Was Bill Sykes A Pedophile?????????????????????????

                                      Like Tennessee Williams, Dickens had a way of glossing  over characters, revealing  what  they actually are, without  naming it  by word.

                                      In "David Copperfield," the words "alcoholic" and "enabler" are never mentioned.  Yet,  that is  clearly what Mr. Wickfield, and his daughter, Agnes,  respectively are.  Likewise,  the word  prostitution is never mentioned, but  in "David Copperfield,"  that is what Martha Endell and  Little Em'ly fall  into.

                                       Same with Nancy in "Oliver  Twist."

                                        Which brings  me  to Bill  Sykes.   Though  the 1968 film version  of the stage  musical,"Oliver!" sanitized the darker elements of  Dickens' story, Oliver Reed's Bill Sykes one of film's most chilling  portraits of evil,  surpassing  even Robert Newton in the 1948 David Lean gold standard versionof the  story.

                                             The  way  he  comes  across,  the  way he treats Nancy, even  his dog,  it  is would  not  surprise  me,  with all those boys hanging around  in  Fagin's  lair,  that  some  were not abused sexually.  And Sykes  would certainly be  the  one  to  do  it.  But,  while  such  things most likely went on,  Dickens  did  not  set  out  to explore it. I am sure  he was aware of it,  but  if  the  publishers of  the day could not  deal  outright  with alcoholism or prostitution,  it  certainly  could  not handle  pedophilia.

                                                Think about this,  the next  time  you read "Oliver  Twist." It makes an odd kind of sense.

                                                Of such ideas are nightmares made!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!