Assignment of paper no 6: Portrayal of women characters in Oliver Twist
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Paper No: 6
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Name: Rudrika Gohel
Course: M.A. English
Sem: 2
Batch: 2017-2019
Roll No: 31
Enrollment No: 2069108420180015
Enrollment No: 2069108420180015
Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English MKBU
Email Id: rudrikagohel97@gmail.com
Paper No: 6
Topic: Portrayal of women characters in Oliver Twist
➤ Introduction:-
Charles Dickens is not only the most famous of the Victorian novelists, he is also the most typical. Only surpassed by William Shakespeare, he is the most cherished English writer of all times; his books have never been allowed to gather dust on the shelf. His heartrending and close-to-life tales of the human destinies behind the success of industrial England are an important documentation of the Victorian Age.
Dickens wrote in the Victorian era when women were supposed to be at home and busy in doing domestic works. Victorians admired women that were sexually pure and capable of self-sacrifice. Oliver Twist is an example of such criticism. The women in the novel, Agnes, Rose and Nancy have different social standings and moral strengths. The aim of this essay is analyse the differences and similarities between the female characters, their social status, and show that they all still adhere to Victorian ideals of womanhood.
➤ About the novel:-
Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens‟ best-known works. Oliver Twist was published in intervals, in portions of irregular length, from February 1837 until April 1839, in the monthly magazine Bentley’s magazine, which Dickens was editing.The novel was published in full in the following year. Critics complained about the abrupt change in Dickens writing and the readers did not welcome “the graphic realism” when Oliver Twist was published. His earlier writings portrayed the cheerful Victorian middle-classworld of Mr. Pickwick, which is unlike Oliver Twist with its violence and criminals. Dickens Oliver Twist contains several themes, including prostitution, thievery and fencing. The characters in Oliver Twist can be divided into groups of good and evil. The groups are very different from each other but they all have one thing in common, they struggle with moral issues. To have good morals and virtues was very important in the Victorian era, especially for women.
➤ Victorian view of women:-
Charles Dickens was a novelist of the Victorian Era (1837-1901), which is often characterized as a domestic age. Oliver Twist was written at the beginning of the era, when Queen Victoria and her femininity became an icon. She represented family, motherhood,and respectability. The British middle-class women were at home taking care of the household and the family. Women also spent much time being pregnant but the image of a sexless woman was a part of the domestic ideologies. These ideals kept women from the public sphere. Women in the Victorian Era in Britain show that women were described as perfect ladies, well-behaved and with good morals. Hamlett and Wiggins have written an article about Victorian women in Britain and USA, focusing on the history of Victorian women and their ideology.
So,
Hamlett and Wiggins write:
In Martha Vicinus‟s Suffer and Be Still, we encounter the "perfect lady‟: dutiful and virtuous. Much like
Welter‟s discovery of True Womanhood, Vicinus‟s emphasis on the perfect lady provided scholars with a foundation for interpreting Victorian femininity. The implications of the feminine ideal are that a standard narrative of Victorian women‟s experiences was established along with an image of female domesticity that influenced the adherence to the
separate spheres model that has dominated the
historiography of nineteenth-century women on both sides of the Atlantic.
Oliver Twist was written in the time of idealized Victorian womanhood and all it stands for. Women were only supposed to be at home and perform “women‟s work”. Dickens‟ vision of a perfect woman is a pure, sexless, intelligent and innocent being. He was obviously a man of the Victorian era but he also felt concern for fallen women. In Oliver Twist, Dickens also depicts libidinal women. Dickens was well aware that prostitution was a social issue. He was fascinated by murders and prisons and his writing about Nancy‟s murder in the novel “drove all the breath out of his body”. Dickens had great sympathy for fallen and poor women and saw them as victims of society.
Ruskin argues that men have intellects that suit them for adventure and invention.They are made to fight in wars and conquer the world: this is all in men‟s nature. A woman, however, should rule, not fight, and they are made to make great decisions and make order in society. And Ruskin also writes:-
The man‟s duty as a member of a commonwealth, is to assist in the maintenance, in the advance, in the defenceof the state. The woman‟s duty, as a member of the commonwealth, is to assist in the ordering, in the comforting, and in the beautiful adornment of the state.
➤ Women characters in Oliver Twist:-
The main female characters in Oliver Twist are Nancy, Rose and Agnes. Agnes is a fallen woman because of the “old story” which refers to a woman being pregnant and unwed. Nancy is also a fallen woman, not because of the “old story” but because of being aprostitute and a mistress. The unwed pregnancy is presumably just a matter of time. Agnes and Nancy would not have been approved of in victorian society. Rose, however, is the perfect lady in the novel. Dickens describes her as an angel, a woman with good moral values and standards.
