Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novelOliver Twist.[1] The Dodger is a pickpocket and his nickname refers to his skill and cunning in that occupation. In the novel, he is the leader of the gang of child criminals on the streets of London trained and overseen by the elderly Fagin. The term has become an idiom describing a person who engages in skillful deception.
Role in the novel
In the novel, Jack becomes Oliver's closest friend (although he betrays Oliver when Oliver is caught) and he tries to make him a pickpocket, but he soon realises that Oliver will not succeed and feels sorry for him, saying "What a pity it is he isn't a prig!" He also has a close relationship with Charley Bates.
The Artful Dodger is characterised as a child who acts like an adult. He is described as wearing adult clothes which are much too large for him. Like an adult, he seldom gives in to childish urges:
The Artful, meantime, who was of a rather saturnine disposition, and seldom gave way to merriment when it interfered with business, rifled Oliver's pockets with steady assiduity.
He was a snub-nosed, flat-browed, common-faced boy enough; and as dirty a juvenile as one would wish to see; but he had about him all the airs and manners of a man. He was short of his age: with rather bow-legs, and little, sharp, ugly eyes. His hat was stuck on the top of his head so lightly, that it threatened to fall off every momentโand would have done so, very often, if the wearer had not had a knack of every now and then giving his head a sudden twitch, which brought it back to its old place again. He wore a man's coat, which reached nearly to his heels. He had turned the cuffs back, half-way up his arm, to get his hands out of the sleeves: apparently with the ultimate view of thrusting them into the pockets of his corduroy trousers; for there he kept them. He was, altogether, as roistering and swaggering a young gentleman as ever stood four feet six, or something less, in the blushers.
James Mahony's 1871 engraving of the Artful Dodger (left) introducing himself to Oliver as "Jack Dawkins," known as "the artful Dodger". Dodger uses Cockney slang which is juxtaposed with Oliver's 'proper' English.George Cruikshank's original engraving in 1838 of the Artful Dodger (centre), introducing Oliver (right) to Fagin (left). It can be argued that Cruikshank originated the Dodger's trademark top hat -- Dickens never specifically describes the hat.
Ultimately the Dodger is caught with a stolen silver snuff box and presumably transported from England to a penal colony in Australia (only alluded to in the novel). The absurdity of the master pickpocket being caught over something so small is remarked upon in the book:
'They've found the gentleman as owns the box; two or three more's a coming to identify him; and the Artful's booked for a passage out', replied Master Bates. 'I must have a full suit of mourning, Fagin, and a hatband, to wist him in, afore he sets out upon his travels. To think of Jack Dawkinsโlummy Jackโthe Dodgerโthe Artful Dodgerโgoing abroad for a common twopenny-halfpenny sneeze-box! I never thought he'd a done it under a gold watch, chain, and seals, at the lowest. Oh, why didn't he rob some rich old gentleman of all his valuables, and go out as a gentleman, and not like a common prig, without no honour nor glory!
The Dodger chooses to consider himself a "victim of society", roaring in the courtroom, "I am an Englishman, ain't I? Where are my priwileges?"[2] The jailer tells him "You'll get your privileges soon enough", while the judge has little patience for the Dodger's posturing and orders him out of the courtroom immediately after the jury convicts him of the theft. Dickens describes him this way:
With these last words, the Dodger suffered himself to be led off by the collar, threatening, till he got into the yard, to make a parliamentary business of it, and then grinning in the officer's face, with great glee and self-approval.
Dickens had first used a similar term to "Artful Dodger" in his previous novel, The Pickwick Papers. At the close of Chapter 16, Sam Weller refers to the recent schemes of Mr Jingle: "Reg'lar do, sir; artful dodge."[3]
The Artful Dodger, though a pickpocket, is not a heartless character. He has a great respect for Fagin โ "There ain't no teacher like Fagin!" (chapter 3) โ to whom he delivers all of the pickpocketing spoils without question.
In the 1980 ATV series The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist, the Dodger was played by John Fowler.[7] In this sequel to Oliver Twist, Oliver, who has been sent to a Northern boarding school by Mr. Brownlow, finds that through Oliver's uncle Harry Maylie's intercession the Dodger escaped transportation to Australia and was instead enrolled in the school. The two friends re-unite, and when Oliver flees the school the Dodger follows him back to London after learning of a plot against him. Oliver is made to believe, by Noah Claypole, Noah's girlfriend Charlotte, and Mrs Carraway (Mr Brownlow's corrupt new housekeeper), that Mr. Brownlow is ill to the point of death. After Dodger rescues Oliver from imprisonment in the Brownlow cellar and the two are accused by Mrs. Carraway and Claypole of theft, he and Oliver are forced to take to the streets to uncover the truth, encountering Mr. Bumble, the villainous Monks and their old mentor Fagin (who had escaped execution) along the way;[8] at the series' conclusion, Mr. Brownlow also adopts Dodger as his son along with Oliver.
