Our Dickens Champions Mitchell Classic Book Group have been reading Oliver Twist. Here are what members of the group thought:
What Rosalind thought…
Having been influenced by cartoon versions of Oliver Twist, I was struck by the biting satire and depiction of gratuitous violence in the first few chapters – Mr. Bumble’s treatment of Oliver; the sweep’s, Mr. Gamfield’s cruelty to the donkey.
Dickens’ understanding of social psychology seems very modern: ‘Oliver … was in a fair way of being reduced, for life, to a state of brutal stupidity and sullenness by the ill usage he had received.’ (Chapter 4)
At a time when slavery had been made illegal as foreign trade, the reference to orphan children being bought as slaves was horrifying. The musical of Oliver and other children’s adaptations have caricatured Mr. Bumble and other Board members into funny, ridiculous figures, but Dickens’ characterisation of them is chilling and brutally raw.
In Chapter Five, Mrs Sowerberry (“vixen”) gives Oliver (now ten) dog’s food and he is made to sleep in the cellar next to coffins. It is ironic that Noah Claypole calls Oliver “Work ’us” but he is a charity boy himself – his father had been a drunken soldier and his mother a washerwoman. Again, Dickens shows a vital awareness of environmental influences in a sentence dripping with sarcasm:
‘It shows us what a beautiful thing human nature may be made to be; and how impartially the same amiable qualities are developed in the first lord and the dirtiest charity boy.’
Dickens sympathy is not just confined to children; his description of the funeral of the woman dead of starvation is appalling.
When the action moves to London, Dickens gives his readers a horrifying picture of the “den of thieves”. Whereas Fagin can be seen as having some human emotions, Bill Sikes is very frightening indeed, and would be considered totally psychotic nowadays. His characterisation, together with the description of Smithfield, made me think of film noir and the recent wave of Scandocrime. Interesting, though, that he sends up the genre of good murderous melodramas in Chapter 17.
Nancy was the most interesting character to me. Her conflict between wanting to do the right thing and her love for Bill created suspense. Was she eventually going to help Oliver or was she going to co-operate in ruining him? I liked Dicken’s tongue-in-cheek description of Nancy, the street-walker, making her way to the police office:
‘…notwithstanding a little natural timidity consequent upon walking through the streets alone and unprotected, she arrived in perfect safety.’
In contrast, the description of Rose, especially in her fever, was incredibly saccharine and melodramatic. How could Dickens slip into such a stereotype of the “pure” woman, especially after his criticism of melodramas? She is far too faultless and perfect to be considered human.
The latter is my only criticism, however. I found I couldn’t put the book down. Having expected that the novel was going to be a worthy read that would do me good, instead, I found its appeal very direct and immediate. And the names were terrific!
What Brian thought…
For me, it is the character of Fagin in Oliver Twist that is most memorable. Eliza Davis complained to Dickens about his ‘vile prejudice’, prompting Dickens’ revision of the unprinted part of the novel to remove the universalised references to Fagin as ‘the Jew’, but Fagin is such an embodiment of vice that it is surprising there were not more objections.
Perhaps there were not because, although Fagin was exaggeratedly grotesque, anti-semitism was commonplace in English society. The plans of Bevis Marks synagogue (built over a century earlier) are unsigned. The architect (believed by some to have been one of Wren’s assistants) did not want to be associated with Jews. Moreover, the design is that of a Christian church and the building is deliberately hidden from the public street.
How many of us still unthinkingly accept Fagin the rascally Jew without it even occurring to us that this in itself is a kind of anti-semitism? In the musical Oliver his stereotypical rascality is actually portrayed with affection.
Critics, such as Anthony Julius in his book, Trials of the Diaspora, have argued that anti-semitism may be inherent in our literary culture. Fagin is just one example of it and we need to see him in that light.
What Mario thought…
It’s quite likely that many of the readers who had enjoyed his first novel
Pickwick Papers were more than a little surprised and bewildered when Dickens followed it up with Oliver Twist.
Both novels first appear in serial form and some of the later episodes of Pickwick coincide with early chapters of Oliver and yet the two could hardly have been more different; the former was a light-hearted romp round merry England and the latter a mainly dark tale of low life in Victorian London.
Perhaps he wanted to demonstrate his versatility as a writer because as he states in the preface to Oliver Twist it is perfectly reasonable for ‘Once upon a time’ stories to deal with the unpleasant as well as the pleasant, the villain as well as the hero. At the same time he perhaps wants to be seen as a writer with social awareness, religious conviction and a philanthropic outlook which will transform the ‘Once upon a time’ stories to identifying and improving the here and now.
To the criticism that his characters are not true to life, Dickens says this:
It is useless to discuss whether the conduct and character of the girl (Nancy) seems natural or unnatural, probable or improbable, right or wrong. IT IS TRUE.
He insists that there are people like Nancy who can and do change and, somewhat paradoxically, people like Sykes and Fagin who are past the point of no return in their degeneracy.
I don’t disagree with this view, and the characters, especially the criminals, are well drawn and still alive and well two hundred years later. In fact, for me, it’s this that constitutes the book’s main achievement along with the insights it gives to the social ills of the day and in particular the grim workhouse and its unfortunate inmates who are ‘despised by all…pitied by none’.
As to the plot and the manner in which the evildoers are punished and the virtuous receive their rewards, credibility is stretched to breaking point. However if a story begins ‘Once upon a time’ I suppose a ‘Happy ever after’ ending is not out of place. But herein lies the problem and the reason why, for me, Oliver Twist isn’t a well written book but rather a patchwork of social commentary and storytelling.
What Matthew thought…
The novel is called Oliver Twist and it concerns his various adventures, but Oliver seems a mere cipher and is never really developed as a character. The people considered kind and morally correct are never clearly defined, and add very little to the development of the novel ie. Mrs. Maylie, Rose, and Dr. Losberne. Mr. Brownlow, Oliver’s benefactor, becomes more pronounced near the end of the novel as he forces Monk’s confession to being Oliver’s brother and of his misappropriation of the inheritance, and he pursues the accusation against Bill Sykes and Fagin for the murder of Nancy.
There is something symbolic in the death of Bill Sykes as he is pursued by the mob and tries to escape across the roof tops. He slips and the rope he is holding becomes entangled around his neck and he is hanged – even his dog is killed. Was this action meant by Dickens as a kind of justice preceding the courts? The imprisonment of Fagin, and his eventual execution, is one of the most powerful chapters in the novel and has a strong narrative context.
Mr. Bumble, the beadle, starts off as an authoritarian figure until his marriage to Mrs. Corney, and their dealings with Monks. He becomes a mere caricature of his former self, and at the hands of Mr. Brownlow they are reduced to the workhouse and paupers of their former charge. Mr. Bumble sums up his downfall to the fact he did not remain a bachelor.
Mr. Giles, who acted as butler and steward to Mrs. Maylie, and his assistant Brittles, a lad of all work, having entered the service as a child and considered a promising young boy at the age of thirty, pursue the burglars. This is the incident when Oliver is wounded, and Mr. Giles and Brittles, being short of breath and enthusiasm, are glad to give up the chase and to appear to have carried out their duty. Together with people like the Artful Dodger (John Dawkins) who latterly wants nothing to do with Bill Sykes and even Noah Claypole. One can relate to such characters through experience and therein lies the novel’s strength.
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