The Power of the Eye and Point of View in Oliver Twist

Abstract:

This article seeks to revise the orthodox opinćions about Dickens as a "superficial" novelist who is unable to delve into the souls of his characters and depict their interiority. Since the introspective elements in Dickens are worthy of more attention than they have received, I critically dissect two passages in which Dickens dramatizes the mental operations of two criminals (Sikes and Fagin) at a moment of crisis in Oliver Twist. As I argue, the vigour and intensity of the novelist's portrayal of these characters' inwardness and mental activity draw heavily on eye imagery, its symbolic implications, and metaphors of seeing, which focuses all textual eyes together with the reader's eyes on the two malefactors. The internal focalizations of Sikes and Fagin deserve a particular critical interest because of their significant impact on the cultural afterlives of the novel, which this essay also discusses.