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The filthy slums of London…the dark alleys, the abandoned, unlighted buildings. The rain and fog envelop the dark city. The atmosphere is dismal; evil dominates this world. The major action of , by Charles Dickens moves back and forth between two worlds: the ....

Middle of Essay
.... to his workhouse. Not knowing where to go, he is "rescued" by the Artful Dodger, who tells him "I knows a respectable old gentleman as lives there wot'll give you lodging for nothink." (51). The "respectable old gentleman" is none other than Fagin, a crafty, old, shriveled scoundrel who enriches himself by teaching outcast boys how to steal. It's unsettling to witness the calculated manipulation of the trusting and impressionable Oliver into the world of petty crime. And, it isn't only Fagin who spreads evil among the cast-off waifs of London. There is someone viler, someone even Fagin fears; Bill Sikes, a brute and a murderer. He has his own c ....