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1、Analysis of Dickens Anti-Semitism Sentiment in Oliver TwistAnti-Semitism is traced back to ancient times in Europe, when Christian European nations distain, detestation, and hatred for the Jewish people began to burst out, and during the long historic period a collective subconsciousness of Christia
2、n Europeans gradually came into being that the Jewish people were dissenters that were born with ugliness, wickedness, and greed. As a matter of fact, Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people, is the parent of Christianity, but on account of various historic factors Christianity reformed some of t
3、he teachings of Judaism and was soon separated from Judaism, developing into a new independent religion. Thereafter, the two antagonistic religions were landed into a long fierce dispute over which nation was the people of the God, and, worse still, Christians launched relentless persecutions and sl
4、aughters against the Jewish people. They even accused Jews of murdering Jesus, which was the heaviest and most effective blow on the Jewish people as the image of Jews was so badly damaged that they became the incarnation of Satan, the evil, in the eyes of the other nations in Europe. A typical exam
5、ple that confirms this is that during the Black Death (a violent epidemic disease of bubonic plague, which swept all Europe during the 14th century) some people believed it a plot by Jews to poison the entire Christian world, and many Jews were killed by panicked mobs. Literature mirrors social real
6、ity, and the abovementioned reality, in return, have directly influenced the writing mode of European literary works and it, to some extent, became a fixed mode of European literature to associate Jews with negative values and devil-like images, as is seen in lots of famous European literary works.
7、To name a few, Chaucer attributes Jews to be murders of Christian children in Canterbury Tales; Shakespeare has successfully created a selfish, covetous and wicked Jewish loan shark in Merchant of Venice. Dickens, without exception, was also affected by this writing mode in that his criticism toward
8、 social reality was unable to disguise his prejudice against the Jewish people. Reading through Oliver Twist, we may have two strong feelings: one is that whenever a conspiracy was to be carried out, the Jewish people never grudged their presence, being either the mastermind of the conspiracy or act
9、ive participants of it. For instance, Fagin, head of the thieves hidden in the most damp, gloomy and filthy street, was a Jew; A servant named Barney in the Cripples, the den of another gang of thieves, was also a Jew. In brief, Dickens never spared his ink in uglifying Jews and the Jewish people we
10、re never absent whenever Dickens wanted to present readers the filthy life of the gang of thieves. The other feeling is that Jews may not be the most cruel or relentless people in the novel, but theyre indeed the most filthy and disgusting ones. William Sikes, a heinous villain that even killed his
11、mistress Nancy, was undoubtedly the most brutal person in the novel. So detestable was he that in my opinion any harsh depiction of him wouldnt have been enough, however, Dickens didnt use any filthy words to uglify him emphatically. While, he used nearly all of the most contemptuous, dirty and hars
12、h words like “villainous -looking and repulsive face”(8), “distorting every feature with a hideous grin”(9) and “with his face wrinkled into an expression of villainy perfectly demoniacal”(19) to describe Fagins appearance, whose most cruel act was just beating Charley Bates downstairs when he came
13、back empted- handed. In Fagins own words “The folks call me a miser, my dear-only a miser, thats all” (9). In comparison with Sikes, Fagin received much more harsh treatment from Dickens, for at least Dickens didnt uglify Sikes appearance. Whats more, in Sikes own words “Ive got the upper hand over
14、you (Fagin)” (15), he despised Fagin from his innermost being for no reason, though, for mutual interest, they often colluded with each other. Every time they were with each other, Sikes was always showing an air of aggression and hurling abuse at Fagin at will. Abusive words like “you covetous avar
15、icious, insatiable old fence” (13), “Sneaking in and out, so as nobody hears how you come or go” (15), and “Its enough to turn a man ill to see his (Fagins) lean old carcass shivering in that way, like a ugly ghost just rose from the grave.” (19) were on the tip of Sikes tongue when he was with Fagi
16、n. The following dialogue between Fagin and Sikes has confirmed Fagins inferiority before Sikes: “I couldnt help it, Bill,” replied the Jew. “I cant go into along explanation before company; but I couldnt help it, upon my honour.” “Upon your what?” growled Sikes, with excessive disgust. “Here! Cut m
17、e a piece of that pie, one of your boys, to take the taste of that out of my mouth, or itll choke me dead.” “Dont be out of temper, my dear,” urged the Jew, submissively. Confronted with these habitual offensive words, Fagin could but reply with abject humility. In fact, the superiority Sikes exhibi
18、ted before Fagin was for one thing coming from his stoutly-built body with“a very bulky pair of legs and large swelling calyces”(13), which formed a sharp contrast with Fagins old shriveled body, but more importantly, was from his non-Jewish descent, as the Jewish people were constantly vilified and
19、 attacked in the then Europe. Another important detail worthy noticing here is that Dickens seldom used “Fagin” but call him “the Jew” throughout the novel, which is not just a matter of a term of address because it implies that Dickens not only despised Fagin as an individual Jew but despised the J
20、ewish people as a whole. The first time Fagin came into readers eyes, he was labeled as “a very old shriveled Jew, whose villainous-looking and repulsive face was: obscured by a quantity of matted red hair.”(8). By describing Fagins hair to be red, Dickens not only purposefully associate Fagin with
21、a devil but also intended to show the racial characteristics of the whole Jewish people through their appearance. Furthermore, Dickens was inclined to describe and talk about the Jewish people in a satirical and contemptuous tone, which was best manifested in the following dialogue between Fagin and
22、 Sikes. “I dont feel like myself when you lay that withered old claw on my shoulder, so take it away,”said Sikes, casting off the Jews hand.“It make you nervous, Bill,-reminds you of being nabbed, does it?”said Fagin, determined not to be offended.“Reminds me of being nabbed by the devil,”returned S
23、ikes.“There never was another man with such a face as yours, unless it was your father, and I suppose he is singeing his grizzled red beard by this time, unless you came straight from the old un without any father at all betwixt you; which I shouldnt wonder at, a bit.” Here, Dickens took advantage o
24、f Sikes to convey his view that only wicked Jewish fathers could beget wicked sons, and every Jew would inevitably inherit his ancestors detestable and filthy characteristics, which were unable to be changed. To conclude, the novel is teeming with Dickens prejudice against the Jewish people. Althoug
25、h Dickens claimed himself to be a realistic writer, he couldnt break away from the worldly prejudice that Jews were poison of social morality. He was badly influenced by the torrents of Anti-semitism in the then Europe, and was tightly fettered by the stereotype of depicting Jews as the spokesmen of social evils.
