Fagin
Although Dickens denied that anti-Semitism had
influenced his portrait of Fagin, the Jewish thief’s
characterization does seem to owe much to ethnic
stereotypes. He is ugly, simpering, miserly, and
avaricious. Constant references to him as “the Jew”
seem to indicate that his negative traits are
intimately connected to his ethnic identity.
However, Fagin is more than a statement of ethnic
prejudice. He is a richly drawn, resonant
embodiment of terrifying villainy. At times, he
seems like a child’s distorted vision of pure evil.
Fagin is described as a “loathsome reptile” and as
having “fangs such as should have been a dog’s or
rat’s.” Other characters occasionally refer to him as
“the old one,” a popular nickname for the devil.
Twice, in Chapter 9and again in Chapter 34, Oliver
wakes up to find Fagin nearby. Oliver encounters
him in the hazy zone between sleep and waking, at
the precise time when dreams and nightmares are
born from “the mere silent presence of some
external object.” Indeed, Fagin is meant to inspire
nightmares in child and adult readers alike.
Perhaps most frightening of all, though, is
Chapter 52, in which we enter Fagin’s head for his
“last night alive.” The gallows, and the fear they
inspire in Fagin, are a specter even more horrifying
to contemplate than Fagin himself.
Fagin is pretty clearly a bad guy. We're not quibbling with
the fact that a dude who thinks, "Ooh! Million dollar idea!
Let's turn little boys into crooks!" is basically wearing a
sticker that says Hello, My Name Is Evil.
Ugly Stereotype (And Not Just
Because Fagin Ain't A Looker)
But the racial prejudice apparent in Dickens’s
characterization of Fagin can make readers (super-duper)
uncomfortable. Dickens often refers to him only as "the
Jew," and a lot of traditional racial stereotypes against
Jewish people are used: he’s miserly, has red hair, and is
a corrupter of children. Who knew Dickens was an antiSemite?
We have to back up for a moment here. For a long time
(until very recently, actually), people thought that Fagin
was based on a real guy who sold stolen goods (a.k.a. a
"fence") named Ikey Solomon. Ikey Solomon happened to
be Jewish, but the stereotype was there before Solomon
or Fagin came along—the limited number of careers open
to people of Jewish descent did indeed drive some Jewish
people to illegal activity—but certainly the majority of
criminals in London at Dickens’s time were still Christian.
Dickens was really only a casual anti-Semite. He was no
more prejudiced than most of his peers, and actually less
so than most. But even knowing this, the level to which
he allowed various anti-Jewish prejudices color his
portrayal of Fagin still makes readers more uncomfortable
than wearing a wool sweater in July.
Fagin Redeemed?
Later in his career, Dickens tried to make up for the
racial stereotype in his portrayal of Fagin—his last
completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, has a Jewish
character named Riah who is as virtuous as Fagin is
villainous. As well, the 1867 edition of Oliver
Twist changes a lot of the references to "the Jew" to "he"
or to "Fagin." Does this make up for the anti-Semitism?
No... but knowing something about where it came from
makes it a little more comprehensible.
The final chapter about Fagin (3.14: The Jew’s Last Night
Alive) shows how alienated Fagin was from the rest of
society. And not just from society, but from the entire
human race. He’s in a crowded courtroom, and is
surrounded "by a firmament all bright with beaming eyes"
(52.1). The crowd of people is reduced to this one feature:
their "eyes" (the narrator doesn’t describe any other part
of their body in that paragraph). So Fagin is made into a
spectacle, and his own sense of individual identity is
totally squelched by their "inquisitive and eager eyes."
In this scene, Fagin seems totally numb to what is
happening to him, and he ends up watching what goes on
in the courtroom "as any idle spectator might have done"
(52.7). And later, when he looks into the crowd, "in no one
face […] could he read the faintest sympathy with him"
(52.3). So Fagin is out of sympathy with the entire mob
here—no one can identify with him.
Of course, that’s not at all surprising, given how
frequently he’s cast as sub-human, or rat-like, or demonlike. For example, right after he finds out about Nancy’s
conversation with Rose and Mr. Brownlow, he "looked less
like a man than some hideous phantom" (47.1), or when
he’s in prison, when his face looks "more like that of a
snared beast than the face of a man" (52.34).
Character Analysis Fagin
Fagin, the mastermind among the criminals, is as ugly in
appearance as he is repulsive in disposition, but he is not
a one-dimensional figure. In Fagin, Dickens has
attempted to portray a character who displays some of
the complexities of normal human nature. When
incensed, the old man may give way to savage rage, but
on ordinary occasions he indulges in a mocking,
sometimes sarcastic humor that earns him the nickname
of "the merry old gentleman." This very fact is in itself an
example of sardonic humor, of which Dickens is a master.
It is plain that Fagin's status among the thieves is a
result of his considerable talents. He is shrewder and
more reflective than his companions. While they may
swagger with the cockiness of young men or brood like
the sadistic Sikes, Fagin understands and appreciates the
delicacy of their position and the urgent necessity for
prudence and tireless vigilance when leading a life of
crime. He demonstrates his analytical bent in his lectures
to Oliver and Claypole on the theme of interdependence
among the lawless.
When not caught off guard, Fagin can exercise
extraordinary self-control, even under extreme stress. So,
after recovering from the initial shock brought about by
his discovery of Nancy's meetings with the enemy, he is
able skillfully to prod Sikes to commit murder.
Meanwhile, the old crook controls himself enough to
caution Sikes against excessive violence — always having
in mind the perils of a careless move.
There are some traces of human feeling left in Fagin's
self-serving nature. On several occasions, he shows a
trace of kindliness toward Oliver. On the night that he
maneuvers Oliver into the Chertsey expedition, the old
man checks his impulse to disrupt the persecuted child's
sleep. The next day, he earnestly entreats Oliver to mind
Sikes without question, for his own safety.
The following essay questions have all been taken from official
SQA past papers. If you are to write a good critical essay you
MUST keep to the task set. If you do not answer the question
you cannot pass.
For each task, you will find an essay plan. The plan contains
suggestions as to the points you might make when tackling each
question. You should keep in mind, however, that the examiner
is looking for your PERSONAL response to the text.
Choose a play in which a character gains your sympathy
because of what happens to him/her in the play.
Say what happens to the character in an important part of the
play and explain why you feel sympathy for her or him.
In “The Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty’ by David Calcutt, Terry
Dumpton,nicknamed Humpty Dumpty by a gang of bullies at his
school, is electrocuted and killed when he climbs a pylon to
retrieve a frisbee.
This happens right at the very start of the play but it is not until the
end that we find out that this was not an accident.
Through flashbacks we find out about the events leading up to his
death. In other scenes we learn about the police investigation and
how Terry’s parents and others in the community are affected by
what has happened to him.
We feel sorry for Terry for a number of reasons:

