I wanna highlight here.
Even tho Oliver Twist is a novel about hard life a young orphan must face, Dickens always put a very beautiful love story in it. Dickens also write it as this novel talks about love and make the readers forgot that this was story about London’s poverty.
Another love story I ightlight in this novel is not just about two people that love each other. Dickens also write the story between a housekeeper who takes care of Oliver, Mrs. Bedwin and Oliver himself. Mrs. Bedwin who was the only person who trust Oliver as an innocent when nobody does. A mother who is crying when Oliver didn’t come back to Mr. Brownlow’s house and is assumed as a ‘thief’. A mother from different blood.
God always has a beautiful story for people who have a beautiful heart
Oliver comes back. Mrs. Bedwin who becomes blinder because of the ages seeing Oliver very clearly when he runs towards her and hugs her. The boy never forgets who is his angle. And the iconic line when she first saw Oliver again after long lost was written by Dickens as I called the best narrative from this book:
“How well he looks, and how like a gentleman’s son he is dressed again! Where have you been, this long, long while? Ah! the same sweet face, but not so pale; the same soft eye, but not so sad. I have never forgotten them or his quiet smile, but have seen them every day, side by side with those of my own dear children, dead and gone since I was a lightsome young creature.”
Fall my tears when I read that. An old woman hugging a young boy pictures very clearly in my head as I’m reading it. A story that really shows a beauty inside darkness life. A world that still has a meaning, despite its disaster. A trusted person in untrusted world. Everything about a pure-hearted love is in that line.
Dicken’s love quotes make me really fall in love with his works. Oliver Twist is the third of his novel that I read. And not just in Oliver Twist. In A Tale of Two Cities, a novel about France revolution and London life also has a very romantic story in it.
The story of aristocrat’s son Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette, young lady who comes to Paris to find her father. “Heaven is my witness that I love her.” Is the words that come out of Darnay’s mouth when he purposes to Dr. Manette, Lucie’s father. With a famous closing line from Sydney Cartoon who saved Darnay’s life from being executed by guillotine by taunting the executor cus his simmilar face to Darnay’s.
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Another love story: Pip and Estella in Great Expectations, Dickens’s funny, frightening and tender portrayal of the orphan Pip’s journey about his fortune to be a gentleman in London. Estella is also an adopted girl who is set to ‘break a boy’s heart’ by Miss Havisham, Pip’s benefactor.
Many of Dickens narrative has gone famous. Many people has fell in love due to his expert as a narrative writer. Includes me. Oliver Twist has a personal and related story to me. His journey of being an orphan really glimpse me about a person I know who is also an orphan.
I think that’s gonna be a closing, thank you for reading!
