Analysis of the Main Characters’ Needs in Oliver Twist from the Perspective of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abstract

Oliver Twist tells us about the tough experiences of the main characters and faithfully depicts the underworld of the UK during the Victorian reign. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory classifies human needs into five hierarchical levels. The gradual realization from low-level needs to high-level needs is a process to pursue life values. Nancy and Oliver have similar life experiences, but their final fates are different. The reasons lie in the realization of the five-level needs during their formative years. This paper focuses on the life experiences of Nancy and Oliver and the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of their five-level needs in the light of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and reveals the underlying reasons for their disparate fates, so as to enhance the understanding of the connotation of this novel. Through the research, we can come to realize the wide applicability of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. When an individual’s basic material and survival needs are met, he would gain impetus for higher level needs. The gradual realization from low-level needs to high-level needs is a process to pursue life values. By reading Oliver Twist, we can come to recognize Dickens’s belief that the poor and the disadvantaged could get rid of their tragic fate with the benevolent help of the morally noble ones from the upper class, but he didn’t pay adequate attention to the crux of the social problem, that is, the lower class often fail to meet their hierarchical needs due to personal and external factors. Therefore, analyzing the main characters’ needs in Oliver Twist with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can provide the readers a new perspective to understand this novel and help to testify to the importance of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in understanding the causes of social problems during the Victorian reign.