Fagin

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Fagin is a fictional character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. He is the leader of a group of children, the Artful Dodger among them, whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities. Bill Sikes, one of the major villains of the novel, is one of Fagin's old pupils. Fagin is noted for being one of the few Jewish characters of 19th century literature, let alone any of Dickens' pieces. Near the end of the book, he is hanged, following capture.

Fagin is very much seen as an evil old man in 'Oliver Twist'. Throughout stage versions and film adaptations of 'Oliver', Fagin is depicted as a devil-like character, who influences innocent young children to commit crimes and play with the law. Fagin is a creature who lurks between Oliver's sub-conscious, thus blurring the line between reality and dreams for Oliver. This makes Fagin a terrifying yet slightly humorous character who lacks the security of realism to provide both children and adults with a sense of comfort and safety.

Dickens took Fagin's name from a man he had known in his youth while working in a boot-blacking factory. Ironically, the two workmates had been friends. Fagin's character was based on the criminal Ikey Solomon whose shady occupation was one known as, in the 19th-century London underworld, a "kidsman". A kidsman was an adult who recruited children and trained them as pickpockets, exchanging food and shelter for goods the children stole. Jews were often associated with fencing (the resale of stolen goods) due to their over-representation in the second-hand goods trade, and Solomon, who was from London's East End, controlled several groups of child pick-pockets. Judith Sackville O’Donnell's book concerning Ikey Solomon is titled The First Fagin [1].

Numerous prominent actors have protrayed Fagin. In the 1922 film, Lon Chaney, Sr. played Fagin, while Alec Guinness performed the role in the 1948 film version directed by David Lean. Ron Moody's portrayal in the musical Oliver! is recognisably influenced by Guinness' portrayal. More recently, Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley portrayed Fagin in Roman Polanski's 2005 screen adaptation.

The comic book creator, Will Eisner, disturbed by the anti-Semitism in the typical depiction of the character, created a graphic novel in 2003 titled Fagin the Jew. In this book, the back story of the character and events of Oliver Twist are depicted from his point of view.

In later editions of the book printed during his lifetime, Dickens excised as many irrelevant references to Fagin's Judaism as he could in an effort to make amends for any hurt he had caused to his Jewish friends and readers. In his last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, he included a favourable Jewish character, Mr. Riah.

[edit] Popular Culture

In his Little Fuzzy novels, H. Beam Piper makes reference to the crime of "faginy;" using minors or incompetents (in this case the Fuzzies themselves, extraterrestrials with no understanding that what they are doing is wrong) to commit crimes. The punishment for faginy is the same as for enslavement: death.

Oliver Twist
Characters:	Fagin | Bill Sikes | The Artful Dodger | Nancy Sikes | Rose Maylie
Film adaptions:	Oliver Twist (1948) | Oliver! | Oliver & Company | Oliver Twist (1997) | Twist | Boy called Twist | Oliver Twist (2005)
Other adaptions:	Oliver! | Fagin the Jew | Oliver Twist (TV miniseries)