Its mean-spiritedness and its potential for corruption were memorably pilloried in the early novel by Charles Dickens (1812–70), Oliver Twist, where the eponymous orphaned boy creates an uproar in the workhouse by asking on behalf of the starving inmates for a second helping of gruel. Written in 1837–9, the novel caricatured the pomposity and hypocrisy of the parish board members responsible for running the workhouse, described the painful and pointless work the inmates had to perform, and condemned the ineffectiveness and cruelty of the system.
Oliver Twist as a critique on the workhouse.
