Dickens’ account of identity Anonymous College

While facets of Oliver’s identity are indisputably innate, such as his morality and one dimensional goodness, the majority of his identity and that of those around him are socially constructed and enforced upon them. Oliver’s own face, an attribute completely uninfluenced by society acts as a symbol of his childish purity and innocence. While essentially already labelled as a thief, Oliver’s face is enough to convince Mr Brownlow otherwise. ‘There is something in that face.’ ‘Can he be innocent?’ Dickens’s use of italicized ‘Can’ suggests the strength of the identity constructed and imposed upon the boy within the few hours of knowing him. The idea of this street thief’s innocence is met with significant disbelief from a character who’s used by Dickens’s as the only voice of judgement, reason and wisdom. The juxtaposition between the innocence emanated by something as obvious and unmissable such as Oliver’s face and the flimsy accusations of his guilt by the court expose the absurdity and absolute irrelevance of any socially constructed identities, especially those concocted in the trial scene yet also reveals their strength and prevalence.

Of course, Oliver’s guilt cannot be decided on his face or looks but this line of...