Workhouses then serve as a symbol of the fixed hypocritical values of both the English system and the middle-classes as the former set in motion a number of reforms to improve the marginalised side of society (which failed), and the later thought that poor people were born with inherent negative qualities and that their destiny was far from improvement and dignity; instead, they were intended to a more immoral, criminal world. On the other hand, middle-classes possessed more virtuous values and then, deserved a more promising and comfortable conditions of life. Then, the hypocrisy behind workhouses can be found in its authorities: Mr Bumble and Mrs Mann.
Such was the suffering experienced by Oliver during his early years that he decides to escape from that horrible world and rather decides to leave his future in destiny’s hand. He had to choose: the workhouse conditions or
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However, he is better known by the sobriquet of the Artful Dodger - and although Oliver sees him as his saviour, he hides an illegal underworld to which Oliver would be addressed: Bob Fagin’s den of thieves. Then, the second world introduced to the reader which was criticised by Dickens is that of the criminal one. Dickens made it well when portraying this side of society. Moreover, in words of Ruth Glancy, “Dickens explained that he wanted to portray the criminals realistically because he wished to show how easily young homeless children could be dragged into the net of crime”. Besides, as both Oliver and the Artful Dodger address to Fagin’s house, Oliver makes an in-depth observation of London streets, which could be a perfect portrait of the real image of the urban areas in that period and Dickens’ own perception of them. He describes London slums as bleak and poor and filled with homeless and orphan children everywhere, without the parental figure taking care of