Oliver Twist And Anti Semism Essay, Research Paper

Charles Dickens being anti-Semitic when portraying the character Fagin as

"the Jew", in his classic story Oliver Twist, or was he merely

painting an accurate portrait of the 19th Century Jew in England? Some critics

seem to believe so. Though there are no indications of neither anti-Semitic nor

racist slurs throughout the story, Dickens’ image turned out to follow the path

of his time and place in history. The result is an enlightened picture of

Victorian England’s image of the Jew. The attitude towards Jews and Jewishness

in 19th Century England demonstrates that Dickens was a man of his time. His

attitude reflected the common British belief that Jews were villainous thieves.

Fagin, a thief, is described by Dickens as "a very old shriveled Jew, whose

villainous and repulsive face was obscured by a quantity of matted red

hair"(Dickens 87). This common depiction of the Jew was accompanied by the

stereotype that they had big noses and lured orphaned children into their filthy

dens and turned them into derelicts. He was a thief because he did not have any

skills, nor was he welcome anywhere. On the other hand, to describe Fagin in any

other light would have to give the impression that Jews just might be humans

after all. In reading this story, I discovered Fagin to be somewhat likeable and

misunderstood. Though revolting to look at, having a repulsive disposition, and

having manners and hygiene left to be desired I could not help but to feel sorry

for the old guy. All he wanted to have was security in his old age. For example,

when Fagin sees Oliver looking at him while admiring his treasures, Fagin asks

the boy if he had seen any of his pretty things. Oliver tells him that he did.

"Ah!" said the Jew, turning rather pale. "They- are mine, Oliver;

my little property. All I have to live upon, in my old age. The folks call me a

miser, my dear. Only a miser, that’s all" (Dickens 1961: 91). I also found

Fagin to be very charming in instances, almost likeable and having some

redeeming qualities. Another example of Fagin’s humanity is seen in the way he

treats Oliver. Although Oliver plays a totally utilitarian role to Fagin, he

becomes protective of him, even though the motives are purely selfish. When not

being watched, Fagin has great self-control, even under duress. He is always

cautioning Sikes against violence. There are some signs that Fagin still has a

shade of humanity left in his perverted character. Several times throughout the

story he exhibits some kindness towards Oliver. He checks his motives before he

acts. Though the reader is still at bay with his actions, he still seems to have

some sort of a conscience. It could be argued that Fagin and Oliver are somewhat

similar. Though the reader does not see this at first, more in depth reading

reveals that Oliver and Fagin mirror each other in who and what they are.

Oliver, a boy without a home, Fagin, "The Jew", without a country.

Fagin, in fact, is not seen as an Englishman. He is Jewish, which is a race all

its own. Fagin is the outsider, unlike Oliver. His Jewishness places him at even

more a disadvantage than Oliver’s orphaned status. Both characters echo each

other in asking for more; they are placed in oppositions so that for Oliver to

claim his rightful place in society, Fagin must die. Dickens’ stereotypical

association of Fagin with a class of criminal perceived by him as almost

invariably Jewish is based on a particular awareness of the commonly accepted

wicked practices of this kind of Jew. Dickens’ stereotypical association of

Fagin with a class of criminal perceived by him as almost invariably Jewish is

based on a particular awareness of the commonly accepted wicked practices of

this kind of Jew. In Dickens and his Jewish Characters, Dickens answers a letter

from a Jewess woman who wrote him concerned with the fact that Dickens may be in

fact an anti-Semitic and wanted to allow Dickens to reply as to why the

characterization of Fagin. His response was that "Fagin in Oliver Twist is

a Jew because it unfortunately was true, of the time to which that story refers,

that the class of criminal almost invariably was a Jew" (Dickens 1918:9).

Critical reviews have been inclined to argue that Fagin is only a Jew in no more

than name. "His main claim to Jewishness", contends critic Harry

Stone, "is the fact that Dickens constantly labels him ‘the Jew" (Felsenstein

239). The point being that Fagin, though belonging to the Jewish people, has no

distinguishing characteristics of one who practices the Jewish religion.

According to Stone, Fagin, as a Jew, lacks actuality. The crucial point being is

that, even though Fagin does not reflect the true meaning of what Judaism

represents, Fagin’s "Jewishness" flows far more distinctly from

Dickens’ creative mind of the attributes of the anti-Semitic stereotype that has

plagued the Christian beliefs for so long. Fagin is what might be considered a

"Wandering Jew". Medieval legend details this type of Jewish character

as condemned by Christ to wander over the earth until he comes again. That, I

see, is Fagin’s punishment for all the wrongs he has done society. But, in

retrospect, Victorian society had harmed him also. The Jew has been persecuted

from the beginning of time. The Apostle Paul killed Jews until they converted.

