Critical Analysis of the Artful Dodger in Dickens' Oliver Twist Essay

Introduction

The Appearance and Behavior of the Artful Dodger

Jack Dawkins, besides known as the Artful Dodger, is one of the most interesting and memorable characters in Dickens’ Oliver Twist. He is foolhardy and really good at pickpocketing. He is denied the chance of taking his ain manner of life and is fated to go a condemnable. Jack has been a victim of fortunes all his life.

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The first thing that strikes us when run intoing the Dodger in Chapter 8 of Oliver Twist is the manner he looks and Acts of the Apostless. We see a male child. who appears and behaves like a adult adult male.

The Dodger is a kid. who wears a man’s coat” and corduroy trousers” and has a large chapeau on his caput. as Dickens describes him. He is dressed like a immature gentleman. looking instead amusing with his half-way turned sleeves” . but his manners is the thing that lures our attending even more.

Not merely is Jack Dawkins dressed like a adult male. but his attitude is like a full grown up every bit good. He walks and negotiations like a gentleman and we can separate him as a kid merely by his size. Apparently the manner he has been treated by society or the manner of life he had to take act upon his manners.

The Dodger's Life With Fagin and the Gang

The Artful Dodger is a cutpurse. he is really good at it and he enjoys it. We see in the novel. after he takes Oliver to his place. that he has been trained by Fagin for a long clip and lives with him and some other stealers.

Jack lives with some other childs. who are besides stealers. and their leader Fagin. The topographic point they live in is dark. old and foul ; the walls and the ceiling were absolutely black with age and dirt” . It is non the sort of topographic point kids are suppose to turn up in. but the Dodger did populate a great trade of his life at that place. He is the most skilled in the group of small stealers and is their leader and his attitude towards them and Fagin is respectful and friendly.

The Dodger as a Skilled Pickpocket

Jack makes his life by stealing. He has been trained by Fagin from an early age and he is really good at it. Fagin had sheltered the Dodger when he was younger and vulnerable and trained him to be a stealer. learning him a bad manner of life and so. striping him the chance of his ain pick of constructing a hereafter. The fortunes of being an orphan led him to be apprenticed by the old stealer. Fagin. therefore going a stealer himself and get downing to bask it. which finally leads to him acquire caught and put on test.

In the terminal of the novel the Artful Dodger gets caught by the governments and is under test for larceny. He is caught seeking to pick a pocket and they found a snuff-box in him. which is his and which he carries with all the clip. Finally he is send to tribunal where he acts in a scoffingly and saucily manner sing himself as a victim. shouting I am an Englishman ; where are my rights? ” Apparently he must do merriment of the jury. therefore doing a sort of glorious reputation” among the stealers community. Finally the justice grows eager and expels him from the tribunal every bit shortly as the sentence signed. Jack didn’t contrivance this state of affairs and gets send to penal settlement in Australia.

Conclusion

The Artful Dodger is treated as a felon and a grown up all his life and he is really good adjusted to that. He is non the child he is supposed to be and that makes him a victim of society – the victim of many fortunes that can fall on an orphan and deprive it of its childhood.