The Irony of Dickens In Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, a boy named Oliver lives his strange life in Fagin’s pickpocket street gang, and workhouses. Through his life he has people and groups of people who both help and deceive him. Charles Dickens uses a technique known as ironic reversal of values to make a profound effect in the way the novel is perceived. That is, characters with the responsibility to aid Oliver don’t, those expected to treat Oliver harshly do the opposite, and characters in the upper class fall to poverty while those in poverty become the upper class. Oliver's life begins in a workhouse, when in less than a year he is transferred to a private