Then Martin Luther came along to try to make all the Jews assimilate and convert

to Christianity. Then, of course, there was Hitler. Persecution and horror beset

these people. They did nothing to deserve that. They were just practicing what

they believed and who they were. In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, the Jew

Shylock was forced to become a Christian after he condemned Antonio for not

paying him back. This is an unfair proposition. The old adage, you can take the

boy out of the religion, but you cannot take the religion out of the boy rings

true for this. I have to wonder what it feels like to read or hear references to

your culture, race or religion by one who is not of your group. As a woman from

a multi-ethnic family, (my father and grandparents were Jewish, and my

great-grandparents and my grandmother were Holocaust survivors), knowing what it

feels like to have ethnic slurs thrown is very familiar to me. From my

perspective, I know the picture of what Dickens’ created in Fagin separates them

from the humanity of the rest of the world. Unlike the other characters in the

novel, Fagin’s life is unsayable and unnarratable. His being is spiritually

different from other characters in the story. His language of charm, including

the "my dear" and "deary" (Dickens 1961) is not of the

Queen’s English. Jewish life on the streets of London is a cultural description

of who and what they are. The racial names are from observers and apparently

biased individuals. The supposed criminality of the Jews is also

unsubstantiated. Fagin is not of that class. Neither is he a martyr or victim.

Fagin is simply the devil’s tempter for the Christians. Fagin is an anomaly. The

impact of his isolation depends on the ways in which every other character in

the novel is part of the group. Fagin never becomes part of any group, so

therefore he is isolated, not only as "The Jew", but as a member of

his own society. Fagin stands alone. He has no double. The story structure

assimilates Jew and criminal into one person and one race. Jewish readers are

not fond of this idea. Fagin on the other hand is king among the thieves. He is

more devious than his cohorts are. While they may strut with the cool of the

younger members of the group or brood like the diabolical Sikes, Fagin

understands the gentle nature of the children’s positions and demonstrates great

reserve when it comes to teaching them. He shows his persuasive lectures to

Oliver. He wins people over with his charm, though through devious ways. I liked

Fagin, to put it simply. He represents not only the poor in 19th Century

England, but he also represents a race in which no understanding or compassion

can be reached. If Fagin were to be a schoolteacher or a doctor, then people

might have had a different view of him and his "Jewishness." But even

then, the society of that time would not have let him live the fact of him being

Jewish down. They might have characterized him as snobbish, opportunistic and

"scrooge like". I do not believe that Charles Dickens was being

anti-Semitic in his portrayal of Fagin. I believe that he truly was depicting

him as the person he was, who just happened to be Jewish. England in the 19th

Century attest to the strength of a tradition in which it was not uncommon to

depict the Jews as crucifiers, Judases, murderers of innocent Christian

children, and eternal wanderers. The weak hold of this tradition was brought

about, it has been claimed, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and

attention being paid to ancient superstitions concerning the Jews during the

latter part of the 19th Century. Unfortunately, any attempt to reconstruct how

the telling and retelling of biblical tales in rural England colored popular

attitudes toward contemporary Jews. Despite Dickens never intending a harmful

portrayal of the Jews, the immediate effect of Fagin may well have been to hold

back their struggle for emancipation and recognition in this important era of

time. Dickens’ Jew exemplifies the prejudices that may otherwise have remained

untalked about. Dickens gave me the impression that he respected Jews and their

plight, but in turn was realistic in the fact that he described them as

unsentimental and unaware of the degradation that they face. This is portrayed

at the end of the story. Fagin is being given a guilty verdict. Fagin will be

hanged. His religion is once again repelled when religious people come to pray

with him. He refuses them and has hallucinations. Dickens portrays a disturbing

picture of the ultimate punishment due to a life of evil and crime. Once again,

Fagin is isolated, but now as the criminal. The courtroom scene is evidence that

no one wishes to have anything to do with him except to watch him die. Chapter

LII gives us Fagin’s trivial thoughts as he awaits his verdict: There was one

young man sketching his face in a little notebook. He wondered whether it was

like, and looked on when the artist broke his pencil-point and made another with

his knife, as any idle spectator might have done? Not that, all this time, his

mind was for an instant free from one oppressive overwhelming sense of the grave

that opened at his feet; it was ever present to him, but in a vague and general

way, and he could not fix his thoughts upon it. Thus, even while he trembled,

and turned burning hot at the idea of speedy death, he fell to counting the iron

spikes before him, and wondering how the head of one had been broken off, and

whether they would mend it or leave it as it was. Then He thought of all the

horrors of the gallows and the scaffold – and stopped to watch a man sprinkling

the floor to cool it- and then went on to think again (Dickens 1961:469).

Dickens did portray the character of Fagin in a fair and just light. Fagin was

an awful man, driven by greed and loneliness. Perhaps the only true happiness

that Fagin could find was that of vicarious pleasure. In other words, love

through others, things that others owned and places that others lived. In the

end, Fagin just wanted to be a part of. I read this story several years ago and

saw the movie musical. I don’t remember the depictions of Fagin, or any other

characters, being portrayed in the light as I have discovered in doing work on

this paper. That is a shame of being an adult and seeing the atrocities being

handed to people because of race or religion. One might ask why I was so

interested in doing this paper. I did it for my own peace of mind. Dickens’ is

not a Jew hater. He is a realist and his brilliant work in Oliver Twist not only

makes for good reading, but also makes one think. After all, isn’t that what

literature is all about?