
	Victorian novels are characterized by their overwhelming attention to detail and their focus on the aristocracy of the period.  Two novels that are considered Victorian but stray away form this tradition are Oliver Twist and Wuthering Heights.  Both novels employ an element of mystery and a flare for the bizarre, atypical of the novels from the period, which strengthens the characters within each work; providing insight that elaborates on their motives and emotions.  

“And now, hosts of bewildering and confusing ideas came crowding on his mind. He seemed to be still walking between Sikes and Crackit, who were angrily disputing: for the very words they said, sounded in his ears; and when he caught his own attention, … he found that he was talking to them…. Suddenly he started back at the report of fire arms; and there rose into the air loud cries and shouts; lights gleamed before his eyes, and all was noise and tumult, as some unseen hand bore him hurriedly away. Through all these rapid visions, there ran an undefined, uneasy consciousness of pain, which weared and tormented him incessantly.” 
(Dickens, 220)


	The two novels utilize this mystery often through dream sequences or dreamlike states, though the content and function varies in each specific case. In Oliver Twist these strange happenings often reveal some insight concerning Oliver’s inner layers, what pains him, and his awareness about the true nature of the things happening around him. When the shooting of Oliver is finally revisited in chapter 28, Oliver relives the shooting vividly, as if in a dream, while he struggles to find help (see left). The passage stresses the lack of control that Oliver had over the events that unfolded, as well as the dire straights his health had come to occupy, which was strongly present via Oliver’s hallucinations of Sikes and Crackit. The shooting itself overwhelms him, all his senses are numbed as he does not notice the “unseen hand” that bears him away; he experiences his despair over again removed from the shock of pain, as the pain is now constant and is linked with fear rather than surprise. With Oliver being overwhelmed the question arises about whose will brought about his misfortune, because it was certainly not his own. This shooting reinforces the notion that Oliver has little control over anything in that he can not bring himself to even attempt to gain control of an event’s outcome, even while his life is in danger. A growing sense of defeat in Oliver is also implied by this selection, as if old Fagin had begun to break him, forcing him into accepting this despair, influencing his ability to react. For otherwise it can be assumed that Oliver would have made some effort, at least simply for the sake of his own life.


“The day passed off – day! There was no day; it was gone as soon as come – and night came on again; night so long, and yet so short; long in it’s dreadful silence and short in it’s fleeting ours. 