➧ Nancy:-
Nancy is a dissenting woman that falls outside the patriarchal borders and her character subvert domestic ideologies. Nancy belongs to the working class in society which was the lowest class in society. She is 16 years old and works as a prostitute. She is Sikes" mistress and a member of Fagin‟s gang.Nancy is, however, a mixture of good and evil. She is with people that have a bad influence on her: she is living in Fagin‟s house and is Sikes‟s mistress. She decides to do good when she tells Rose about the plans that Fagin and Monks have for Oliver and this shows that she has a good heart.
She is portrayed as a victim of the environment she is living in. Nancy belongs to Sikes, and she feels that she cannot survive without him. Sikes mistreats and abuses her, but she cannot leave him because she has no family and nowhere to go. This indicates her weakness even though she is described as brass in the novel. Nancy is aware that Sikes is not a good man for her, she states it several times in the novel. If she were not living in Fagin‟s house with the rest of his gang members, however, she would be forced to live in a workhouse.
Nancy acts like she is much older than she really is and even though she is confused about right and wrong, she is a dominating woman in the novel. Several times, she protects Oliver from Fagin‟s gang. Nancy acts as a surrogate mother for Oliver although she is only 16 years old. She nurtures and helps Oliver. This makes her a good person but she falls out of the patriarchal order because she is not a real mother or a wife. She improves her character which makes her one of the good people in the novel. Nancy does not get any recognition at all when she ignores her own safety by telling Rose the plans that Fagin and Monks have for Oliver. She sacrifices herself so that Oliver can be saved. Nancy just
strengthens her moral standing, from being an evil character, she becomes a good and moral person. Nancy is stronger because she does not need a man to complete a dangerous mission. She knows what needs to be done in difficult situations. Nancy understands the mechanics of the middle-class system and she tells Rose to get a man to help her to save Oliver.
Sikes murders Nancy when he finds out that she has been talking to Rose. It may be her passion that kills her, the passion to be a good and moral person. Unfortunately she does not get a fair chance to prove that she is a morally upright woman. It is Rose that gets all the attention when Oliver is saved but it is because of Nancy he is saved from Fagin and Monks.
➧ Rose:-
Rose is also an orphan just like Oliver. She was adopted by Mrs. Maylie when she was a young girl. Rose is described as an innocent and perfect girl:
She exemplifies all the attributes of the “mould”: she is young, beautiful, frail, mild, gentle, pure, ethereal, intelligent, sweet, pleasant, charming, coy and blessed. She even possesses the right physiognomy, and she is performing domestic tasks,adorning both table and self for thegratification of others. The “blessed” spirits give her approval. Even Nancy calls her the angel lady.
Rose is an ideal woman of the Victorian era, innocent, sexless and pure. She becomes an orphan when her father dies but is adopted by Mrs. Maylie. Mrs Maylie nurtures her and gives her an identity. Rose has a last name, which Nancy and Agnes are missing. This indicates that, unlike the other women, Rose has an identity and belongs to a family. It also indicates power, power to make important decisions in life, for example she has the
power to resist marriage, or when she does marry a man she does not have to lose her last name which indicates, as mentioned above, a strong identity. She can make decisions and does not have to follow a man like the other women in the novel.
When Harry proposes to Rose, she is worried for her reputation. Her moral standards, beliefs, and angelic
character may be threatened. It isimportant for Rose to have a husband that has good reputation when going out in the public sphere. She is looking for someone that can treat a woman well and protect her from bad people or experiences. Mrs.Maylie is also concerned for her family‟s reputation if Rose marries Harry. Rose refuses Harry, but he does not give up. He gets rid of his wealth so that he can be in the same social
class as Rose. This indicates that he is willing to give up his life for her, but also how powerful a woman can be with her angelic character and Victorian ideals: an “object of pure admiration”.
➧ Agnes:-
Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. Nobody knows his mother Agnes or even her name, and she dies shortly after giving birth to Oliver Twist. Her name is not revealed until the end of the book. Agnes is described as the fallen woman in Oliver Twist. The nameless woman is a symbol and represents the unwed woman. She was a mistress who got pregnant and the scandal of her being pregnant but not married made her die in disgrace. Before Agnes dies she prays and wishes for Oliver to know her name and not feel ashamed of her. Agnes is described as “weak and erring” because of her pregnancy as an unmarried women.
The novel denies Agnes and her name is not revealed until the end of the book. She does not have a “complete” name which indicates identity lost and not being married. The very last words in the novel describe Agnes as “weak and erring”.
