THE PANOPTICISM AND :

THE WORKHOUSE OF
OLIVER TWIST
TAMSA PANDYA
ROLL NO: 28
EMAIL ID: TAMSAPANDYA25@GMAIL.COM
PAPER NAME: THE VICTORIAN LITERATURE
SUBMITTED: S.B.GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH , MKBU
 THE PANOPTICISM AND : THE
WORKHOUSE OF OLIVER TWIST
THEORY OF SURVEILLANCE: THE
PANOPTICON
 THE PANOPTICON was proposed as model prison by J.EREMY
BENTHAM (1748-1832).
 A type of prison where the inspector constantly moniters labours, capitalism,
Marxism in the 18th century saw the emergence of such prison and
workhouse for children.
 Higginbotham, the first dictionary entry for the word workhouse dates from 1652,
being described as “The said house to bee converted for a workhouse for the poor
of this cittye and also a house of correction for the vagrant and disorderly people
within this cittye” (http://www.workhouses.org.uk/).
What is Panopticon/cism?

PAN=ALL

Panopticon

OPTIC=EYE/V
ISION
 FOCAUIT’S PANOPTICISM
 Michel Foucault's concept of "Panopticism"
(Described in his book "Discipline and
Punish: The Birth of the Prison" (1975))
is based on Jeremy Bentham's idea of the
"Panopticon". Bentham, a very utilitarian
philosopher, offered the Panopticon as a
highly efficient model for a prison.
 Foucault took this idea by Bentham as the
paradigm for modern system of discipline.
For Foucault the ideas behind the
Panopticon and the way they are manifested
are actually of process Western society went
through, becoming a "disciplinary society".
For Foucault Panopticism is a theory of
how power works
 COUN..

 In Panopticism Foucault attacks the identification of power with the state and
the law, and he offers a much more distributed notion of power as something
which permeates all aspects of life, including the most intimate. In addition,
power for Foucault is not oppressive, but rather productive: it does not stop you
from doing things as much as it causes you to do things. One thing that power and
discipline produce for example is the individual which is a subject with a sense of
choice and independence which is becoming ever more controlled by power.
 COUN….

OBSERVER

INDEPENDENT
“ THE
CONDIFIED TO
PUNISH TURNS
IN TO A REVOLT
DISCIPLINARY
POWER TO…..
 OLIVER TWIST AND
THE WORKHOUSE
The hardships of the Victorian
workhouse led Oliver Twist utter the
famous phrase ‘Please Sir, I want
some more’. Here Ruth Richardson
explores Dickens’s own experiences of
poverty and the social and political
context in which he was writing.
 THE NEW POOR
LAW.
The Poor Law (Amendment) Act of 1834,
otherwise known as the 'New' Poor Law,
established the workhouse system. Instead of
providing a refuge for the elderly, sick poor,
children and instead of providing food or
clothing in exchange for work in times of high
unemployment, workhouses were to become a
sort of prison system.
THE WORKHOUS BOY
 The workhouse system was hated, and people did
everything they could to avoid becoming subject to it.
Life in the early 1800s was miserable for those born
into poverty.. The Poor Laws of 1834 centralized the
existing workhouse system both to cut costs and
discourage perceived laziness. They resulted in the
infamous workhouses of the early Victorian period:
bleak places of forced labor and starvation rations,
and a frequent subject for popular music and literature
– notably Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1812–
1870), first published fully in 1838.
 SO WHAT….

Here we learn how such children and labourers

were disturbed by the deadly paradox of
panopticism, the new dimension of FOCAUIT’s
works are mainly worked to change the whole
situation. Prohibition prevailing in the eighteenth
century is considered a black spot in history today
 Works Cited
 Blogger. 21 November 2017. 25 February 2020.
<http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2017/11/foucaults-panopticism-explained-
with.html>.
 Foucault, Michel. "Discipline and Punish The Birth of Prison." (n.d.): 36. pdf. 25 February
2020.
<http://static1.squarespace.com/static/567014ec0ab377e17adc4887/t/56b8b91a555986293
525957f/1454946588942/disciplineandpunishEDIT.pdf>.
 Nicar, Amy. Prezi. 26 March 2014. 25 February 2020.
<https://prezi.com/8j9v_hbbeifs/the-panopticon/>.
 Ruth, Richardson. British Library. 15 May 2014. 25 February 2020.
<https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/oliver-twist-and-the-workhouse>.
 The Workhouse The Story of an institution. n.d. 25 February 2020.
<http://www.workhouses.org.uk/>.