Poor Oliver

Whaddabook! Grand, sweeping themes of poetic justice, redemption, compassion and hypocrisy, lived out in characters brilliantly sketched by Dickins. Mr. Brownlow, the well-to-do sponsor of poor Oliver, depicts our Redeemer, or our Judge, who has the means to save Oliver from adversity and to pull all the strands of the story together and bring all to justice. Mr. Bumble is the hypocrite who lords his "compassion" over the orphans in his charge. Fagin is the devilish plotter who traps and holds unwitting youths in his bidding via blackmail and extortion, who comes to a devilish end. Nancy totters on the verge of redemption, but returns to the only "protection" she knows in Sikes, winding up murdered by him. Great stuff as far as showing the justice that will out, from various moral positions.

I did detect a strong note of sentimentalism, which was discouraging to see. You know - poor, poor Oliver, and all that. The poor kid didn't do anything to deserve it all, did he? A tacit rejection of original sin. Not so bad, but also applied to God Himself, on the last page during the moral of the tale: "without strong affection, and humanity of heart, and gratitude to that Being whose code is Mercy, and whose great attribute is Benevolence to all things that breathe, true happiness can never be attained." Okay, but where was His benevolence toward Fagin? Dickens takes it a bit far, though of course, a mountainpeak requirement in the Old Testament is to "love mercy" (Micah 6:8). He also deals well with the theme of being too naive or too cynical in seeking mercy for the oppressed.

Nevertheless, a great tale! Happy reading!