In the BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist in 2007, he was played by Adam Arnold.[9]
In the 2023 8-part Hulu miniseries The Artful Dodger, Thomas Brodie-Sangster plays Jack Dawkins—a semi-reformed Artful Dodger in his adulthood—who goes on to become a decorated Navy officer and skilled surgeon, yet remains unable and unwilling to fully escape a life of crime. The series takes place in 1850s Australia, over a decade after the events depicted in Dickens' Oliver Twist.[10][11]
Argentine football player and 1986 FIFA World Cup winning captain Diego Maradona was frequently referred to as the Artful Dodger due to his cunning personality and ability to get away with fouls, such as disguising the illegal use of his hand, as he infamously did when scoring with the "Hand of God".[15][16][17][18]
At least two different books about the Major League Baseball club known as the "Dodgers" have used this character's name as a play-on-words for their titles: The Artful Dodgers, edited by Tom Meany; and The Artful Dodger, by Tommy Lasorda with David Fisher.[19]
Condredge Holloway, the quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers (1972โ74), was known as "The Artful Dodger" for his scrambling prowess and elusive manner. Holloway was the first African-American starting quarterback in the history of Southeastern Conference football, went on to star in the Canadian Football League from 1975 through 1987, and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1999.[20]
Dodger is one of the characters in Shadowrun, an elven hacker; his romantic involvement with semi-autonomous knowbot Morgan spurs her into full self-consciousness and turns her into one of the setting's first true AIs, launching a far-reaching chain of events that still largely define the metaplot twenty in-character (fifteen real) years later.
In the Bewitched episode, "The Phrase is Familiar", Tabitha's tutor uses witchcraft to make the Artful Dodger come out of Oliver Twist. In this episode he steals Samantha's ring, Darrin's watch, and the cufflinks of a client of Darrin's advertising company.
The literary magazine Artful Dodge was named after the character.
In an episode of Gilmore Girls, "Nick & Nora, Sid & Nancy", Rory calls Jess "Dodger" after he steals her book.
In the Lost Girl episode "It's Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away", a character refers to himself as being the "Artful Dodger" for his artist friend. Bo suggests that he did not actually read Oliver Twist.
The character of Adric in the science-fiction TV series Doctor Who was originally envisioned as an Artful Dodger-style character.
In 1996, Jean Loup Wolfman played the role in an adaptation by Seth Michael Donsky entitled Twisted. The film is set in a contemporary New York City underground populated by drag queens, drug abusers and hustlers. The Artful Dodger is a gayrent boy and hustler called Arthur, better known among his clientele as "Fine Art".[21] He befriends the Oliver Twist character called Lee (played by Keivyn McNeill Grayes), the latter a black adolescent runaway.
In the first edition of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's comic series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, set in 1898 London, the Dodger briefly appears as an elderly man running his own gang of boy thieves, hinting that he is still following in Fagin's footsteps.[22]
In 2001, the Artful Dodger was the subject of an Australian children's show called Escape of the Artful Dodger. The show followed the Artful Dodger's adventures in the Australian penal colony in New South Wales, as well as his eventual redemption. Oliver Twist and Fagin also appeared.[23]
In the 2003 film Twist, the Artful Dodger is called Dodge and is played by Nick Stahl. The film is told from his point of view, in which he is a drug addict influenced by Fagin.[24]
In the 2010 Doctor Who audio drama Legend of the Cybermen, the Artful Dodger is one of the characters seen in the land of fiction. He was voiced by Steven Kynman.
In Tony Lee's 2011 novel Dodge & Twist, set twelve years after the events of Oliver Twist, Dodger has returned to England a changed man from his time in Australia, and is planning a heist. However he cannot escape the 'ghost' of Fagin, who still guides his actions, even past the grave.[25]
In Terry Pratchett's 2012 novel Dodger, the title character bears certain similarities to the Dickens character. The sampler of the book also includes him meeting an astute gentleman who concerns himself with the well-being of the poor called Charlie Dickens.[26]
A 2014 novel by Peter David, Artful, features the Artful Dodger as the main character, and depicts his life following the events of Oliver Twist, which includes confrontations with vampires, one of whom is revealed to be Fagin.[27] The storyline of that novel was continued in a comic book series of the same name.[28]
^Charles Dickens. "XLIII". Oliver Twist. Nalanda Digital Library. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2020. Project Gutenberg
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