Lesson video

In this lesson extract, Dickens introduces the reader to one of the novels villains Fagin.

By today's standards, we will find Dickens description of Fagin offensive.

Dickens seems to use Fagin's Jewish identity to emphasise this characters villainy.

For example, on many occasions Fagin is described as a shrivelled Jew.

We can therefore see that this text contains anti-Semitic ideas and images.

If someone is anti-Semitic, they express prejudice against Jewish people.

They judge Jewish people negatively simply because they are Jewish.

This is a form of discrimination that is unkind, unfair, and wrong.

Dickens himself would later regret the anti-sematic influences and his presentation of Fagin's character.

Hello everyone, welcome to our next lesson on "Oliver Twist." In our last lesson, Oliver made friends with a very strange boy Jack Dawkins, even though this boy was very small, he was wearing clothes made for men.

His coat hangs all the way down below his knees and he talks, and acts like a middle-aged man.

Now in a sense, Jack Dawkins is very kind to Oliver.

He buys food for all Oliver, he's organising a place for Oliver to stay in London, but at the same time Jack seems a bit untrustworthy.

I mean why is this boy so interested in Oliver? Now in today's lesson, Jack brings Oliver all the way to London to meet the old gentleman Fagin.

I have a bad feeling about this.

For today's lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper and a pen.

If you do not have this equipment press the pause button on your video now, go and collect these equipment and then we will begin our lesson.

Let's begin with a recap from our last lesson.

How would you describe Jack Dawkins? Option one submissive, option two educated, option three untrustworthy, or option four rich.

You can now press the pause button on this video and tell the screen the right answer.

I will now tell you the right answer, which is of course, option three.

Jack Dawkins is an untrustworthy character.

In other words, we cannot trust Jack Dawkins to tell the truth or be honest.

Now some of you might've chosen option one, but I would not describe Jack Dawkins as submissive.

I would not describe him, as someone who obeys other people without arguing.

In fact, I would suggest that Jack Dawkins as you will see is rather rebellious.

Now some of you might've chosen option two, educated but if you listen to the way that Jack speaks, he doesn't sound very educated.

He uses a lot of slang.

It is clear that Jack Dawkins never went to school or received a good education.

Option four some of you might've chosen rich however, by Jack's old clothes, it is clear that Jack is in fact very poor.

Well done if you got that right.

I will now explain our plan for today's lesson.

First of all, we will learn about the word fawning.

After that we will read an extract and then we will analyse our extract, let's begin.

Now to understand the extract today, you must understand our keyword fawning.

What does this word mean? I'll give you a definition now.

A person is fawning if they pretend to admire and hold great affection for someone in order to get a positive reaction.

It is someone being very friendly, but this friendliness is not genuine.

It's not real, it is false.

It is put on in order to get something back from a person that you're being friendly to.

Now the easiest way to use this word in a sentence is something is fawning over something.

I'll give you an example.

Tatenda is fawning over Theresa.

I will now give you some examples of this word fawning in different sentences.

The car salesman was fawning over me.

He said I was his favourite customer in the whole world! He was clearly just pretending to like me in order to sell a car.

In this example, the car salesman is fawning over the person who's speaking.

They are pretending to be very nice to this person.

They're complimenting this person.

They're saying this person is their favourite customer in the world, but they don't really mean their words.

That friendliness is false.

It is all an attempt, to try to persuade this person to buy a car.

Here's another example.

Sebastian wanted a promotion.

He therefore spent a long time fawning over his boss.

Sebastian gave his boss a box of chocolates along with a letter of admiration.

In this example, Sebastian is fawning over his boss.

He's being very friendly and kind to his boss.

He is buying box of chocolates, alongside a letter of admiration but Sebastian's kindness to his boss is false.

It is all an attempt to persuade his boss to give Sebastian a promotion.

Sebastian is fawning over as boss.

I'll give you another example.

Chris wanted a good report for parents' evening.

He therefore fawned over his teachers.

He bought each teacher flowers and was extremely friendly to them, for a whole week.

In this example, Chris is fawning over his teachers.

He is being very friendly and kind to them.

He buys flowers to them.

