Is Nancy the most important character in Oliver twist?

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Is Nancy the most important

character in Oliver twist?

Charles dickens wrote Oliver Twist in 1837, during the Victorian era of England, he was born in Landport, a suburb of Portsea, on February 7, 1812. He was their first child of eight siblings. John Dickens, Charles's father, was not good with handling the family's money. He was then imprisoned for debt on February 20, 1824. This experience left Charles psychologically scarred. Charles had to take the role of being "the man of the house" and had to start working at about the age of twelve. Charles Dickens attended school for a short while but worked the majority of his life.

Dickens uses the characters and situations in the book to make a pointed social commentary, attacking the hypocrisy and flaws of institutions, including his society's government, its laws and criminal system, and its methods of dealing with poor people. Interestingly, he doesn't suggest any solutions; he merely points out the suffering inflicted by these systems and their deep injustice. Dickens basically believed that most people were good at heart but that their good impulses could be distorted by social ills.

Oliver Twist was a young boy born into a workhouse but orphaned, as his mother dies straight after giving. Oliver is then left for life in an orphanage; he decides to run away into London and soon gets involved in the underworld. Although the whole novel revolves around Oliver Twist, my coursework question will be focusing on Nancy, and how important she is in the story.

Dickens was influenced to write Oliver twist by his childhood experiences, of how suitably well he was living and then suddenly dropped to experience poverty and mistreatment. This experience that young Charles has encountered drove him into getting a message across to the higher part of society (rich people), to help realize the poor, unjust treatment of the lower part of society (poor people). That is why Charles Dickens decided to write Oliver Twist in order to get that message across to the readers.

When Oliver Twist runs away to London he meets Fagin and the pickpockets, at this stage of the novel young Oliver is naïve, as he describes Fagin to be a “merry old gentleman”. There is a huge difference in the way that Charles dickens describes him, he describes him as, “ A very old shrivelled Jew, who’s villainous looking repulsive face was obscured by matted red hair.” During Victorian times, the readers would stereotype Fagin to be a greedy, selfish, unsympathetic and evil just for the fact that he was a Jew. To a modern audience Fagin’s Jewish ness could suggest that he is a victim of prejudice and has been discriminated. Which would push him towards leading a life of crime. E.g. in later times Jews were discriminated by the Nazis and treated badly as Shylock in the merchant of Venice.  

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Dickens introduces Nancy to the readers through Oliver’s eyes. I think she is a very important character or probably the most important character because the reader cannot help but feel sympathy for her. Dickens uses Oliver’s description of Nancy, as it would produce more sympathy towards her. Dickens tries to earn sympathy for Nancy only; in fact, she is the only member of the criminal underworld he does this for. “A couple of young ladies called. Being remarkably free and agreeable to their manners, Oliver thought them very nice girls indeed. As there was no doubt they were.”

Nancy, ...

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