It was only the women that could be weak and erring in the Victorian era. Men were not considered weak when they had affairs outside the marriage. Society did not treat women and men equally. Oliver‟s father did wrong when he cheated on his wife. He is excused only because of the fact that he is a man and because he is unhappy with his marriage. But Agnes‟ mistake does not make Oliver “came out of bad blood”. The novel only expresses the disapproval of the sinful relationship Agnes had with Oliver‟s father.
➤ Conclusion:-
Nancy, Rose and Agnes are three characters that differ from each other. They all have different social standings and moral strengths. Nancy, a fallen woman, that works as a prostitute sacrifices her life so Oliver could live. Rose, the perfect lady, is generally self-sacrificing, nurtures and saves Oliver‟s life. Agnes, Oliver‟s mother, dies alone in a workhouse after giving birth to Oliver and sacrifices herself to her family‟s reputation. They
all have different living conditions and different destinies but they all represent goodness and modesty. Despite their differences and social status in society they also share a capacity for self-sacrifice and self-abnegation which the Victorians valued in women.
Work cited:-
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist
➤ Victorian view of women:-
Charles Dickens was a novelist of the Victorian Era (1837-1901), which is often characterized as a domestic age. Oliver Twist was written at the beginning of the era, when Queen Victoria and her femininity became an icon. She represented family, motherhood,and respectability. The British middle-class women were at home taking care of the household and the family. Women also spent much time being pregnant but the image of a sexless woman was a part of the domestic ideologies. These ideals kept women from the public sphere. Women in the Victorian Era in Britain show that women were described as perfect ladies, well-behaved and with good morals. Hamlett and Wiggins have written an article about Victorian women in Britain and USA, focusing on the history of Victorian women and their ideology.
So,
Hamlett and Wiggins write:
In Martha Vicinus‟s Suffer and Be Still, we encounter the "perfect lady‟: dutiful and virtuous. Much like
Welter‟s discovery of True Womanhood, Vicinus‟s emphasis on the perfect lady provided scholars with a foundation for interpreting Victorian femininity. The implications of the feminine ideal are that a standard narrative of Victorian women‟s experiences was established along with an image of female domesticity that influenced the adherence to the
separate spheres model that has dominated the
historiography of nineteenth-century women on both sides of the Atlantic.
Oliver Twist was written in the time of idealized Victorian womanhood and all it stands for. Women were only supposed to be at home and perform “women‟s work”. Dickens‟ vision of a perfect woman is a pure, sexless, intelligent and innocent being. He was obviously a man of the Victorian era but he also felt concern for fallen women. In Oliver Twist, Dickens also depicts libidinal women. Dickens was well aware that prostitution was a social issue. He was fascinated by murders and prisons and his writing about Nancy‟s murder in the novel “drove all the breath out of his body”. Dickens had great sympathy for fallen and poor women and saw them as victims of society.
Ruskin argues that men have intellects that suit them for adventure and invention.They are made to fight in wars and conquer the world: this is all in men‟s nature. A woman, however, should rule, not fight, and they are made to make great decisions and make order in society. And Ruskin also writes:-
The man‟s duty as a member of a commonwealth, is to assist in the maintenance, in the advance, in the defenceof the state. The woman‟s duty, as a member of the commonwealth, is to assist in the ordering, in the comforting, and in the beautiful adornment of the state.
➤ Women characters in Oliver Twist:-
The main female characters in Oliver Twist are Nancy, Rose and Agnes. Agnes is a fallen woman because of the “old story” which refers to a woman being pregnant and unwed. Nancy is also a fallen woman, not because of the “old story” but because of being aprostitute and a mistress. The unwed pregnancy is presumably just a matter of time. Agnes and Nancy would not have been approved of in victorian society. Rose, however, is the perfect lady in the novel. Dickens describes her as an angel, a woman with good moral values and standards.
➧ Nancy:-
Nancy is a dissenting woman that falls outside the patriarchal borders and her character subvert domestic ideologies. Nancy belongs to the working class in society which was the lowest class in society. She is 16 years old and works as a prostitute. She is Sikes" mistress and a member of Fagin‟s gang.Nancy is, however, a mixture of good and evil. She is with people that have a bad influence on her: she is living in Fagin‟s house and is Sikes‟s mistress. She decides to do good when she tells Rose about the plans that Fagin and Monks have for Oliver and this shows that she has a good heart.
She is portrayed as a victim of the environment she is living in. Nancy belongs to Sikes, and she feels that she cannot survive without him. Sikes mistreats and abuses her, but she cannot leave him because she has no family and nowhere to go. This indicates her weakness even though she is described as brass in the novel. Nancy is aware that Sikes is not a good man for her, she states it several times in the novel. If she were not living in Fagin‟s house with the rest of his gang members, however, she would be forced to live in a workhouse.
