Name: Třísková Michaela, 344483


                     Two orphans facing up to the society of the Victorian era

    The comparison of two film characters - Oliver Twist (Oliver Twist) and Toby (Sweeney Todd)


Time: the Victorian era

Social problem: poverty in cities, paupers – generally viewed by “high class” as robbers and evil
at their birth, corruption, new industrial era

Theme of my comparison: the life of two orphans

Source: Sweeney Todd, Oliver Twist

Characters in the comparison: Oliver Twist, Toby – Oliver is the main character if the film, while
Toby is not

Place: London


     The film Oliver Twist begins that Oliver is taken to an orphanage and from the film we do not
know who was her mother or his father before, equally about Toby in Sweeney Todd. The difference is
that Toby is older and he is already under the patronage of a crazy Italian barber, while Oliver
has to battle with several obstacles than he finds someone who he will stay with. We can suppose
that Toby might have wrestled as well before he got there where he is now, “with the Italian”,
because especially in those time, the Victorian area meant the social change, many people left
their estates in countryside and drifted to a city under the hope of finding a job which would make
them more money. The cities were crowded (it is portrayed in both films) and there were many
orphans wandering around. So both boys are orphans which are the basic common. No one lives with
their proper parents and both lads come from orphanages.

     Oliver firstly lives in a family where he is a servant, the same Toby in Sweeney Todd, he
serves to the “Italian” (in reality it is a former assistant of Todd). Both are not treated well
and both have to support thrashing – Oliver in the orphanage and Toby working for the “Italian”.
When Oliver gets to London, exhausted with his blooding feet, he bumps into a guy who promises him
food and home. But again he gets into clutches of Fagine, the boss of a robber group. Here I would
say that Oliver is a sign of incorruptibility in that time when it was rare. In Sweeney Todd the
corruption is represented by Judge Turpin and in Oliver Twist by the robber group of Fagine. Both
boys are abused and manipulated. While Oliver is manipulated by Fagine’s group, Toby is abused by
the Italian only, but not by Todd and Mrs. Lovett. In both films, there are nice characters
fighting with evil characters, as for Toby   - he is treated well by Mrs. Lovett and Todd but not
by the Italian barber, as well as for Oliver  - by the family he stays with before he gets to
London he is treated badly but not by Mr. Brownlow. The boys live up bad time and happy time too. I
think that it is very important that the film about a social problem should contain welfare and
evil.

     What I took note on was that in the films, independently on each other, the beverage is gin.
Probably in that time people did not cudgel their brains with alcohol given to children. It might
have caused by its price.

     Both boys represent goodness incarnated. But even if they are nice they have to work under the
bad conditions, they are faced up to any forced work to get food and place to sleep. And what is
surprising that these events do not change the behaviour of boys. Even if they have to undergo
several baits, they are in the mean environment they do not change their behaviour. For example the
group of Fagine do not succeed in changing the boy’s character. Even though Oliver has what to eat,
where to sleep, the way of getting it goes against his will.  As for Toby, in his case, through the
film he has no idea what is happening around him, but I can just emphasize the way of treating him
by Pirelli, the barber, when he beats him as it is clear from the talk between Mrs. Lovett and Toby
when he says to her that if he does not do what Pirelli wants to he is punished. And he is grateful
that he can be with them, especially with Mr. Lovett. Here we can see that Toby is very grateful to
Mrs.Lovett for having “home”.

    In spite of the boy’s poorness, no possession, no real home and no possibility to get educated
they abound in intelligence. Both of them know what is wrong and what is right, they know basic
values. Oliver’s intelligence is represented in the film very deeply.

     I would like to add a small note on the appearance of London. The environment of London is
more or less the same. Of course, that these films are of different genres so in Sweeney Todd
London is foggier, grey and it makes you scare. But when we look on the architecture of building,
it is mostly the same because of the same time when the films are set up. As in many films shot in
London St Paul’s Cathedral is presented. The films show us the look of crowded streets as well as
the variety of social classes. And as it is common, Oliver Twist ends happily, while in Sweeney
Todd not for the main characters, from the other point of view, the goodness win over the evil in
both.