This cruelty is not nameless or faceless, it is just so prevalent that not all the perpetrators can be named. Bumble is often directly involved in the institutional unkindness that Oliver faces. Although the parochial board that decides Oliverâs future carelessly and without sympathy is largely anonymous, the man in the white jacket generally voices the specific cruel sentiments, so that they are not presented as having come from nowhere, or just from laws, but from the individuals in power. The cruelty of these institutions, however, is not separated from the cruelty of individuals. Although institutions show both passive and active cruelty in Oliver Twist, active cruelty is more prevalent, a move that serves to exaggerate and thus satirize this cruelty and make it seem intentional. Dickens wrote the book largely in response to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which represented the government's both passive and active cruelty to the poor and helpless. The cruelty of institutions and bureaucracies toward the unfortunate is perhaps the preeminent theme of Oliver Twist, and essentially what makes it a social novel.
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