Nancy acts like she is much older than she really is and even though she is confused about right and wrong, she is a dominating woman in the novel. Several times, she protects Oliver from Fagin‟s gang. Nancy acts as a surrogate mother for Oliver although she is only 16 years old. She nurtures and helps Oliver. This makes her a good person but she falls out of the patriarchal order because she is not a real mother or a wife. She improves her character which makes her one of the good people in the novel. Nancy does not get any recognition at all when she ignores her own safety by telling Rose the plans that Fagin and Monks have for Oliver. She sacrifices herself so that Oliver can be saved. Nancy just
strengthens her moral standing, from being an evil character, she becomes a good and moral person. Nancy is stronger because she does not need a man to complete a dangerous mission. She knows what needs to be done in difficult situations. Nancy understands the mechanics of the middle-class system and she tells Rose to get a man to help her to save Oliver.
Sikes murders Nancy when he finds out that she has been talking to Rose. It may be her passion that kills her, the passion to be a good and moral person. Unfortunately she does not get a fair chance to prove that she is a morally upright woman. It is Rose that gets all the attention when Oliver is saved but it is because of Nancy he is saved from Fagin and Monks.
➧ Rose:-
Rose is also an orphan just like Oliver. She was adopted by Mrs. Maylie when she was a young girl. Rose is described as an innocent and perfect girl:
She exemplifies all the attributes of the “mould”: she is young, beautiful, frail, mild, gentle, pure, ethereal, intelligent, sweet, pleasant, charming, coy and blessed. She even possesses the right physiognomy, and she is performing domestic tasks,adorning both table and self for thegratification of others. The “blessed” spirits give her approval. Even Nancy calls her the angel lady.
Rose is an ideal woman of the Victorian era, innocent, sexless and pure. She becomes an orphan when her father dies but is adopted by Mrs. Maylie. Mrs Maylie nurtures her and gives her an identity. Rose has a last name, which Nancy and Agnes are missing. This indicates that, unlike the other women, Rose has an identity and belongs to a family. It also indicates power, power to make important decisions in life, for example she has the
power to resist marriage, or when she does marry a man she does not have to lose her last name which indicates, as mentioned above, a strong identity. She can make decisions and does not have to follow a man like the other women in the novel.
When Harry proposes to Rose, she is worried for her reputation. Her moral standards, beliefs, and angelic
character may be threatened. It isimportant for Rose to have a husband that has good reputation when going out in the public sphere. She is looking for someone that can treat a woman well and protect her from bad people or experiences. Mrs.Maylie is also concerned for her family‟s reputation if Rose marries Harry. Rose refuses Harry, but he does not give up. He gets rid of his wealth so that he can be in the same social
class as Rose. This indicates that he is willing to give up his life for her, but also how powerful a woman can be with her angelic character and Victorian ideals: an “object of pure admiration”.
➧ Agnes:-
Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. Nobody knows his mother Agnes or even her name, and she dies shortly after giving birth to Oliver Twist. Her name is not revealed until the end of the book. Agnes is described as the fallen woman in Oliver Twist. The nameless woman is a symbol and represents the unwed woman. She was a mistress who got pregnant and the scandal of her being pregnant but not married made her die in disgrace. Before Agnes dies she prays and wishes for Oliver to know her name and not feel ashamed of her. Agnes is described as “weak and erring” because of her pregnancy as an unmarried women.
The novel denies Agnes and her name is not revealed until the end of the book. She does not have a “complete” name which indicates identity lost and not being married. The very last words in the novel describe Agnes as “weak and erring”.
It was only the women that could be weak and erring in the Victorian era. Men were not considered weak when they had affairs outside the marriage. Society did not treat women and men equally. Oliver‟s father did wrong when he cheated on his wife. He is excused only because of the fact that he is a man and because he is unhappy with his marriage. But Agnes‟ mistake does not make Oliver “came out of bad blood”. The novel only expresses the disapproval of the sinful relationship Agnes had with Oliver‟s father.
➤ Conclusion:-
Nancy, Rose and Agnes are three characters that differ from each other. They all have different social standings and moral strengths. Nancy, a fallen woman, that works as a prostitute sacrifices her life so Oliver could live. Rose, the perfect lady, is generally self-sacrificing, nurtures and saves Oliver‟s life. Agnes, Oliver‟s mother, dies alone in a workhouse after giving birth to Oliver and sacrifices herself to her family‟s reputation. They
all have different living conditions and different destinies but they all represent goodness and modesty. Despite their differences and social status in society they also share a capacity for self-sacrifice and self-abnegation which the Victorians valued in women.
Work cited:-
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist
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