land’s workhouses and works to make society’s views of the abuse of children change, but “by this time, the horrors of the workhouse were so established in the English scene that they were destined to become part of the British social legend...total degradation” (Gold 25). Because of the Poor Law of 1834, the young children suffered more than the able bodied benefited so through Dickens’ career, he becomes preoccupied with the use and abuse of the Poor Laws. Through biting satire, stock characters, humor and pathos, Dickens explores the relationships between the paupers and the masters of the workhouse in Oliver Twist. Satire is used to portray the cruelty, sufferings, and injustice in the workhouses especially through Mr. Bumble, Mrs. Corney, and Oliver, stock characters that play a significant role in the message of child abuse in the workhouses. Through these characters and their actions, Dickens is able to reveal how ordinary workhouse masters treat their paupers. Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney are stereotypes of the heartless employers who overuse their power on the workhouse children. Mr. Bumble is the corrupt representative of an evil, unjust system but in the novel, Dickens also shows humor through this character. Mr. Bumble brings humor through many petty actions such as the courtship between Mrs. Corney and him. That scene is a humorous interval, which contrasts with life in the workhouse, but Dickens believes that humor gives a more detached moral understanding that horror could not produce. This episode shows that the happenings in the workhouse and the actions of Mr. Bumble are not a laughing matter because while Mr. Bumble is frolicking and getting fat, the many young children at the workhouses are suffering and starving in the bitter cold. The humor sets off the darkness and despair of the workhouse, by showing the different lights of the situation; moreover, increasing the awareness o...
