Maze City Imprisonment

There have been examples in the novel Oliver Twist that a labyrinth is a motif of the novel. The novel describes Fagin going into a maze dirty densely populated streets and also when Nancy and Sikes drag Oliver into a labyrinth of dark courts. This was actually due to the fact that the structure of London made it difficult to navigate around, in comparison to that of a maze. In Greek Mythology, a maze was used as prison to confine prisoners. In that sense, the city of London itself serves similar to a prison or confinement area to those of its inhabitants. This would explain the judicial system that confines people to certain laws and social class structures while the parish confines the poor people to do hard labor in the workhouses. The roundabout system of the city as a maze can also resemble the path of criminals. Once a person enters a maze, its near impossible to ever get out. This can be held similar to how if a person enters the life of a criminal, it might be impossible to ever get out of that life as emphasized through Nancy. Nonetheless, Charles Darwin used the architectural structure of his setting to put deeper thinking and analysis into his Oliver Twist novel.