Oliver Twist, written by Charles Dickens, is an intense denigration of society's treatment of the poor. In this depicted period, wealth and social class determined a person's status. This stupid but true reality has forced many people into a predetermined destiny, like Oliver. When Oliver is first born, Dickens reveals how the boy will be addressed: "the orphan of a workhouse – the humble half-starved drudge – who will be handcuffed and tossed through the world – despised by all and pitied per person” ( Dickens 3). Society recoiled from the idea of ​​the poor, seeing them as inferior beings. In Dickens's time, laws and institutions were created to "encourage" the poor; however, these were actually aimed at appeasing the “better” part of society. Even when the upper classes claim to ease the dilemma of the lower classes, they only make it worse and worse. The rules provided for the division of poor families to ensure that they would not continue to repopulate the lower class, as it was alleged that this rank was inherently immoral. Poor children were placed in these institutions with the belief that the state could raise them according to society's standards, unlike their "skinny" parents. The workshops, created by the middle class, aimed to raise poor children after the age of nine. However, these institutions reproduced the vices they were “supposed” to erase by feeding and clothing children as little as possible. The middle-class characters' assumption that the lower class is made up of innate criminals supports their image of themselves as an intact and virtuous group in society. These characters placed in positions of power, like Mrs. Mann and Mr. Bumble, infer that they are morally superior to their poor, simply in the middle of a paper ......rs Since the 17th century . Ed. Jane M. Bingham. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. 181-191. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. January 16, 2014. Hochman, Baruch and Ilja Wachs. “Oliver Twist.” Dickens: The orphan condition. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1999. 32-54. Rep. in Youth Literature Review. Ed. Dana Ferguson. Flight. 162. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Information Resource Center. Internet. January 17, 2014. “Oliver Twist.” Literature and its times: profiles of 300 notable literary works and the historical events that influenced them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Flight. 2: Civil wars in border societies (1800s-1880s). Detroit: Gale, 1997. 261-267. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. January 16, 2014. “Oliver Twist.” Novels for students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Flight. 14. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 126-151. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. January 15. 2014.