Oliver Twist Textual Analysis

Season 1 Epsiode 1

In the dining hall scene, we see Mr. Bumble walk through rows of chidren. The colours are bleak ad the lighting creates a shadow of bars. This connotes that the children are trapped in dire circumstances. Mr. Bumble himself, however, is wearing vivid, rich clothing, and is strutting with his head held high. As the camera cuts between a bird's-eye view of him to eye-level shots of the children, we see the children wearing dark, dirty clothing, and looking down. These contrasting shots and cuts show that Mr. Bumble is of a higher class and that he has power over the lower class children. This is a common trope of the media, as the working class are typically shown to have less power than the upper class. The camera continuously cuts between the children eating their gruel, with the only sound being the clash of spoons against bowls. This sound suggests that the children are starving, which is another common representation of the lower class. However, later we see upper class men enjoying a large feast, which juxtaposes the conditions of the children. This shows that the men are rich and also cruel, as they are not using their wealth to feed the children. This representation conforms to the stereotype that the upper class exploit lower classes.