Theme: Identity

It appears to me that many of the characters in Oliver Twist do not have a full name. This loss of name takes away their full identity and true individuality. One of the major theme aspects displayed in Oliver Twist is the absence and lost of identity. A name is what defines a person by what everyone around them describes about them. It is society's way of identifying your role and spot in life. Oliver Twist's own name was arbitrarily given to him by Mr. Bumble off an alphabetical list. This thus effects Oliver by the way he sees himself and the way society and the government in the world views him. There has always been misconceptions and misinterpretations on who Oliver Twist really is and what his character is like. People often wonder if he is an innocent boy or pickpocket criminal. One important way to express Oliver's identity was his face. Whenever Oliver is misunderstood, his face served as marker for showing Oliver's innocence to anyone who can see it such as Mr. Brownlow, Rose, Mrs. Maylie, etc. It is also Oliver's face that bear striking resemblance to his parents allows people to identify his parentage and family tree.