Heroines and Villains, Orphans and Thieves: The Motley Melodramas of Oliver Twist

Abstract This essay examines Charles Dickens's incorporation of Georgian- and early Victorian-era theatrical melodrama into his 1837–39 novel Oliver Twist. It studies Dickens's text against genre theories of melodrama, Dickens's own staged readings of Twist, social histories of contemporaneous England, and highlights from the era's English melodramas (including The Castle Spectre and A String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street). Crucial to Twist's literary history was Dickens's engagement with a pervasive London theatrical culture, a move that both trained his readers and led to the book's enduring afterlife as a melodrama itself. The essay argues that Dickens utilizes consumers’ preconceived understandings of popular theatrical tropes to guide their expectations when reading Twist. Moreover, by tweaking recognizable melodrama tropes—altering genders, multiplying villainies—Dickens finally suggests that familial reconstruction and moral collectivity can counter society's ills.