Incoherent Ramblings

Poor Fagin. He has a name, but he's usually referred to as The Jew, to the point where it starts to sound synonymous with villain. Dickens couldn't just make him a regular old predator, he had to also make him an antisemitic caricature. It's a shame-- in and of itself, obviously-- but also because Fagin is one of the more enjoyable characters to read about if you can get past the offensiveness of it all. Dickens has a habit of portraying wrongness with humour and goodness with saccharine religiosity, so that I want to leave Rose's pastoral idyll as soon as possible and go back to the den of thieves. I have much more affection for Nancy, the Artful Dodger, and Charlie Bates (or Master Bates, as Dickens unfortunately insists) than I do for Brownlow or the Maylies (though I do love the servants). Mr. Bumble's marriage surprised me whereas Rose's marriage felt requisite. And Oliver's mystery is more intriguing from Monk's perspective (maybe his father didn't want to love him and maybe that's partly why he turned out the way he did). Monks is on a revenge mission, so he always has something to do. But as long as there are kind adults around to shelter Oliver from the action, then that's what happens. If this were a children's book, Oliver would get to participate the whole time (and it would be even darker). As it is, Dickens isn't trying to empower children to fight for themselves, he's trying to encourage adults to fight for children-- all children, not just their own. Which is fine. I just think I'd like the safe haven scenes better if he'd maintained a satirical tone throughout.

Although, Dickens so earnestly champions the angel in the house, the tireless homemaker who perfectly anticipates everybody's needs, always smiling, breathes life into everything she touches, that you could read those scenes as satire. It is kind of laughable. I don't want to disparage Rose at all; it's Dickens that I'm laughing at. I think there's a scene in Tale of Two Cities where Lucy is described similarly and Charles asks her, "How do you do it?" And I thought, Miss Pross. Miss Pross is how she does it. Same with Oliver Twist. The Maylies don't keep the staff on for nothing. I realise this is a little unfair, since I mainly remember the butler for shooting Oliver and I remember Rose for wanting to help Oliver even while thinking he was a burglar, and for wanting to help Nancy. She is first and foremost compassionate, as we're urged to be throughout the story, and not just the magical fairy that is the Victorian feminine ideal.