SIMILARITIES 

It is clearly demonstrated that both authors were trying to defy social boundaries in one sense or another which leads to the themes that were made present in both of the novels.  Both novels start with a character that is less than fortunate.  In Oliver Twist we have young Oliver Twist and in Fingersmith we have Sue and eventually Maud.  Oliver is orphaned and forced to live in a London workhouse doing things like picking oakum.  These workhouses were viewed by Dickens as clearly harsh places for a boy to be brought up in.  Much like Oliver, Waters adapts this character into a female who is orphaned and forced to live in a sort of Orphanage in London.  We must keep in mind the setting of these places as well.  Both were in Victorian England and they were certainly not located on the sunny side of the street.

The environment that Dickens sets is harsh with very few people looking out for Oliver and because of his reputation as an orphan; people view him as if he had no identity.  He was worthless.  Sue is slightly more fortunate for having someone like Mrs. Sucksby around because even though Mrs. Sucksby has her own agenda, Sue is treated with decency because of it.  Although both characters know that they are orphans, neither of them know who their parents really were and therefore both of them lose their sense of identity.  Oliver does not start out knowing that his father is actually a noble gentleman and Sue does not know that her name is actually Lilly and not Trinder.  This plays an important part in both of the novels’ plots.

This quest for identity sets up a key relationship that demonstrates the idea that Fingersmith is an adaptation of Oliver Twist.  The striking similarities of identity help lead us to other themes that we find in the novels.  A good example of one of these themes is the relationships that both characters encounter.  Once Oliver gets away from Sowerberry’s he finds himself in London under the protection of the man named Fagin and while he is with Fagin he learns to play the pickpocket game.  In Fingersmith Sue is under Mrs. Sucksby’s care and she also learns about the world of thievery from living in “the den of thieves”.  This notion of protection and deception is strikingly similar in both novels.  Oliver also thinks that it is just a game, until he finds out that the boys in the gang are practicing so that they can perform it outside in the real world. 

This shows Sue’s and Oliver’s lives and the people and places that they are around.  Both novels take place in and around London and the depictions of London in Fingersmith are similar to the descriptions that Dickens’ gives in Oliver Twist.  Both authors view the cities as filthy, busy, scary, greedy places.  Even the point that both characters encounter people who live their lives as thieves shows that London had a dark side and this was important for both authors to portray.  

“…a maze of close, narrow, and muddy streets…The cheapest and least delicate provisions are heaped in shops; the coarsest and commonest articles of wearing apparel dangle at the salesman’s door…Jostling with unemployed labourers of the lowest class...” (Dickens, 416).  Dickens’ describes Sykes journey to the bad part of town and this is one of many descriptions about the overcast dull city.  This for Oliver and Sue is where they grow up.  This is the part of town where the thieves and low class live.  “The way grows narrower.  The ground is dusty, broken, unpaved.  There are shops, lit up, on either side of me: some with tattered clothes hung before them, some with broken chairs and empty picture frames…” (Waters, 398).  Sue runs through the low class district of London where many important events happen in both novels and the similarities between the descriptions of the setting become obvious.  The way that Sarah Waters described the scene is very similar to Dickens’ description but it has a slightly different voice to it.  That is what makes this an adaptation.  She has the ability to give us a similar picture using different words and references.

            There are many more themes that are similar in the two novels which help to form the idea of an adaptation, but an adaptation would be a copy if it were exactly the same.  Therefore we must emphasize the fact that there are also many themes in the novels that are much different from each other.  There are many ideas that change the plots of the novels and show us a different perspective of what the authors want to convey.  Remember, Dickens wrote about what he had experienced, and what he believed.  Sarah Waters is looking back with the ability to analyze all that came of the Victorian era and has the ability to speak of themes that were too liberal and too radical to be published during the times Dickens was writing.