Dickens and "The Jew" Was Charles Dickens being anti-Semitic when portraying the character Fagin as "the Jew", in his classic story Oliver Twist, or was he merely painting an accurate portrait of the 19th Century Jew in England? Some critics seem to believe so. Though there are no indications of neither anti-Semitic nor racist slurs throughout the story, Dickens' image turned out to follow the path of his time and place in history. The result is an enlightened picture of Victorian England's image of the Jew. The attitude towards Jews and Jewishness in 19th Century England demonstrates that Dickens was a man of his time. His attitude refl