Modern nation's anxiety and control logic are well portrayed in Dickens's Oliver Twist. This article explores how the modern nation had treated the ‘surplus population’ who were not only excluded through the order construction processes of the modern nation but also regarded as a presence necessary to be completely controled in order to be deposited for the benefits of the nation. This article explores the problem of surplus population with a focus on the bastard clause. The new poor law's ‘real’ spirit was represented by the bastard cause which put the economic responsibility of extramarital intercourse only on the shoulder of woman. The portrayal of Oliver who was a bastard raised in a workhouse but morally wholly innocent presented fundamental criticism toward the bastard cause. On the other hand, in the portrayal of the heroines, the woman who exerted sexual restraint was rewarded a stable home supported by a husband but the woman who yielded rashly to male sexual desire was not given the ‘privilege’ of the home. Thus, the representation of women indicated that Dickens did not get away from his age's conservative conception about women's sexuality.