Oliver Twist

How does the description of Fagin's house lend itself to Dickens' use of atmosphere? Use quotes as well as your own words.

Chapter 17-19

Asked by
Last updated by jill d #170087
Answers 1
Add Yours

The atmosphere at Fagin's is the complete opposite of what Oliver had briefly experienced before Nancy took him back. Fagin's house is described as;

"..... a very dirty place. The rooms up stairs had great high wooden chimney-pieces and large doors, with panelled walls and cornices to the ceilings; which, although they were black with neglect and dust, were ornamented in various ways."

"...dismal and dreary.."

"the mouldering shutters were fast closed: the bars which held them were screwed tight into the wood; the only light which was admitted, stealing its way through round holes at the top: which made the rooms more gloomy, and filled them with strange shadows. There was a backgarret window with rusty bars outside, which had no shutter; and out of this, Oliver often gazed with a melancholy face for hours together; but nothing was to be described from it but a confused and crowded mass of house-tops, blackened chimneys, and gable-ends. Sometimes, indeed, a grizzly head might be seen, peering over the parapet-wall of a distant house: but it was quickly withdrawn again; and as the window of Oliver's observatory was nailed down, and dimmed with the rain and smoke of years, it was as much as he could do to make out the forms of the different objects beyond, without making any attempt to be seen or heard, -- which he had as much chance of being, as if he had lived inside the ball of St Paul's Cathedral."

Source(s)

Oliver Twist/ Chapter 18