Monday, June 2, 2014
Charles Dickens promoting Anti-Semitism?
It appears to me that Charles Dickens has portrayed Jewish people quite poorly in the novel of Oliver Twist especially on how he characterizes the main antagonist, Fagin. Fagin is an evil thief who so happens to be a Jew. There are plenty of ethnic stereotypes displayed in the novel especially concerning his appearance with a large ugly nose and also how Jews were usually considered evil in society especially back then. They were highly looked down upon which also characterizes Fagin who is living as a common city thief. There also appears to be constant references to him as "The Jew" indicating that it is his ethnic identity that connects to his negative personality. The portrayal of Fagin as the very manifestation of evil and the devil provides much dark attitude towards Jews especially since the novel states how Fagin is said to appear in the nightmares of children. These supporting evidence in the novel helps show that perhaps Charles Dickens felt a very strong Anti-Semitism view towards the Jewish population.
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It seems characters were rarely described as jewish in Charles Dicken's time and location. I found I few quotes that Dicken's said about the manner. "It unfortunately was true, of the time to which the story refers, that the class of criminal almost invariably was a Jew." Dicken's had a lot of knowledge of the London street life and the likes, so it's possible he is speaking from experience. He wrote in a letter, regarding the terms he uses to describe Fagin, "I have no feeling towards the Jews but a friendly one. I always speak well of them, whether in public or private, and bear my testimony (as I ought to do) to their perfect good faith in such transactions as I have ever had with them..."
ReplyDeleteThough Dicken's did have other books with Jewish characters that seem to be referred to in the same way. So, while he did seem to have some excuses for Fagin, I think it's possible he held negative views towards Jewish people.