His father spent a year in prison and the family decided to move
to a new area where no one would know them. However, the
school knows about his dad and so do lots of the neighbours.
Terry is ashamed of his dad. At one point he tries to make his
dad’s crime seem more exciting/daring than it actually was and
he denies being a thief like his dad when his mum accuses him of
stealing money from her purse.

He has to start at a new school. This is tough enough but he is
bullied almost from the beginning.

His only friend, Sammy, is a member of the gang but Sammy is
too afraid to stick up for Terry.

Terry ends up stealing money from his mum to pay Stubbs not to
beat him up. We know he feels bad about it because he says he’s
not like his dad and he smashes up his models which obviously
meant a lot to him.

The bullying gets so bad he stops going to school altogether.

The head teacher at his school refuses to believe that he is being
bullied. She blames Terry himself and tells his dad that Terry is
making it up to excuse the fact that he has been skipping school.

Stubbs sees Terry’s dad at the school and uses that as an excuse
to set up the ‘task’ to prove that Terry is not a grass. This leads
us back to the wasteground where the play opens and we see that
Pete and Stubbs had set up the whole stunt with the frisbee. It
seems unlikely that Stubbs will feel sorry for what he has done.
In the final scene of the play we find out that Stubbs and Pete had
planned to send Terry up the pylon to test him. They may not have
expected him to die but Stubbs doesn’t care. It is terrible that Terry
should die simply because a bully couldn’t deal with his victim’s
response to the bullying.
The 'Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty' is a play by David
Calcutt.
It is about a boy called Terry Dumpton who is nicknamed
Humpty Dumpty. He is bullied in his new school by a gang
lead by cruel, cunning Stubbs. Terry's only friend, Sammy, is
a coward who can't stand up for himself. As the bullying gets
worse, Terry begins to play truant (skip school) which worries
and annoys his working-class parents, but they are powerless
in the end.
In the opening scene, the bullies and 'hanger-on' Sammy are
pressuring Terry into climbing a pylon (electrical building) to
go after one of the bullies' Frisbee. To prove he's not a
coward, poor Terry climbs the pylon but gets electrocuted. He
dies - this is the Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty.
The rest of the play consists of Mrs Dumpton's reminiscence
of the worrying events leading up to her son's tragic death,
and the police inquiry into Terry's death by two police officers.
In the end, scared, cowardly Sammy finally owns up to what
happened to Terry and justice is done.