He's extremely kind, friendly to them but Chris' friendliness and kindness is false.

It is all an attempt to get his teachers to give him a good report for a parents' evening.

Chris is fawning over his teachers.

I will now test your understanding of this idea.

Which person is fawning over somebody? Option one, Shakeel loved his dad so much that he bought him an amazing present.

Is Shakeel fawning over his dad? Option two, Simeon lied to his teacher saying he did not cheat.

Is Simeon fawning over his teacher? Option three, filled with affection, Rodrigo told his wife, "I love you." Is Rodrigo fawning over his wife? and option four, Daniella did not want to receive a late fine from the library.

Daniella told the librarian that she was the best librarian in the world.

Which one of these people is fawning over somebody? Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer.

I will now tell you the right answer, which is of course, option four.

Daniella is fawning over the librarian.

Daniella tells the librarian something very encouraging and nice.

Daniella tells the librarian that she's the best librarian in the whole world, but Daniella clearly does not mean her words.

Daniella is saying these nice words to the librarian so that she does not need to pay a late fine.

Daniella is pretending to be friendly in order to get something back from the librarian.

Daniella is fawning over the librarian.

Now some of you might have chosen one of the other options.

I will now explain why the other options do not describe someone fawning over somebody else.

Now some of you might've chosen Shakeel.

Now Shakeel is very kind to his dad, however, Shakeel's kindness, is clearly genuine, it's clearly real.

Shakeel buys his dad birthday presents but not so that Shakeel can get anything back.

Shakeel buys his dad a birthday present because he loves his dad.

Shakeel's kindness is genuine.

We can therefore not describe Shakeel, as fawning over his dad.

Some of you most have also chosen option two.

Now Simeon is lying to his teacher.

However, this is not Simeon fawning over his teacher.

If you fawn over someone, you act towards them in a very friendly and kind way and Simeon does not seem to be acting particularly in a friendly way or a kind way towards his teacher in this example.

Simeon is not fawning over his teacher.

Finally some of you might've chosen option three.

Filled with affection, Rodrigo told his wife, "I love you." Now Rodrigo is being very affectionate towards his wife right now.

However, Rodrigo is not fawning over his wife because Rodrigo's kind, affectionate words are genuine.

They come because Rodrigo is filled with affection and does indeed love his wife.

So we can therefore not describe Rodrigo as fawning over his wife.

Well done if you got that right.

You can now press the pause button on this video and make up your own sentence, that uses the word fawning.

Write the sentence down on your page or in your book, off you go.

Let's now begin reading our extract.

At the beginning of this extract, Jack is bringing Oliver through the dark streets of London.

Now Jack brings Oliver into a very dodgy area.

It's filthy, it's dirty, there's a horrible smell.

They're walking in and out of narrow, dark streets.

There's children screaming and there's really rough Irish people.

And there's weird suspicious characters and Oliver's scared, he wonders if this is a good idea.

They're walking to meet the old gentleman that Jack talked about earlier on, Fagin.

Let's now read our extract.

"It was nearly 11 o'clock at night when Oliver and Jack arrived in London.

Dodgers scudded at a rapid pace, directing Oliver to follow close at his heels.

Although Oliver had enough to occupy his attention in keeping sight of his leader, he could not help giving a few hasty glances on either side of the street as he passed along.

A dirtier or more wretched place, he has never seen in his whole life.

The street was very narrow, and muddy, and the air was filled with filthy odours and smells.

There were heaps of children, who even at that time of night were crawling in and out of the houses or screaming from the inside.

The only places that seemed to prosper amid the general darkness of the place, were the public houses, taverns and pubs.

And in them the lowest and roughest Irish were arguing with might and main.

Down the narrow streets, there were little knots of houses where drunken men and women were positively wallowing in filth.

And from several of the doorways, great ill-looking fellows were cautiously emerging bound to all appearance on evil errands.

Oliver was just considering whether he hadn't better run away, when they reach the bottom of a hill.

His conductor Jack catching him by the arm, pushed him towards a house near Field Lane and drawing him into the passage closed it behind them.

