Lara Mayfield
ELANG 324
Dr. Hallen
2 December 2009
Oliver Twist and the English Language
The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parrish Boy’s Progress[1] was one of the early novels in the career of Charles Dickens. Originally written as a serial piece for Bentley’s Miscellany, the text was introduced in February 1837, and reached its completion in April 1839.[2] It follows the story of young Oliver Twist, whose good heart and moral uprightness bring him at last to a just reward, though he is beset by many troubles as a poor orphan in 19th century England. The novel explores themes of social inequality and the state of the poor in England at that time, a topic that very concerned Charles Dickens and continued to influence his writing throughout his career.
The events of Charles Dickens’ life influenced the way in which he used English, the way his writing in turn has contributed to the development of the English language. He was born in Landport, Portsmouth, in the southwest of England. While he was still young, his family moved to Chatham, Kent, and then to London, where he lived with a family friend in Camden Town. He attended William Giles’s School in Chatham, but entered the factories at the age of twelve, when his father was sent to debtor’s prison. When his father was released from prison, he was once again able to attend school, and finished his education at the Wellington House Academy in London. He began his career in writing as a political journalist, and continued to contribute to various journals throughout his life. In 1836, he was commissioned to begin his first novel, also published in Bentley’s Miscellany as a serial, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Dickens continued to author many well-known and beloved novels until his death in 1870.[3]
Dickens is most famous for his vivid and colorful characters, most of whom have their origin in real people Dickens encountered during his lifetime. Having lived in several places as a child, he was able to gain a feel for the usage and dialectal differences in the speech of those living outside London, and his philanthropic associations in London, inspired by the conditions of the factory he worked in as a boy, gave him a taste of the speech of the lower class. In Oliver Twist, he introduces a cast of characters whose speech is as unique as their personality.
Dickens uses speech variation to paint his memorable characters, an aspect of his writing that literary critics continue to praise. One such character is Mr. Bumble, the country beadle who, though he fancies himself important and well educated, is truly a country bumpkin with a humorously poor command of the King’s English. When Oliver returns to his birthplace to bring Mr. Bumble to justice, the man exclaims, “Do my hi’s deceive me, or is that little Oliver? Oh O-li-ver, if you know’d how I’ve been a-grieving for you!” (Oliver Twist, 392). Dickens captures both the non-standard dialect of the country, and the poor grammar of the less educated in this memorable character. Another character of colorful language is Jack Dawkins, the “Artful Dodger.” Jack is a young thief in the tutelage of Fagin, the story’s main villain, often known to spout slang such as “cove” (65), meaning “gentleman,” and “beak” (54), meaning “magistrate.” Dickens’ familiarity with all walks of life in London led to the realistic variety in his characters’ speech that make them so memorable.
The education he received enabled him to rise above the working class that he briefly found himself a part of, and his command of the English language is demonstrated by the formation of new words in his writing. Dickens is credited as the first to use many words in published writing. From Oliver Twist come the words “all-work” (202), “beadlehood” (119), “lummy” (325), “well-housed” (163), and “worrit” (120).[4] These are a poor sample of the systematic nature of Dickens’ lexical contributions to the English language. New words from his other texts show that Dickens used a number of regular word-formation processes in his writing.
Dickens created words in the same way any native speaker of English creates a new word. The first method he used is suffixing to create nouns from existing adjectives. His most common suffix used is “-ness,” from which derive the words “seediness” (The Pickwick Papers, 1836-37), “fluffiness” (The Uncommercial Traveller, 1860-69), and “cheesiness” (The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840-41), but he also is credited with the word “boredom.” Dickens also used suffixing to create adverbs from existing adjectives by adding “-ly,” such as “melodramatically” (Pickwick) and “spectacularly” (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859). Perhaps most creatively, Dickens invented a number of verbs by using converting them from existing nouns. Before Dickens, you could neither “nutcracker” something (Great Expectations, 1860-1861), nor “odd-job” it (Two Cities).[5] Dickens developed a command of the English language sufficient to allow him a way of systematically filling the gaps in the lexicon. He contributed to the development of English significantly by adding new words, some of which are still widely used today.
As a prominent author of the 19th century, Dickens’ writing exemplifies the period of English known as Early Modern English. This is the last dispensation of English before what is known as Present Day English, encompassing the time period between 1500-1900. Dickens lived and wrote during the subset of the Early Modern English period known as Nineteenth Century English (1800-1900). His opportunity to receive and education and subsequent professional endeavors as a journalist familiarized him with the accepted forms and usage of the time, making his works a reliable source of Early Modern English standard prose.
Early Modern English differs from Present Day English in many ways, including meaning and form. For example, PDE has largely lost the distinction between “shall” and “will.” In EME and before, “shall” embodied a sense of obligation, whereas “will” implies volition.[6] Although Dickens uses the two interchangeably throughout Oliver Twist, the old meaning of “will” comes through in phrases such as “whether he will or no” (221) and “Heaven willed otherwise” (368). Another quirk that has been lost to PDE is the use of the word “something” to be interchangeable with “somewhat.”[7] In Oliver Twist, Mr. Sowerberry, a lower-middle class undertaker, says that “… the coffins are something narrower and more shallow than they used to be” (23). Dickens generally avoids this usage in the narrative, however, indicating that by that time it was an older form already on its way out and perhaps used only in colloquial speech. Oliver Twist contains a number of instances of “something” being used as a relative measurement, however, as in “something past thirty” (202), and “something more than an hour” (38), a use which has since been lost. By looking at Dickens’ use of the language, it can be seen that Nineteenth Century English is sufficiently similar to PDE to have begun to incorporate modern forms in the place of those forms that are characteristic of Early Modern English. Dickens uses some of the older forms, but more often conforms to what we see today as grammatically correct English.
Dickens’ life experiences gave him a broad grasp of the English language, which allowed him to accurately and creatively represent the many dialects of nineteenth century London, experiment and create new words, and write proficiently in the acceptable standard of the time. The contributions to the English language that find their origin in Oliver Twist are plentiful in their own right. Combined with the vast literary repertoire that comprise Dickens’ career, the influence is undisputed. And as long as the literature of Charles Dickens continues to be enjoyed throughout the English-speaking world, he will continue to be an influence on the language.
[1] Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parrish Boy’s Progress. New York: Dent & Sons, Ltd. 1907.
[2] www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist
[3] www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_dickens
[4] www.dictionary.oed.com/cgi/search : Dickens
[5] www.dictionary.oed.com/cgi/search : Dickens
[6] Millward, C. M. A Biography of the English Language. Florida: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. 1989. p. 234.
[7] Millward, C. M. A Biography of the English Language. Florida: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. 1989. p. 232
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