Abstract

Charles Dickens is one of eminent realistic writers in the history of British literature. His works reveal the life experience of the "little people" living in the bottom of British society, reflect complicated social reality at that time, and make a great contribution to the development of the British critical realism literature. Oliver Twist, as Dickens’ first social novel, is deemed as a masterpiece criticizing social realism. However, the novel has its limitation in his racial discrimination. Rereading a book cannot be separated from the social context in which the work was created. The influence of antisemitism was widely spread in Europe in the 19th century. A great number of writers at the time were affected by antisemitism more or less. Therefore, in their works Jews have been roots of evil. Jews play roles of evildoers, which seems unconscionable today. And Oliver Twist, as a result of the influence and restriction of the social context, has the tendency inevitably. In this respect, in the creation of this novel, Dickens didn’t reflect actual life seriously. In the novel, archetypal Jewish image is named Fagin who was the leader of a criminal gang in London slum. But the most cruel criminal was not Fagin but Sikes. Dickens depicted Fagin in a more disdainful tone and uglified him. And another important female Jew in the gang still had conscience and helped Oliver many times. But Dickens didn’t give the poor girl a bright future and used hateful words to depict her. In the sharp contrast with a Christian girl Rose, Dickens’ racial discrimination can be observed easily. The researches of Dickens’ antisemitism are in abundance. Objects of these researches conducted by most scholars are Fagin. Little attention is paid to Nancy who moved the story along. The thesis will focus on the character Nancy, and study Dickens’ antisemitism from a different perspective.

Key word: Dickens; Oliver Twist; Antisemitism; Nancy

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 A brief introduction to Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist-1

1.2 Background of the study-1

1.3 Significance of the study-2

1.4 Organization of the study-2

2.Literature Review-3

2.1 Studies of Antisemitism-3

2.1.1 Studies of the history of Antisemitism abroad-3

2.1.2 Studies of the history of Antisemitism at home-3

2.2 Studies of Dickens’ works-3

2.2.1 Studies of Dickens’ antisemitism -4

2.2.2 Dickens’ antisemitism in Oliver Twist-4

2.3 Studies of Jewish Characters in Oliver Twist-4

2.3.1 Studies of Jewish Characters’ traits-4

2.3.2 Ways of characters being portrayed in the novel-5

3.Dickens’ antisemitism-6

3.1 An overview of Antisemitism-6

3.2 The origin of Dickens’ antisemitism-6

3.3 A change of Dickens’ antisemitism embodied in his works-7

3.4. Manifestation of Dickens’ antisemitism in Oliver Twist-7

3.4.1 Category of Characters in Oliver Twist-7

3.4.2 Analysis of ways of characters being portrayed and the archetypal Jewish character Fagin in Oliver Twist-8

4.Antisemitism and Nancy-10

4.1 Analysis of Nancy’ image and ways of characters being portrayed-10

4.2 The effect of Nancy on manifestation of Dickens’ antisemitism-11

5. Conclusions-13

Reference-14