"Now then who's that?" cried a voice from below in reply to a whistle from the Dodger "Plummy and slam!" was the reply.

This seemed to be some password or signal that all was right, for the light of a feeble candle gleamed on the wall at the remote end of the passage and a man's face peeped out from window.

"There's two of you," said the man, thrusting the candle farther out and shielding his eyes with his hand.

"Who's the other one?" "A new pal," replied Jack Dawkins, pulling Oliver forward.

"Where did he come from?" "Greenland, is Fagin upstairs?" "Yes, he's a sortin' the wipes, up with you!" The candle was drawn back, and the face disappeared.

Oliver groping his way with one hand and having the other firmly grasped by his companion Jack climbed with much difficulty the dark and broken stairs, which Jack mounted with an ease and expedition that showed he was well acquainted with them.

Jack threw open the door of a backroom, and drew Oliver in after him.

The walls and ceiling of the room were perfectly black with age and dirt.

There was a deal table before the fire, upon which were a candle, ginger-beer, two or three pewter pots, a loaf, butter and a plate.

In a frying pan, which was on the fire and which was secured to the mantelshelf by a string, some sausages were cooking and standing over them with a toasting fork in his hand, was a very old shrivelled Jew.

Whose villainous-looking and repulsive face was obscured by a quantity of matted red hair.

He was dressed in a greasy flannel gown, with his throat bare and seemed to be dividing his attention between the frying pan and the clothes-horse.

Over which a great number of silk handkerchiefs were hanging.

Several rough beds made of old sacks, were huddled side-by-side on the floor.

Seated round the table were four or five boys, none older than the Dodger, smoking long clay pipes and drinking alcohol with the air of middle-aged men.

These all crowded about their associate Jack as he whispered a few words to the Jew and then turned round and grinned at Oliver.

So did the Jew himself, toasting fork in hand.

"This is him, Fagin," said Jack Dawkins "My friend Oliver Twist." The Jew grinned and making a low obeisance to Oliver took him by the hand and said, "I hope, I will have the honour of your intimate acquaintance Oliver?" Upon this, the young gentlemen with the pipes came around Oliver and shook both his hands very hard, especially the one in which he held his little bundle.

One young gentleman was very anxious to hang up his cap for him and another was so obliging as to put his hands in Oliver's pockets.

In order that, as he was very tired, Oliver might not have the trouble of emptying them himself, when he went to bed.

These polite gestures, would probably have been extended much further, but for the Jew hitting the heads and shoulders of the affectionate youths with his toasting fork.

"We are very glad to see you Oliver, very," said the Jew.

"Dodger, take off the sausages and draw a tub near the fire for Oliver.

Ah, you're staring at the pocket handkerchiefs eh, my dear, there are a good many of them, ain't there? We've just looked them out, ready for the wash, that's all, Oliver that's all, ha, ha, ha!" The latter part of this speech was hailed by a boisterous shout from all the hopeful pupils of the merry old gentleman.

In the midst of which they went to supper.

Oliver ate his share and the Jew then mixed him a glass of hot gin and water, telling him he must drink it off directly, because another gentleman wanted the glass.

Oliver did as he was desired and drank the gin and water.

Immediately afterwards he felt himself gently lifted on to one of the sacks and then he sunk into a deep sleep." Now in a sense, Oliver receives a very warm welcome from this group of people.

They're polite to him, they're kind to him.

They give him a bed and you can imagine that Oliver's delighted about this.

Remember he's been mistreated all his life.

This is maybe the first group of friends he's ever had but there's something not right here.

I mean, firstly Fagin is a repulsive man.

He's got red matted hair, that's greasy and grimy and covers his face, and his gown is greasy and dirty.

He's holding a toasting fork in his hands and Fagin is fawning over Oliver.

He bows to him, he seems really happy to meet him but as the reader, we knew that Oliver Twist is being manipulated.

It is clear that this is a group of criminals, the handkerchiefs that are drying are handkerchiefs that these children have stolen and these kids are trying to rob Oliver as soon as he arrives.

They look inside his pockets to see if he's got any money, but Oliver's not aware of this.

Oliver is unaware that he is in a lot of danger.

