SHE IS UNTIDY AND FREE IN MANNER, BUT THERE WAS SOMETHING OF THE WOMAN’S ORIGINAL NATURE LEFT IN HER STILL. In Oliver Twist, the characters portrayed present destructive forces. These characters represent self-interest. The characters are always looking out to advance themselves in matters either financial or otherwise. They posse’ qualities are that people hide from the general public. These qualities, the want to control, greed, envy, idleness and jealousy, to name a few, are hidden from those they interact with, but there are some that they associate with that they reveal their mind to.
“HE IS SO JOLLY GREEN! ” THIS REMARK BY CHARLEY BATES, SHOWING OLIVER’S PURITY, FURTHER SHOWS US THAT FAGIN IS WILLING TO CORRUPT AN INNOCENT SOUL FOR THE SAKE OF HIS GREED, AS WE FIND OUT LATER ON THAT HE WAS COMMISSIONED BY MONKS TO CORRUPT THE BOY FOR MONEY. HE TRIES TO MAKE OLIVER AS ONE OF HIS BOYS BUT IN THE END HE DOES NOT SUCCEED. FAGIN SEEKS TO CORRUPT EVEN THE INNOCENT, WHICH MAKES HIM DOUBLY DIABOLICAL, ALMOST EVIL. It seems that although these destructive characters draw to them others, they do not give their trust over to these characters.
Always there is some ulterior motive in their actions. As in Fagin’s assent to let Sikes use Oliver in his schemes has proved, self-interest is always the underlying motive. When Fagin lets Sikes get the boy for his purposes, we find out that he only does so to get Oliver in trouble with the law so that Monks’ directives to Fagin will get fulfilled and Fagin collects a lot of money, and so does Monks, who it turns out is Oliver’s half-brother who gets all the inheritance if Oliver is disgraced in the eyes of the law. “I mean to be a gentleman”, said Mr. Claypole, kicking out his legs…
He means to be a swindler, as his speech dictates to us, and as he needs someone to show him how it’s done, Fagin was more than happy to oblige him. “I have got a friend that I think can gratify your darling wish, and put you in right away, where you can take whatever department of business you think will suit you best at first, and be taught all the others” Fagin and Sikes have this underlying quality of greed and self- interest which draws them together. Even Noah Claypole, while not corrupted yet, is drawn in to Fagin’s group because of his predisposition towards Fagin’s type of living.
Fagin offers him a place in his gang, which Noah, dishonest critter that he is and predisposed to thieving, most happily accepts. But it is not only the bad characters that draw each other to them-selves, even the good folks draw one another’. As we have seen, those characters that represent the destructive forces of self-interest bring down those that are around them. Even their associates are not proof against their destructiveness. As with what happened to Bill Sikes have proven, those that associate with destructive characters get destroyed.
Bill Sikes kills Nancy, the only one that loved Bill truly and even gives up salvation on his behalf. At Fagin’s scheming urgings, Bill Sikes causes the destruction of all that was around him, and even Bill’s dog was not immune to such a fate. “The eyes again”, he cried, in an unearthly screech” His conscience makes him see Nancy’s eyes as he killed her which causes him to fall. Staggering as if struck by lightning, he lost his balance and tumbled over the parapet. Nancy goes to meet Mr. Claypole, this is a ‘dramatic irony’, dramatic irony is something that the audience know but the characters don’t.
Nancy and the audience know that she is going to meet Mr. Claypole and of course so does 1 character, who is, Noah, even though Fagin doesn’t trust her but still hasn’t a clue what she is going to do. In Oliver Twist, it is Fagin who destroys Nancy’s chance of redeeming herself by poisoning Sikes’ mind with thoughts of her betrayal. He fills Sikes’ mind with insinuations that Sikes gets inflamed with anger which causes him to kill Nancy in the end, not even paying heed to her pleas that he join her in the chance of being better people, breaking away from Fagin’s dominion.
Fagin had Noah Claypole recount the details of the meeting on the bridge but the whole story is edited to put Nancy in the worst light. “A gentleman and a lady that she has gone to of her own accord before, who asked herto give up her not? Pals, and Monks first… She told it all every word without a threat, without a murmur- she did-did she not? ” Sykes has no respect for Fagin and you can tell this by the way he speaks to him. You can see Fagin is afraid of him but Fagin does like to have the last word. If Sykes does not get his own way he will turn to violence as we see with the arguments over Oliver,
“… Looking sternly at him, and ostentatiously passing a pistol into a more convenient pocket. That’s lucky for one of us. ” This shows again Sykes is unpredictable and a bully and brings more tension. When Bill Sykes sees Fagin, Fagin changes the tone of his voice at once. ITi?’s PROBABLE THE REASON OLIVER TWIST CONTAINS SO MUCH FEAR AND AGONY IS BECAUSE ITi?’s A REFLECTION OF INCIDENCE IN CHARLES DICKENS’ PAST. DURING HIS CHILDHOOD, CHARLES DICKENS SUFFERED MUCH ABUSE FROM HIS PARENTS. THIS ABUSE IS OFTEN EXPRESSED IN HIS NOVEL.
