History Literature / OliverTwist

The story has been adapted many times throughout the years, a list can be found [[DerivativeWorks/OliverTwist here]].

The story has been adapted many times throughout the years, including:

* ''Oliver Twist'' (1922), featuring Creator/LonChaney as Fagin and Creator/JackieCoogan as Oliver
* ''Oliver Twist'' (1948), directed by Creator/DavidLean and featuring Creator/AlecGuinness as Fagin
* ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'', the stage musical, and its film adaptation ''Film/{{Oliver}}''
* ''Oliver and the Artful Dodger''
* ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', a loose adaptation part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, with the roles mainly played by a group of talking dogs (and one kitten) in 1980s NYC.
* ''Series/EscapeOfTheArtfulDodger''
* ''Film/{{Twist}}''
* ''Film/BoyCalledTwist''
* ''Oliver Twist'' (2005), directed by Creator/RomanPolanski, with Creator/BenKingsley as Fagin and Creator/MarkStrong as Toby Crackit
* ''WesternAnimation/SabansAdventuresOfOliverTwist'', an animated series that casts the characters as anthropomorphic animals.
* ''Las Aventuras de Oliver Twist'', a Mexican animated adaptation.
* ''Series/TheArtfulDodger''

* AccidentalSuicide: [[spoiler:Bill Sikes, whose part in Nancy's death has come to light and is suffering from [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane either a guilty conscience or is being haunted by her]], tries to escape a lynch mob by tying a rope around his waist and jumping to safety from a rooftop. However, when he's just got the rope over his head, he experiences a hallucination/visitation, slips on a loose shingle, and [[HangingAround hangs himself]]]].

* AdoptingTheAbused: Oliver is orphaned at a young age, and sent to live in a workhouse where he is overworked and underfed, along with all the other boys there. When he loses a lottery to ask for more food, he is expelled from the workhouse, and ends up in the company of Fagin, a professional thief. But on his first outing as a pickpocket, Oliver is instead taken in by his intended victim, Mr. Brownlow, then the Maylie family after Fagin reenters his life and forces him to attempt another robbery, before ultimately ending up in the care of Mr. Brownlow again, after a series of circumstances reveals that Oliver is actually from a well-to-do family and was sent to the orphanage by his evil half-brother to keep Oliver from his rightful share of the inheritence. In fact, Mrs. Maylie is his maternal aunt.

* CorneredRattlesnake: Fagin is, by nature, cowardly, and he avoids direct confontations with both the law and more violent criminals, such as Sikes. But when his back is to the wall and he's facing execution, his fits of violent, frantic madness horrify even his jailers. He has to be dragged to the gallows kicking and screaming.

%% * EvilMentor: Fagin.
%% * EvilRedhead: Fagin and Toby Crackit.

%% * TheFagin: TropeNamer.

* GreedyJew:

%% * HeartwarmingOrphan

%% * IncorruptiblePurePureness: Oliver and the Maylies.

* TruthInTelevision: Charles Dickens wrote the book based on many problems that were prevalent in English society at the time. Fagin was a representative of a type of criminal found in the slums of that day, called a "kidsman." They would train young runaways and "throwaway" children to pick pockets, and pay them for the proceeds, as well as providing a place to sleep. Oliver Twist himself gets used as what was called a "snakesman"--a young child or very small adult who could insinuate himself into places where an adult could not pass, to open doors and allow older, larger confederates to enter.

!!Tropes unique to the 1948 adaptation

* AdaptationalContextChange: Although the film omits Fagin being sent to prison, he does scream out the lines he has in the book in his death cell, "Strike them all dead! What right have they to butcher me?"

* {{Catchphrase}}: Lots of the characters have them. Perhaps the most memorable is "I'll eat my head!"

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Agnes Fleming, Oliver's mother, is turned into Brownlow's daughter, rather than simply the paramour of Oliver's father. (This plot device also showed up in [[Theatre/Oliver the musical.]])

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Agnes Fleming, Oliver's mother, is turned into Brownlow's daughter, rather than simply the paramour of Oliver's father. (This plot device also showed up in Theatre/Oliver.)

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Agnes Fleming, Oliver's mother, is turned into Brownlow's daughter, rather than simply the paramour of Oliver's father.

''[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[{{Series/Seinfeld}} No soup for you]].-] ]]''

* ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', a loose adaptation part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, with the roles played by a group of talking animals in 1980s NYC.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Oliver in the 2007 version. Normally, Oliver is barefoot because the workhouse doesn't give him shoes, and he is dressed properly by Mr Brownlow, but in this adaptation, he actually removes his shoes voluntarily due to them hurting while on the walk to London, and remains barefoot for almost the rest of the series.

* AdaptationExpansion: The 1999 TV series spent a considerable amount of time focusing on Oliver's parents, Edwin and Agnes, and his half brother Edward, before the original plot of the book begins.

The story is one of Dickens' most famous tales and includes some of his most enduring characters, including the crooked Jewish ringleader Fagin and the sly Artful Dodger. Like many of Dickens' works, the novel contains a great deal of social commentary on the way British society at the time treated its poor. Of particular note is the famous scene in which the starving Oliver begs for more gruel from the workhouse cook and is harshly punished.

* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: The orphans when they're found are given a name from the next letter of the alphabet (ie. Oliver (Twist) was proceeded by a Swubble and followed by an Unwin, followed by a Vilkins and so on), with their last name related to place they were found.

* ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', a loose adaptation part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, featuring a cast of TalkingAnimals in 1980s NYC.

* ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany''

* RaceLift: In a 2007 BBC television adaptation, Nancy is played by Creator/SophieOkonedo. Contrary to her appearance in the novel, she is mixed-race in this version.

* GenderFlip: Sikes is played by Creator/LenaHeadey in the 2021 movie ''Twist''.

* ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}''

* CoolOldGuy: Mr Brownlow.
* CoolOldLady: Mrs Maylie.

* EvilMentor: Fagin.
* EvilRedhead: Fagin and Toby Crackit.

* TheFagin: TropeNamer.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HeartwarmingOrphan

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Oliver and the Maylies.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: The chimney sweep, Mr. Gamfield, has three dead apprentices to his name, but is shown beating his donkey on the head as a more direct illustration of what fate would be in store for Oliver, should he get him under his care.

* NiceHat: The Artful Dodger is mentioned to wear a hat which (like the rest of his attire) doesn't quite fit, but which stays on his head at all times because he's developed the habit of jerking his head just right to keep it on. One early illustrator decided that the hat should be a slightly-battered top hat, which has since become a beloved icon of the character.