Let's now analyse this extract in a bit more detail.

I will now test your understanding of this extract.

Who leads Oliver to Fagin's Liar? I'll give you a clue.

This person they have initials J D, they were but a boy, but they wear the clothes that belong to a man.

It is of course, Jack Dawkins.

Jack Dawkins leads over to Fagin's lair.

Question two, in what city is Fagin's lair found? You should know the answer to this one.

It begins with L, the answer is of course, London.

Fagin's lair is found in London.

Question three, what does Fagin employ all the boys in this building for? What do they do, how do they make money? The answer is of course this, Fagin employs all the boys in this building as criminals.

Well done if you got that right.

Let's now begin our analysis of this extract.

We're going to think about this question.

How does Dickens presents Fagin as an untrustworthy character? So we're going to be looking at how Fagin is very similar to Jack Dawkins.

In our last lesson, we talked about how Jack Dawkins is an untrustworthy character.

Now before we move on, I need to explain what this word untrustworthy means.

If someone is untrustworthy, you do not expect them to be honest or truthful.

Now let's look at two quotations and how they can suggest to it's readers that Fagin is an untrustworthy character.

I'll read this quotation once again, this is our first introduction to Fagin's character.

"In a frying pan, some sausages were cooking and standing over them with a toasting fork in his hands was a very old shrivelled Jew, whose villainous-looking and repulsive face was obscured by a quantity of matted red hair.

He was dressed in a greasy flannel gown." Well, let's look at a few different parts of this quotation, and how Dickens is suggesting that Fagin is an untrustworthy character.

This is not the sort of person that you can rely on to tell the truth, or be honest.

Now let's look at this first phrase, the one in bold.

Villainous-looking, if you're a villain that means you're an evil character in a book or in a story.

So Dickens is making it very clear, that just from Fagin's appearance it's very clear that he's evil.

He looks like a villain.

Now the rest of this quotation also provides evidence that Fagin is an evil character who we cannot trust.

Let's look at another phrase.

We get told that Fagin has a greasy flannel gown right.

So he's wearing this very long gown, but it's covered in grease, it's covered in dirt.

This is suggesting that Fagin is dirty and unhygienic.

Fagin is not the sort of all gentlemen that will take care of Oliver.

He cannot even take care of his own clothes.

The room in which Fagin lives is a filthy, dirty, horrible place to live.

This man will not take care of Oliver.

Now it's also interesting that Fagin, when he's first appears, he is holding a toasting fork in his hands.

He's using this toasting fork to fry the sausages in the pan, but Dickens is using some very interesting symbolism here.

So here's a picture of Fagin on the left-hand side and that's the toasting fork that he has, but Dickens is comparing Fagin to the devil here because the devil in the Bible also often carries out a fork with him.

Dickens is suggesting that Fagin is just like the devil.

Fagin possesses the same evil as the devil himself.

Once again, Dickens is emphasising Fagin's villainous character through this imagery.

Now I'm really interested in this phrase here.

First of all, we get told that Fagin's face is repulsive looking.

Now if you have a repulsive face that means that you're very, very ugly, you're disgusting.

If you see something that is repulsive you want to get away from it.

It disgusts you, it's horrible to look at and Fagin's face is repulsive.

It's shrivelled, it's ugly.

Now the interesting thing about this description here is that Fagin's face is obscured.

That means it's covered, it's hidden by a quantity of matted red hair.

So in other words, Fagin's red hair falls over his ugly face and hides his ugly face.

Fagin's red hair, obscures or hides, Fagin's repulsive looking appearance.

Now I would suggest that Dickens is describing Fagin here and he's describing how his ugly face is obscured or hidden by his hair, but I think this is maybe symbolic too.

For what is going on right now, in Fagin's interaction with Oliver.

Fagin is attempting to hide his evil, Fagin is attempting to hide his villainous ways from Oliver in the same way that his matted red hair is covering his ugly face.

So here's all the notes that we've just made on this quotation.

You can press the pause button on this video now and take notes upon this quotation, off you go.

Let's now move on to our next quotation.

I'll read this once again.

This is when Fagin is first introduced to Oliver.

