
Anthony Newley played the character in a 1948 film adaptation of the story. The role of the Artful Dodger has been played by several notable performers. He earned nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He has a great respect for Fagin – "There ain't no teacher like Fagin!" (chapter 3) – to whom he delivers all of the pickpocketing spoils without question.Īctors who have played the role Jack Wild as Dodger in the musical Oliver! (1968). The Artful Dodger, though a pickpocket, is not a heartless character. At the close of Chapter 16, Sam Weller refers to the recent schemes of Mr Jingle: "Reg'lar do, sir artful dodge." 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.ĭickens had first used a similar term in his previous novel, The Pickwick Papers. 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?" 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. 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! To think of Jack Dawkins-lummy Jack-the Dodger-the Artful Dodger-going 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.
#Child pickpocket movie full
'I must have a full suit of mourning, Fagin, and a hatband, to wist him in, afore he sets out upon his travels. '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. The absurdity of the master pickpocket being caught over something so small is remarked upon in the book: 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). It can be argued that Cruikshank originated the Dodger's trademark top hat - Dickens never specifically describes the hat. George Cruikshank's original engraving in 1838 of the Artful Dodger (centre), introducing Oliver (right) to Fagin (left). Dodger uses Cockney slang which is juxtaposed with Oliver's 'proper' English. James Mahony's 1871 engraving of the Artful Dodger (left) introducing himself to Oliver as "Jack Dawkins," known as "the artful Dodger". He was, altogether, as roistering and swaggering a young gentleman as ever stood four feet six, or something less, in the blushers. 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 wore a man's coat, which reached nearly to his heels. His hat was stuck on the top of his head so lightly, that it threatened to fall off every moment-and 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 was short of his age: with rather bow-legs, and little, sharp, ugly eyes. 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. 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. Like an adult, he seldom gives in to childish urges. He is described as wearing adult clothes which are much too large for him. The Artful Dodger is characterised as a child who acts like an adult. In the novel, he becomes Oliver's closest friend (although he betrays Oliver when Oliver is caught) and he tries to make him a pickpocket, but 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 term has become an idiom describing a person with skilful deception. He is the leader of the gang of child criminals on the streets of London, trained by the elderly Fagin.

The Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that occupation. Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel Oliver Twist.
