English Coursework - Oliver Twist - Fagin

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English Coursework – Oliver Twist

Presentation Of Fagin In Charles Dickens’s Novel Oliver Twist

In the novel Dickens makes his personal opinions well known. He felt very strongly that the laws were unfair for poor people and that the way children were treated in those days were also extremely dreadful. Oliver is portrayed as a typical orphan of the Victorian era, in that he is placed in the workhouse after his mother died and is given food and shelter during his childhood, However he is treated very badly by the head of the workhouse. It is important to understand that the way Dickens uses his language to illustrate his views on social reform and how loose the laws were that allowed characters such as Fagin to exploit the system. Dickens wanted the laws changed to help he poor and also wanted children to be treated .

In Victorian times the attitudes towards Jews were extremely negative, Jews were viewed as the lower class. Dickens also appears to have this attitude as he describes Fagin in a very negative way. Dickens describes “the Jew” , Fagin, in an extremely bad light, as a dirty red haired man who uses children to pick pocket for his own living.

The area around where Fagin lives is also dreadful; Dickens uses his language to describe the area in a very dreadful way. Dickens describes the area where a Fagin life as the worst place Oliver has ever seen. He starters off by saying “A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen”. This is a bold opening and immediately tells the reader the place that Oliver has been taken to is not good. “The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours”, this paints a horrible picture in the readers mind. By using this language the picture painted in the reader’s mind is exactly what Dickens wants the reader to picture. The area where Fagin lives is extremely disgusting and Dickens wants the area to reflect the same as the Jew, Fagin. He also describes how the people act in the area: “where drunken men and women were positively wallowing in filth”. Dickens felt very strongly that the attitudes of some people living in poor conditions were also wrong, this is well known were he describes the people as “positive wallowing in filth. Dickens wants the reader to get a accurate feel of the atmosphere in this area, the description of the area also gives a build up to Fagin. He also stereotypically describes the Irish in this descriptive paragraph. “The public houses, and in them, the lowest orders of the Irish were wrangling”.

The Irish in those days were viewed as being, like the Jews, lower than the rest of society. They were viewed as the drunken and one of the worst types of people in those days. Dickens uses the Irish to give the reader another dimension of feeling into the area, the reader knows because the Irish are there the place is bound to be bad.  All the description of this area gives a sense of suspense to the reader and makes them presume that where Oliver is taken will be pretty dirty and disgusting like the area.

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Oliver after being taken through the alleys into a house where he meets Fagin. Inside the house the Dodger is asked what seems like a password. “Now then!” Cried a voice from below in reply to a whistle from the Dodger”

“Plumy and slam” was the reply.”

“Plumy and Slam” was Victorian slang that meant “All Right” (it was apparently a Victorian underworld slang which was used between 1860 and 1910. Dickens first instalment of Oliver twist was written in 1837. This could mean that Dickens coined the phrase and from his books it was more widely used in the ...

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