Given the representation of Jewishness in Oliver Twist as an inhuman, dark, dirty, and deformed body, how do we read the figuration of Jewishness in Way we Live Now? How is it embodied? Is there a gender difference in the way Jewishness is represented? What is the relationship between the figure of the Jew and money?
Other questions to consider include: What about the relationship between the Jew and the larger society? While critique is leveled against Melmotte’s inauthenticy and deception, what about the society that enables him?
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Jewishness is represented differently in Way we Live Now from Oliver Twist. In Oliver Twist we clearly had an idea of who was Jewish and the stereotypes associated with the character of Fagin. But in Way we Live Now it was unclear if Melmotte is a Jew. The author explained that his wife was a Bohemian Jew and had facial characteristics of a Jew, such as a large nose, but her husband falsely claimed he was an English Gentleman. Also their daughter Marie was seen as a Jew on the inside by some but did not have the stereotypical features of a Jew. The author also speculated that many people did not believe she was Madam Melmotte’s daughter. While the English society full accepts Melmotte with easy due to his money, they still label Madame Melmotte and Marie as foreigner and note that their speech has a foreign accent. Thus the women carry the Jewish trait in this novel. So it is unclear what Melmotte truly is since his entire career and character was a fiction of a fiction. If readers are suppose to look past Melmotte’s false reality and see him a Jew then the author does play into some the stereotypes of Jewishiness just as Dickens does. Melmotte is represented as a thief and very conniving just as Fagin was. He is also overly ambitious in trying to fit into a society that has disdain for him. Melmotte is also represented as having a lot of money, which traditionally Jews were known for being in the banking industry. It is funny that the English society will accept him and argue over having a place at his table when the Emperor comes because he is a financial mogul, but become upset and disregards him when he is seen as a forger. The English people are displayed as people who only care about money, in a more urban sense they could be considered as gold diggers. At the end of this section we see Nidderdale trying to find a woman to marry that has money and his father recommends a Jewish woman which cause him pause for only a second before he states he has nothing against the Jewishiness of a the woman as long as she has money.
Jewishness is definitely embodied in wealth and status in their community in this reading. The reading starts with the emphasis on cash and its worth in their life. The Jewish community is centered on money and how much everyone has which determines their status among each other. They are depicted as greedy and money hungry. In the beginning of the reading the only thing that made this man happy was the fact he had money in his pocket but more importantly money to show off to other people. He would rather keep the money he borrowed form his poor mother than to let anyone know he was broke. Money is the object which determines whether you are accepted into the Jewish community or not. They care alot about what others think of them and keeping up their image. As for physical description the big nose and bushy eyebrows are still used.
The Jews in Way We Live Now aren't seen as inhuman as Fagin in Oliver Twist. The English seem to "put up" wtih them because they have money. This makes me think that the English were even more concerned with being wealthy than the Jews in the reading. I also felt that Trollope was trying to show that the English were 'worse' than Jews. Melmotte was not rich, and probably not even a Jew by the end...so what is this saying? Melmotte is deceptive, not the Jew Melmotte. He is viewed as a deceptive Jew...but is not really a Jew, so I thought that Trollope was trying to defend Jews. Melmotte was labeled a Jew (even if by himself) and acted according to a stereotype. Jews do not act this way...Melmotte does? Or perhaps...Jews are not the only people concerned with money. In this reading, it seemed to me that people in the English society thought only about money...it was a constant thing in conversation...a way of life. I am not sure all that is being said here.
Jews and the emphasis on money by the English leads me to believe that the "otherness" of Jews is more movable than what we have seen before. I wonder if Way We Live Now is trying to show that money breaks racial difference because it represents the determinant of class and that is the newer standard by which people are judged. In Oliver Twist, Fagin is clearly a stereotype of Jewishness. Jews are presented as almost monsters with their dark descriptions, but in Way We Live now the influence of money seems to subdue the stereotypical Jewish image, at least to the English. However, physical descriptions are still utilized to create difference between the Jews and the English. Even money cannot erase physical identifiers.
I agree with Andrea that women seem to carry the traits of Jewishness in this novel. I think this is especially true of Madame Melmotte. While the chapter introducing her is titled "Madame Melmotte's Ball," she is referred to, by he narrator, as "the lady who was said to have been a Bohemian Jewess." Though we see some of the same characteristics of Jewishness that we saw in Oliver Twist in Augustus Melmotte, such as deceptiveness, he seems to fit more into the roll of the Englishman. In fact, it is the English here, not the Jewish, who seems to really embody the ideas of deceptiveness. Felix is probably the best example- when I first started reading, I thought he'd be our "evil Jew" since he's "fleecing his mother" for money and has no intentions of paying bills or doing anything reasonable with the gambling money he has obtained. We also see Mr. Melmotte commit suicide over monetary problems- but after he plays up the roll of an Englishman in the House of Parliament. So I did wonder if maybe Trollope wasn't criticizing the English, maybe by showing that they were "worse" than the Jewish people that they looked down upon. Maybe this is what happens to people when the English push them to try and be "English"?
Jewishness in "The Way We Live Now" is very stereotypical. Every line about money, dishonesty and greed tells of the connection between being jewish and having money. What I found interesting is that the "proper" english characters were just as greedy and dishonest. Every suitor wishes to marry Miss Melmotte simply for her father's fortune.
It's a double standard for proper society. The girl is racially unacceptable but with enough money it could be looked past. Miss Melmotte doesn't even look Jewish, sharing little to no similarities with her parents. Still, she is by birth jewish and this fact alone makes her unfit for anything but a marriage of financial gain.
The open hypocracy of society leaves me astounded sometimes. This story contains one of the oldest sentiments of man; money is immediate eraser of all racial and public lines...that is until the money is gone.
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