Mr. Leonard
April 5th 2012
1983
Oliver Twist: By Charles Dickens A villain is key to any great piece of literature. Their main purpose is to act as the antagonist of the piece and work against the protagonist. This friction between the villain and hero makes the story more interesting and adds to the suspense and conflict. Their are many different types of villains, with some being more brash and upfront while others are more reserved and sly. The latter tend to be more villainous and sinister because the author does not fully explain his or her motives or give background information on the villain to explain what has led them to turn out this way. The main villain in Oliver Twist is Fagin. He is described as a dirty, ugly looking man who has a weird sense of humor and possesses devilish characteristics. He take in young boys and gives them shelter in exchange for them pick pocketing for him. Throughout the book Fagin’s villainy seems to grow with his deeds becoming more and more sinister and scary as the book progresses and as he and his henchmen continue their search for Oliver. This adds a lot of suspense and tension in the book and his growing evil carries on with him to the very end right before he is about to be executed by hanging. Fagin’s first appearance shows his satanic characteristics with him standing over a fire and holding a toasting fork and how he takes in younger boys and corrupts their minds, breeding them into hardened criminals. At the beginning of the book he is just described as criminal who teaches boys how to pickpocket for him and give him the proceeds. His negative qualities only seem to fall into him being negligent about the deplorable conditions of the children, by allowing them to smoke and drink gin with other adult criminals and still being a complete miser even though he has accumulated a large sum of money from the work of others. Yet when Fagin is first introduced, the reader by no mean sympathizes or justifies his actions. But yet he is seen as a lesser of two evils. Even though his motives for taking children and giving them shelter are very wrong and unjustified, he nonetheless is taking them of the streets and providing them with minimal food and shelter. Therefore at the start one sees him to be just a low life criminal who tricks children by saying that he will provide for them when in reality he is just extorting them, but not someone who murders and has no remorse for his actions. The character of Fagin alludes to that of Wizard played by Robin Williams in the film August Rush. Like Fagin, Wizard also takes children of the street and gives them shelter in a rundown theater and teaches them music in exchange that they become his street performers and make him money. This is just like how Fagin teaches boys like Oliver to be pickpockets and steal for him. The character of Oliver alludes to that of August, who is also and orphan and trying to find his way back to his family. Both boys are being used for their respective skills and want to escape the grips of their captors. However the only difference between the stories of both boys is that Fagin is revealed to be almost mentally disturbed and psychopathic and will do anything to obtain Oliver, while Wizard who still has a very sinister side to him does not kill or do physical harm to August to force him to stay with him. As the book progresses Fagin’s lack of heart and remorse is clearly seen through his actions. The readers hear Fagin talking to himself about how he cares less for the children that are hanged for there crimes and more about how now they will not “peach” of him or the other children. Along with showing the lack of heart of Fagin, it also gives the reader an impression of what it was like for children to live during the mid 19th century at the time of the Industrial Revolution. The comments of those such as Fagin show that children where greatly disregarded and did not seem to be of any value to society, but where merely items which could be easily replaced when one ran away or died. Fagin’s true colors are really revealed and his darker side comes to light when Oliver is taken in by Mrs. Maylie. He severely beats Arthur for not bring Oliver back until Charles begs for his mercy. Fagin also directly and intentionally causes the death of Nancy by falsely telling Sikes that she had betrayed him, when reality she was protecting him. This shows that even amongst the criminals no one was safe from Fagin’s treachery and cunningness. Fagin’s evilness and scary persona carried on to the very end when he was captured and about to be executed. His satanic character was shown when he refused to pray the night before of his execution and while being led to his scaffold he becomes so mad that none of the guards want to be alone with him. Fagin’s character in the book brings to light that society was so disturbed and focused away from God and into many wrong doings and chasing the wealth that the Industrial Rev. had to offer, that it had let Satan slowly creep in and take control. For years it revealed that Fagin avoided light, public places, and openness and chooses to reside in his dark lair. However even with all the villainy, cunningness, and evil that Fagin possesses the story still shows that good always wins over evil with the demise of Fagin. And this acts a light on all the darkness, evil, and gloominess that is spread over this time period and especially the children of the society.
Fagin’s growing evilness as the book progressed is what led to his downfall because for the first time he was out in the open trying to hunt down Oliver Twist and was leaving a bloody trail while doing so, and therefore it caught up with him and he was executed in the end.