Oliver Twist Funeral essays

Oliver Twist Funeral essays In the book, Oliver Twist, Oliver, an orphan apprentice to Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker, attends a funeral with Mr. Sowerberry to gain experience in the funeral trade. There are many things to learn about the customs and procedure of funerals of that time. On the day of burial, the undertaker and bearers of the coffin arrive at the clients house to retrieve the deceased person. They put the corpse in the coffin and transports it to the cemetery where they will meet the clergymen. The participants of the funeral followed the bearers and the undertaker to the grave where the coffin is to be buried. When they reach the grave, the clerk would put on his surplice and do the burial service where he reads off a paper and leave. After the service, the gravedigger buries the coffin in a grave with other coffins in the same plot of land. The people involved were not treated well because right after the burial was finished, they were ushered out of the cemetery quickly. This happened to the husband of the deceased wife. He fainted while they were burying his wife and was splashed with cold watered and carried outside the cemetery to walk back to his house. The old woman who was the deceased womans mother cared more about the cloak she was given by the undertaker and about keeping it than about the burial of her daughter. The cause of this womans death was of starvation and a fever. Her husband was begging for food on the streets and was arrested. When he came back to his abode and saw his wife, she was starved and feverish. The irony of her death is that the woman was given medicine in a blackening bottle to help her, but the husband said that she cant take the medicine and gave it back. Some people back then didnt care much about the loss of life and some did. A funeral comes with many procedures and traditions which some are still used in todays funerals. ...