The Significance of Compassion in Oliver Twist
Despite horrifying accounts of reality in the novel Oliver Twist, Dickens also portrayed compassion for the down-trodden through many of his characters.
Oliver Twist plunges the reader into an uncomfortably unromantic world where people are starving to death, children are killed off by their keepers, the innocent suffer, and the cruel and exploitative prosper. Despite the horrifying accounts of reality, Dickens also portrayed a different kind of world. He portrayed several people capable of great compassion. Mrs. Bedwin, Rose Maylie, and Nancy all exemplified compassion for others through their care for the misfortunate and down-trodden.
Mrs. Bedwin was a kind old nurse who unquestioningly cared for Oliver in his time of need. She treated Oliver with great tenderness although she did not fully know his status or condition in life. In one encounter:
The old lady very gently placed Oliver's head upon the pillow; and, smoothing back his hair from his forehead, looked so kindly and lovingly in his face, that he could not help placing his little withered hand in hers, and drawing it around his neck. (78)
All that she knows about Oliver is based on what she perceives from the sight of the enervated and ailing young boy. She cares for him not for a need of praise, but for the good of her frail patient's health. The sympathy and kindness Mrs. Bedwin showed to Oliver displayed the very meanings of compassion and mercy.
Rose Maylie showed her compassion to both Harry Maylie and Oliver Twist. Although Harry was deeply in love with Rose, and she with him, she sacrificed her happiness to prevent his suffering. She knew that her past would bring Harry down, so she precluded his misery by denying her own contentment. Rose also showed strong empathy for Oliver Twist. When others considered his past as a liability, she chose to look beyond it:
Even if he has been wicked, think how young he is; think that he may never have known a mother's love, or the comfort of a home; that ill-usage and blows, ot the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt. (217)
Rose identifies with Oliver because she, too, was without parents. This allows her to appreciate the hardships and struggle that Oliver is faced with. Rose Maylie attends to Oliver's need for healing, both of his body and his spirit, and Harry's well-being through her charitable kindness and compassionate friendship.
Nancy, a young woman who was born into a life of crime and hardship, looked past her own pitiful situation to alleviate the suffering of others. Sikes, Nancy's demanding and criminal superior, fell seriously ill and nearly died. Nancy had every reason to let his fate come to him, but instead she helped him back to health. She was offered a safe haven away from crime, but would not take it because Sikes was desperately ill. Nancy said, ""I can't leave; no, not even to be saved from the life I am leading now."" (308) The strongest case for compassion in the novel is between Nancy and Oliver. Nancy, unlike Rose Maylie, is not in a position to take Oliver out of the life of a poor orphan, yet she risks her life to make Oliver's safer. When Oliver was brought back to Fagin's care, she cried out that she would rather have been struck down in the street before she had lent a hand in bringing him to Fagin. Nancy was ready to risk her life so that Oliver would live free from the crime-ridden existence she had suffered under. Nancy, once learning of Monks's plan to get Oliver arrested, went to Rose Maylie with the information, although turning against Monks was like gambling with her life. When Sikes attacked her and was on the verge of taking her life for giving information for that he thought incriminated him, while saving Oliver, she still thought of the well-being of others. She offered to help Sikes move to another country and start over with a better and more moral life. Nancy was struck dead, just as she had offered to be, for helping to save Oliver from his unfortunate life. In the ultimate form of compassion, Nancy sacrificed her well-being and her life to get Oliver out of the life which had burdened Nancy.
In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens portrayed several characters with unyielding compassion and kindness. Mrs. Bedwin, Rose Maylie, and Nancy all saw someone struck by misfortune, and gave of themselves to lift them out of their suffering.