"The Jew grinned, and making a low obeisance to Oliver, took him by the hand and hoped he should have the honour of his intimate acquaintance." Now let's zoom into this phrase, low obeisance.

That means a very low bow.

So when the Fagin sees Oliver, he bows very close to the ground for him.

He's displaying a lot of respect, a lot of admiration for Oliver right now.

Now you can imagine for Oliver Twist, he's a little nine-year-old orphan, who's been mistreated everywhere he's gone.

He's never been treated, with this sort of respect by anyone before.

You can understand why Oliver now feels very safe and very secure in this man's company.

He's never experienced this sort of affection before in his life.

Next of all, Fagin says that he wants to have the honour of Oliver's intimate acquaintance.

That word intimate means close.

That word acquaintance means relationship.

So in other words, Fagin is saying, that it would be an honour to become friends with Oliver.

It would be an honour.

It would be a very great thing for him to develop a relationship with Oliver.

So once again, Fagin is flattering Oliver right now.

He's building Oliver up.

He's pretending to hold great admiration and affection for this little boy.

Now we can describe this both the low bow and Fagin's words to Oliver, As an example of Fagin fawning over Oliver.

He's pretending to be very affectionate and he's pretending to admire Oliver.

Now this raises the question.

Why is Fagin behaving in this way? Why is Fagin fawning over Oliver? What does Fagin want to get from Oliver? And this is what I would suggest.

Fagin is trying to recruit Oliver Twist for his gang of criminals.

He's trying to lure him in to his gang.

He's trying to tempt him to join the gang, by being so friendly, and welcoming, and nice.

So once again this is a reflection of Fagin's untrustworthy character.

You can now press the pause button on this video and take some quick notes on this quotation, off you go.

Let's now answer some questions on these quotations.

Complete the sentences.

Sentence one, the reader is likely to think that Fagin is an untrustworthy character because.

? Question two, it is significant that Fagin is described as holding a toasting fork because.

? Number three, even though Fagin seems to be pleased to meet Oliver, dot, dot, dot.

Sentence four, Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver through.

? And sentence five, Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver in order to.

? Press the pause button on this video now and complete the sentences in your book or on your page, off you go.

Let's now take a look at some exemplars.

Here's our acceptable answer for sentence one.

The reader is likely to think that Fagin is an untrustworthy character, because this criminal has an ugly appearance and seems overly friendly to Oliver.

Here's our good answer.

The reader is likely to think that Fagin is an untrustworthy character because this repulsive and shrivelled criminal seems particularly desperate to befriend the innocent and the vulnerable Oliver.

Sentence two acceptable answer.

It is significant that Fagin is described holding a toasting fork because the devil also holds a fork in his hands.

Here's our good answer.

It is significant that Fagin is described holding a toasting fork, because this item is symbolic of the devil.

The biblical symbol of evil.

Number three, acceptable answer.

Even though Fagin seems to be very pleased to meet Oliver, it is likely that he is in fact planning to recruit Oliver into his gang of criminals.

And here's a good answer.

Even though Fagin seems to be very pleased to meet Oliver, such flattery is clearly a devious ploy to lure the vulnerable orphan into his gang of criminals.

Number four, acceptable answer.

Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver, through bowing to this orphan and being very friendly towards him.

Here's our good answer.

Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver through bowing in low obeisance to this little orphan before in a flattering greeting, asking for the honour of his intimate acquaintance.

Sentence five, Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver to.

? Here's our acceptable answer.

Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver, in order to persuade this orphan to join his gang of criminals.

Here's our good answer.

Fagin seems to fawn over Oliver, in order to deviously tempt this vulnerable orphan into his gang of criminals.

Well done if you are happy with your answers.

You can now press the pause button on your video here, go back through your answers and improve them, off you go.

Now if you would like to, you can pause your video here and complete our extension task.

You will need to write a paragraph slash essay on the question above.

How does Dickens presents Fagin as untrustworthy? Press pause in your video now, if you would like to begin this task.

And that brings us to the end of our lesson.

In our next lesson, Oliver is trained to begin a life of crime.

Before you leave, make sure you complete the quiz.

I'll see you next time.