"And what an excellent example of the power of dress young Oliver Twist was! Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar;—it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to have fixed his station in society. But now that he was enveloped in the old calico robes, which had grown yellow in the same service, he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once—a parish child—the orphan of a workhouse—the humble half-starved drudge—to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none.
Oliver cried lustily. If he could have known that he was an orphan, left to the tender mercies of churchwardens and overseers, perhaps he would have cried the louder." (Chapter 1)
"Upon this, the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be "farmed," or, in other words, that he should be despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week. Sevenpence-halfpenny's worth per week is a good round diet for a child; a great deal may be got for sevenpence-halfpenny—quite enough to overload its stomach, and make it uncomfortable. The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children, and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them; thereby finding in the lowest depth a deeper still [...]
Oliver Twist's ninth birth-day found him a pale, thin child, somewhat diminutive in stature, and decidedly small in circumference. But nature or inheritance had implanted a good sturdy spirit in Oliver's breast: it had had plenty of room to expand, thanks to the spare diet of the establishment; and perhaps to this circumstance may be attributed his having any ninth birth-day at all. Be this as it may, however, it was his ninth birth-day; and he was keeping it in the coalcellar with a select party of two other young gentlemen, who, after participating with him in a sound threshing, had been locked up therein for atrociously presuming to be hungry" (Chapter 2)
Oliver entgeht dem Schicksal, als "climbing boy" bei einem Schornsteinfeger angestellt zu werden.
- Quelle: Wikipedia The one on the left is in the correct climbing position, with right hand above, left in front, moving using back knees and feet.
- The child on the left is jammed, knees up against the chin and will need to pulled out, or the chimney will need to be broken to retrieve the body.
"Young boys have been smothered [erstickt] in chimneys before now," said another gentleman.
"That's acause they damped the straw afore they lit it in the chimbley to make 'em come down again," said Gamfield; "'that's all smoke, and no blaze; vereas smoke ain't o' no use at all in makin' a boy come down, for it only sinds him to sleep, and that's wot he likes. Boys is wery obstinit, and wery lazy, gen'lmen, and there's nothink like a good hot blaze to make 'em come down vith a run; it's humane too, gen'lmen, acause, even if they've stuck in the chimbley, roastin' their feet makes 'em struggle to hextricate [heraushexen] theirselves." [...]" (Chapter 3)
Als Noah Claypole, der ältere Lehrjunge des Sargmachers Olivers Mutter grob beleidigt, wird dieser so wütend, dass er auf Noah einschlägt. Als Oliver dafür eingesperrt wird und aufgrund falschen Zeugnisses von Noah selbst der Sargmacher, der ihm immer wohl wollte, ihn verprügelt (weil er unfähig ist, sich den Forderungen seiner Frau zu widersetzen) läuft Oliver fort.
Auf dem Weg kommt er in frühster Morgenstunde beim Armenhaus vorbei und trifft einen kleineren Jungen, mit dem er sich gut verstanden hat, und mit ihm macht Oliver eine Erfahrung, die er in seinem ganzen Leben noch nicht hatte:
"Kiss me," said the child, climbing up the low gate, and flinging his little arms round Oliver's neck. " Good-b'ye, dear! God bless you!"
The blessing was from a young child's lips, but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head; and through all the struggles and sufferings, and troubles and changes of his after life, he never once forgot it." (Chapter 7)
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