Art of Characterization in Oliver Twist

Paper no:E-C-204

Topic:  Art of Characterization in Oliver Twist

Name: Gohil Hetalba

Roll No :5

Class:M.A,Sem-2

Submitted To:

Dr Dilip Barad

Department of English

Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar

       

Oliver Twist was enormously influential in bringing to light the atrocious treatment of paupers and orphans in Dickens's time. The novel is not only a brilliant work of art but also a tremendously important document in social history.

Oliver Twist 

  A Symbolic character: Oliver is the central character of the novel. He is also a link among the three different worlds depicted in the novel-the workhouse, the crime world and the world of the genteel middle class people. Dickens wanted to make him an instrument of exposing the inhumanity and the callousness o0f the workhouse and the underworld. He belongs to no class. Oliver is symbolic of the principle of good. And Oliver being a deprived and out casting child. Monks He is more a mysterious force than a real character. 

Oliver is the hero of the novel. But he’s also a child, and can’t always act for himself. We often find that we know things that he doesn’t, just by virtue of being older and wiser than he is. We don’t always sympathize with him the way we do with protagonists that are older and more worldly. So Oliver’s status as a child protagonist is one element that bears more consideration. 

Mr. Bumble 

The parish beadle; a rat man and a choleric with a great idea of his oratorical powers and his importance. He has a decided propensity for bullying. He derived no inconsiderable pressure from the exercise of petty cruelty and consequently was a coward. Halfway through the book, bumble changes. When he marries Mrs. Corney, he loses authority. She makes all the decisions. 

The Artful Dodger 

   A talented pickpocket, recruiter, Jack Dawkins, as the artful dodger, is a charming rouge. Fagin’s most esteemed pupil. A dirty snub nosed, flat-browed, common-faced boy (short for his age). Dickens makes Dodger look more appealing by describing his outrageous clothes and uninhibited manners. 

Fagin 

   A master criminal, whose specialty is fenang (selling stolen property),. He employs a gang of thieves and is always looking for new recruits. He is a man of considerable intelligence, though corrupted by his self-interest. His conscience bothers him after he is condemned to hang. He does have a wry sense of humor and an uncanny ability to understand people. He is a very old shriveled Jew, whose villainous looking repulsive five was obscured by a quantity of matted red hair and wit. 

Mr. Brownlow 

 A generous man, concerned for other people. A very respectable looking person with a heart large enough for any six ordinary old gentleman of humane disposition. 

Nancy 

Nancy might be the most complicated character of the novel. Despite being a relatively minor character, she has a very important role to play. Nancy Nancy is a drab (prostitute) working for Fagin’s gang. Only two aspects of her nature are given prominence-.She agrees to respect Oliver and bring him back him back to Fagin’s den. Later when she overhears the conspiracy being hatched by Fagin and Monks, She decides to restore Oliver to the genteel world from where she had captured him. She might have been if she had grown up in a different environment