A Tale of Two Characters
When I first read Oliver Twist as a kid, my primary critique was that there should have been less about the adults and more about Oliver in it. Twelve-year-old me was not attuned to Charles Dickens’ commentary on Victorian evils like the poorhouse.
As an adult, I appreciate that Oliver Twist is much more than a story about a hapless orphan. Dickens used his novels to address the social issues of his day, humanizing the lowest spheres of Victorian society to generate social reform.[1] His pen had power.
Unfortunately, this power wasn’t always for the best.
Fagin: The Quintessential Villain
Oliver Twist features one of Dickens’ most infamous characters: Fagin, the Jewish villain. A treacherous corrupter of youth, Fagin embodies a host of antisemitic tropes, from his treachery to his avarice. While Dickens’ demeaning characterization of the Jewish Fagin was unexceptional for his time, the author did have exceptional influence in Victorian society. Fagin – and all the antisemitic stereotypes he reinforced – would become one of the most famous Jewish characters in English literature.
Dickens would never have considered himself an antisemite. On one occasion he wrote, “I know of no reason that the Jews can have for regarding me as ‘inimical’ to them.…If they have any unreasonable fancy on the subject, I regret it; but the fault is in them, not mine.”[2] He pointed out that in A Child’s History of England he condemned his country’s past treatment of its Jewish inhabitants.[3]
Dickens seemed blind to the ways his own prolific writings, especially the character Fagin, perpetuated the very antisemitic attitudes he deplored.
Mr. Riah: The Bland Benefactor
Though Fagin is Dickens’ best-known Jewish character, he does not stand alone. The author’s last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, features a prominent Jewish character of a different nature. Mr. Riah is the inverse of all that Fagin represents. While Fagin is cruel and cowardly, Mr. Riah is compassionate, courageous, and acts as the protector of one of the novel’s protagonists.
Though Dickens has been criticized for making Mr. Riah’s character too bland to be memorable,[4] Mr. Riah is nevertheless a decidedly positive, even heroic, Jewish character.
Clearly, something happened to shift Dickens’ perspective in the years between Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend.
Charles Dickens: The Contrite Correspondent
Less than a decade before his death, Dickens sold his London home, Tavistock House, to Jewish banker James P. Davis and his wife, Eliza. In a letter to a friend, Dickens evoked the trope of Jewish miserliness, suggesting that Mr. Davis would be unwilling to part with his money. However, after the sale, Dickens amended his views, writing, “I have never had any money transaction with anyone, more promptly, fairly, and considerately conducted than the purchase of Tavistock House has been.”[5]
Dickens and the Davises were on friendly enough terms that Mrs. Davis wrote to Dickens, praising his writing but expressing her concern that Fagin’s character “encouraged a vile prejudice” against her people.
While Dickens initially defended himself, arguing that Fagin’s “class of criminal invariably was a Jew,” he evidently took her comments to heart. He halted a republication of Oliver Twist long enough to remove over a hundred references to Fagin as “the Jew.”[6] Later, in the serialized novel Our Mutual Friend, Dickens created the sympathetic Jewish character, Mr. Riah.
Mrs. Davis thanked Dickens for his positive portrayal of Mr. Riah and later sent him a gift with the note, “Presented to Charles Dickens Esq. in grateful and admiring recognition of his having exercised the noblest quality man can possess; that of atoning for an injury as soon as conscious of having inflicted it.”
Conclusion
I find Mrs. Davis’s approach to Charles Dickens remarkable. Neither condemning nor excusing the famous author for his antisemitism, she affirmed his advocacy for society’s downtrodden but confronted him for withholding his characteristic compassion from the Jewish people. Her winsome approach nudged Dickens toward a change of heart.
It’s easy to spot other people’s prejudice, but difficult to address it wisely. One can imagine how carefully Mrs. Davis must have considered the wording of her letters to Dickens. May we strive to emulate her gracious but uncompromising posture. “Sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness” (Proverbs 16:21).
We all have our inconsistencies. Perhaps, like Charles Dickens, we have failed to extend compassion to a specific person or group. May God send us Eliza Davises to gently illuminate our blind spots while affirming the ways our sympathies honor God.
Written by Miriam, Life in Messiah Communications Coordinator
1. Have you ever had the opportunity to be an Eliza Davis? How did the Dickens in your situation respond?
2. Jesus never compromised in calling out sin in people’s lives, but His treatment of sinful people was always marked by compassion. It takes reliance on the Holy Spirit for us to emulate Him.
3. Challenge: when you see or hear untruthful attacks on Jewish people or Israel, are you willing to speak up for the truth? See https://youtu.be/jaA1maZAJ98 for an example. [Why not subscribe to Life in Messiah’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/lifeinmessiah?]
Endnotes
[1] The English Plus Podcast summarizes Dickens’ impact, writing, “Dickens left an indelible impact on Victorian society, shaping public attitudes, inspiring social reforms, and leaving a lasting legacy in the annals of literature.”
[2] Quoted by Cecil Bloom in Charles Dickens’s Anti-Semitism.
[3] From Dicken’s A Child’s History of England, quoted by Cecil Bloom in Charles Dickens’s Anti-Semitism.
[4] Adam Roberts regards Riah’s character as an improvement on Fagin’s character but argues that Mr. Riah does not “escape anti-Semitism altogether.” James D. Mardock sums up the critical consensus on Mr. Riah’s character as “at once superhuman and subhuman, both a saint and a nonentity, constructed only to contradict…anti-Semitic attitudes.”
[5] Quoted by Cecil Bloom in Charles Dickens’s Anti-Semitism.
[6] As noted by Bloom, Fagin is rarely referred to by his name in the novel, but is referenced as “the Jew” hundreds of times. Dickens directly connects Fagin’s villainy with his Jewishness.