Christine Baisley   

The Novel I

October 17, 2002

Oliver Twist Essay Exam #2

The Women in His Life

              Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist illustrates various types of personalities in both sexes.   In particular, Dickens’ female characters are viewed as good, bad, and a struggle between the two.   He neither paints a picture of women as being totally pure and good nor completely beyond redemption.   His view of women and their roles is quite forgiving and less Victorian in nature than his time would have accepted.   Dickens accurately depicts women of all sorts who have been born to wealth and luxury and were pure of heart to women raised on the streets whose lives have been riddled with sin.   For instance, a few more notable female characters who Dickens writes about are Nancy, Rose Maylie, Mrs. Maylie, Mrs. Bedwin, Mrs. Bumble, and Agnes Fleming.   A few lesser female characters who are depicted as quite static and one-dimensional are Mrs. Sowerberry, Charlotte, and Mrs. Mann.

              Dickens takes a unique stance among authors of the Victorian era by creating women with faults and flaws who are able to seek redemption.   He shows that women, like Nancy and Agnes, can eventually make amends for their sexual indiscretions that brought them so much shame and pain.   The character of Nancy is probably most valuable to Oliver Twist because she is the most human.   Nancy is neither all good nor all bad.   Within her exists the basic human struggle between being good and just and full of sin.   She has grown up on the streets, poor and alone.   Her only aid came from Fagin, who turned her into a thief and criminal.   She was forced to endure the bitter cruelty of the real world and to survive by any means necessary.   Nancy—however she had sinned by drinking to excess, stealing, and carrying on with Bill Sikes, and probably selling herself as a prostitute—was good at heart.   She gave up her life for Oliver's sake.   Even before Nancy met in secret with Rose and Mr. Brownlow to disclose the truth about Fagin and the rest of Oliver’s captors, she tried to protect young Oliver.   Nancy threatened Sikes to “keep back the dog, Bill!” (115).   She reiterated that he should “keep back the dog, he’ll tear him to pieces.”   Nancy then boldly declared that “the child shan’t be torn down by the dog, unless you kill me first.”   This act of selflessness is a testament to Nancy’s true character.   She has sinned and been a party to numerous criminal acts, but she never lost her compassion.   She showed more compassion for poor Oliver than anyone had ever shown her.   In the end, Nancy drugged and deceived Bill Sikes, a man she oddly cared for on some morbid level, in order to save Oliver.   Nancy is the only character who illustrates Dickens’ personal sentiment that poor people weren’t born criminals, but that society’s harshness made them so.   She was born destitute and alone, destined to a life of misery, pain, and indiscretion, but was able to rise above her circumstances and demonstrate an immense capacity for love.   She died by the hands of her lover, tormentor, and captor with redemption and empathy from Oliver, the reader, and Dickens.  

              Another example of a strong female character is Rose Maylie.   However, Rose was depicted with a greater emphasis on the Victorian ideal of a woman willing to give up her own hopes for the sake of others.   Unlike Nancy and Agnes, who had suffered for their sexual indiscretions and were forced to redeem themselves and gain forgiveness through the sacrifice of their own lives, Rose merely sacrificed her own happiness.   She wouldn’t consider marrying Harry Maylie because she felt her dubious past would tarnish his political ambitions.   Rose was portrayed as pure and angelic.   She was the saintly savior who swooped in and saved Oliver.   Her kindness was inordinate for a woman who had suffered so much as she had, having been orphaned and left to a cottage family to be raised.   However, Rose was saved from herself by Mrs. Maylie, who raised her as her niece.   Rose was kind and just and exemplified Victorian ideals by being good and pure while accepting her role to sacrifice for the sake of others.

              Another hugely important female character was the mother of Oliver, Agnes Fleming.   Agnes was only spoken of, but she left a lasting impact on the plot of the novel.   She had an “affair” with Mr. Leeford, who was separated but not divorced from his own wealthy older wife, whom he was forced to marry.   He inherited a large sum of money after he had impregnated Agnes.   However, he died bitterly sad in the presence of his first wife and rueful son, Edward “Monks” Leeford, because he thought Agnes killed herself.   Agnes truly died in childbirth with Oliver.   She had sinned by giving birth out of wedlock, but redeemed herself by leaving and sparing her family the shame of her sins.   Agnes sacrificed her life to uphold her family’s good name.   She didn’t seek proper medical treatment at home because she felt obligated to flee and free her family from her sins.

              Another good-natured character is Mrs. Bedwin, the servant of Mr. Brownlow, who helps Oliver recover from his illness.   She shows a tender affection for Oliver, reminiscent of a grandmother, and is only matched in her kindness by Mrs. Maylie.   Mrs. Maylie couldn’t bear to let Oliver go to jail for the burglary and conspired with her doctor, Rose, and her servants to claim that he had no part in the crime.   She then saw that he received medical attention and was educated in literature and other societal matters once he had recuperated.

              On the other end of the spectrum are the “shrews” of the book: Mrs. Bumble, Mrs. Sowerberry, Mrs. Mann, and Charlotte.   Those women were depicted as shrewd, “hen-pecking,” overbearing women, consistent with Dickens’ own experiences with women.   Having a bad marriage himself, Dickens seems biased and set in showing women whom by no means fit the Victorian ideal.   Mrs. Bumble, formerly Mrs. Corney, was the workhouse matron who was cruel and unforgiving of the destitute masses she was to look after.   She cared little of Oliver and his life when she and her own Mr. Bumble sold Monks the locket stolen by Old Sally from Agnes Fleming.   She was controlling of Mr. Bumble, a particularly cruel and arrogant man, and talked him into dealing with Monks.   Mrs. Bumble represents the lowest of all women with respect to her virtues, her character, and her actions.   She is self-involved, materialistic, only concerned with making money, and given a “high” by her position of authority.

              Mrs. Sowerberry, too, is a shrewish woman whose grasp on her husband’s emotions allows for her to manipulate him into getting rid of Oliver.   She represents the innately cruel.   She cares not for what will come of Oliver if he is returned to the workhouse, only that he go and no longer receive any kind attention from her husband.   Even her name draws upon an image of a “sour” person, unable to be anything more than controlling and nagging.

              Following in Mrs. Sowerberry’s footsteps is her servant Charlotte, who dislikes Oliver because her dear Noah dislikes him.   She is a clingy half-wit whose only actions are the direct result of Noah’s orders.   Charlotte steals from her employer’s till because she wants to give it to Noah; she takes extra food from her master’s plate to give to Noah; she eventually joins and steals for Fagin’s group because of Noah.   She is an annoying character whose mere presence is an insult to the integrity of all decent women.   She is by no means genteel, but she allows for herself to be dominated by Noah, which further illustrates the Victorian ideal.

              Charles Dickens took great care to create a wide range of characters, both male and female alike.   He ran the gamut from the worst of all sinners, to the in-between women, to the most pure.   Actually, he was quite forgiving of women who had sinned, which was uncommon for his era.   He showed that sinners could redeem themselves and that wrong acts didn’t make a person.   However, the influence of the Victorian ideals manifested in his decision that sinners like Agnes and Nancy could only seek redemption through the sacrifice of their lives.   He created the hope that women were good and able to be accepted by society, but he didn’t allow for his own characters to be accepted.   The women of Oliver Twist make the book what it is.   They bring us back to reality with their thoughts and actions and eventually lead Oliver to be saved from his life.

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