Examples of Allusions in Oliver Twist?

[kobe2k248]

I need to find three Biblical, Historical, Literary, or Mythological Allusions in Oliver Twist from the chapters 12-16. Thanks to anyone that helps. I'm currently searching for some myself but I really need some help.

[kobe2k248]

Sorry for the double post but I've found one: Saturnine in chapter 16. I'll be very thankful if anyone can help me find 2 more.

[Jackson Richardson]

That's a very odd question. I've gone through the chapters superficially and nothing springs to mind with any detail.

Nancy as the Tart With the Heart of Gold is a standard cliche, although I can't think of any specific examples.

Richardson's Clarissa and Pamela both find themselves in non-respectable circles in a way like genteel little Oliver being grabbed back into Fagin's circle, although in Richardson there is the sexual element that is never mentioned by Dickens. (Nancy and Bill Sikes must be lovers, but it is never mentioned.)

A Biblical comparison might be Joseph in Genesis - sold into slavery and unfairly put in prison. (Again there is a sexual element with Potiphar's wife, for which there is no Dickensian equivalent.)

It is not clear in these chapters that Oliver is related to Mr Brownlow, but the missing heir is a common literary and mythological motif.

Good luck.

[Jackson Richardson]

This may seem hopelessly pseud, but here goes.

Nancy ensares Oliver and captures him for Fagin. Then she hysterically regrets it to Bill Sikes, but still thinks she had no choice.

A later literary/mythological comparison that occured to me (although it hadn't been written when Dickens wrote) was the character of Kundry in Wagner's opera Parsifal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal

[kobe2k248]

That's a very odd question. I've gone through the chapters superficially and nothing springs to mind with any detail.

A Biblical comparison might be Joseph in Genesis - sold into slavery and unfairly put in prison. (Again there is a sexual element with Potiphar's wife, for which there is no Dickensian equivalent.)

Good luck.

Where in chapters 12-16 did you find the allusion to Joseph in Genesis because I atleast need the paragraph where it was used.

[Jackson Richardson]

Just the general situation of the innocent in a hostile environment. It's pretty far fetched and I don't advise using the comparison in an academic essay unless you're confident, but you might make something of it. But nobody had responded to you and I didn't want you to think nobody had read your post.

As I say, good luck.