While Fagin shares many similarities with Gentleman, another adaptation
of him is Mrs. Sucksby. One of the
things they share most in common is the taking in of children.
Their reasons appear to be different for this, but a deeper look seems to
show that Mrs. Sucksby may be a closer adaptation of Fagin than first thought.
Fagin appears to take in the boys to just supplement his money supply.
He is an older man and unable to walk the streets picking pockets, but
younger, unassuming boys can do this with ease.
He is then able to use his other skills as a fence to make a living, both
for himself and his boys. This may
seem like a cruel life to impose on any young children, but Fagin almost seems
to be doing the boys a favor by providing them shelter and a means to live,
albeit an illegal one. Mrs. Sucksby,
on the other hand, appears to take in children out of the kindness of her heart,
raise them, and then find a home for them.
The fates of the children aren't discussed overtly, so we are unable to
find out if she has monetary gain from this farming of infants, like Mrs. Mann
in Oliver Twist. She does get
rid of the children near the end of the novel as the time to collect the
inheritance grows nearer, implying that she does not need whatever she had been
getting for the children.
Nevertheless, we can look at one of the children she keeps, Sue.
The reader first assumes that Mrs. Sucksby kept Sue because she loves
her, but we find out that this is not the case.
Instead, she raises Sue to be a replacement for Maud, only keeping her in
order to get her inheritance and the child she gave up so many years ago.
This almost turns her into a more villainous character than Fagin, since
he doesn't plot to destroy the life of a child he has raised for seventeen
years.
With the raising of children comes the guiding of their fates, and both
Fagin and Mrs. Sucksby experience this, however briefly.
Fagin's guiding is less overt.
His taking in of Oliver leads to Oliver's finding of Mr. Brownlow, which
sets off a series of events that helps Oliver gain his gentlemanly inheritance.
Fagin also has a hand in directing the fates of all of his boys.
He takes them off the street and makes them into criminals, but this
might be better than the dismal fate of most street urchins and in the very
least gives them a place to live and some food on the table.
Mrs. Sucksby, however, has a very direct hand in both Susan and Maud's
fates. She leads Susan through life,
having her believe that she loves her, while at the same time, preparing her to
take Maud's place. Mrs. Sucksby
always made sure to keep Sue out of trouble in order not to have her rot in
prison, but also had the more subtle guiding of keeping her hair shiny in order
to make her appear like a lady.
However, both Fagin and his adaptation lose control of the fate of their
children. Fagin looses Oliver when
Mr. Brownlow and the Maylies come into the boy's life, and Mrs. Sucksby looses
both Susan and Maud's fates when Susan finds her way back to the Borough.
Fagin and Mrs. Sucksby keep these children close to themselves for one
reason: for their future wealth.
Fagin takes in young boys to become pickpockets and hoards the better
pieces of treasure they bring home, but Mrs. Sucksby differs from him in this
respect. She is certainly looking
forward to the fortune the girls will bring to her, but she also finds a certain
type of treasure within Maud and Susan.
She values Maud for her ability to be a lady and to replace the child she
lost so long ago, and she also ends up treasuring Susan for the girl's own
unshakable faith in her. Fagin seems
to find no inherent worth in his boys and only seems to care if they are good at
pick-pocketing and keeping their mouths shut about him.
With these similarities, it is easy to tell how Mrs. Sucksby is an
adaptation of Fagin, but she does differ from him in one major way.
Both characters meet their demise at the end of each novel, but they deal
with it differently. Fagin is a
miserable wretch, begging Oliver for his life and revealing many of the black
marks on his soul. However, Mrs.
Sucksby turns out to be much nobler before her death.
She shields Susan from the truth that could very well destroy her,
preserving some of the child-like innocence Susan still retains and letting
Susan keep her unshakable faith about Mrs. Sucksby's role in the plot.
She doesn't let Susan take any of the blame for Gentleman's murder,
shielding her even further and perhaps showing that she did care for her for
more than just her ability to create money.
Waters seems to have used Mrs. Sucksby to emphasis the gentler or less
evil side of Fagin, while still retaining his ability to look out for himself
and doing what it takes to make a living.
Fagin's nicer side can be seen briefly when he plays the “merry old
gentleman” during the pickpocket game.
He can also almost be seen as a father figure to his boys, but Waters was
able to show this even more with Mrs. Sucksby and Sue.
Mrs. Sucksby was the mother that Sue never had, even if it was only to
keep her until she could get Sue's inheritance.
Mrs. Sucksby's kinder side comes out again when she doesn't tell Sue the
truth about her plot, saving the girl some grief until she can cope with it
better.