tinhuvielartanis: (Cadmus Wrath)
The Cliffs of Insanity ([personal profile] tinhuvielartanis) wrote2012-03-25 09:59 pm
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The Oliver Connection

After revisiting a biography (autobiography, actually) that I had not seen in a while, I found the most interesting connection. Seems that, as many nerdly kids in school do, Big Brother dallied with acting and ended up in a production of Oliver Twist as Fagin. Decades later, Tom Hardy is in a made-for-TV production of Oliver Twist as Bill Sikes. Here is what's said about the characters on Wikipedia, copied and pasted here 'cos I can't be bothered to write out an original explication here. I did it in school and I'm not doing it again.

Fagin is described as "disgusting" to look at. He is the leader of a group of children, the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates among them, whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities in exchange for a roof over their heads. A distinguishing trait is his constant—and thoroughly insincere—use of the phrase "my dear" when addressing others. At the time of the novel, he is said by another character, Monks, to have already made criminals out of "scores" of children who grow up to live—or die—committing the same crimes as adults.

Bill Sikes is one of Dickens's most vicious characters and a very strong force in the novel when it comes to having control over somebody or harming others. He is portrayed as a rough and barbaric man. He is a career criminal associated with Fagin, and an eventual murderer. He is very violent and aggressive, prone to sudden bursts of extreme behaviour.

::cackles and falls over::