Introduction

“Natural” Identity in Oliver Twist and Fingersmith

In examining Oliver Twist, many scholars have noted that the narrative draws a sharp distinction between good and evil. For example, Joseph M. Duffy, Jr. writes in "Another Version of Pastoral: 'Oliver Twist'" that "[e]ven the reader who knows the tale well experiences in rereading the obsessive appeal of a fabulous recital which defines antinomies of black and white in human affairs" (404). One element in the narrative that is included in this "recital" is that of the environment. Oliver Twist creates a chasm between urbanity and rurality. This division is also incorporated, and then undercut, in Sarah Water’s neo-Victorian novel Fingersmith. The importance of this in both texts is due to the larger thematic purpose that environments have in creating identity. This thematic purpose is explicated upon, in both novels, through the utilization of secrecy and discourse. It is in this way that Fingersmith functions as a raw materials adaptation of Oliver Twist; it has drawn on this theme to create something novel. In Oliver Twist, the urban world, specifically London, is a marketplace of secrets. This realm of secrets results in a place that leads to the creation of false identities. Therefore, Oliver Twist attempts to suggest that it is only in the country that true identity can be nurtured. Fingersmith, though, unmasks this optimistic notion by expanding upon the idea of secrets to include discourse in its totality as a means for constructing what the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “[t]he sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances.” This has the effect of implicating the rural setting as well, in that identity is revealed as being a social construction in all settings, as discourse is impossible to transcend, and not something innate and essential. This is because, as Michael Foucault puts it in Power/Knowledge, “[i]n fact, it is already one of the prime effects of power that certain bodies, certain gestures, certain discourses, certain desires, come to be identified and constituted as individuals” (emphasis added) (98).