Resumen de El Quijote y Oliver Twist

María Teresa Vázquez de Prada Merino

• Dickens in the preface of Oliver Twist says he was impressed by the Spanish novel El Quijote and he was going to try to imitate the critical methods used by Cervantes in order to show the society of his age. Considering this remark, this paper tries to show how the English writer reflects El Quijote in Olíver Twist. These books coincide in the criticism of captivity and tortures. They parody the courts. The adventures and mishaps on the road serve to describe the social problems. Both authors emphasize the differences between the social classes. There are similar characters like El Caballero del Verde Gabán and Mr Brownlow, Don Quijote and Oliver who represent the tragic struggle between noble ideals and reality. We can find parallelisms in the structures and finally we observe that the two novels are written for instructive purposes. Their ends are conventional and ennobling.