Differences
The adaptation makes several major alterations to the plot of the source material, which include both alterations of events as well as familial relationships.
Rose Maylie is living with Mr Brownlow, and she addresses him as "uncle", but explains that he is in fact her guardian who took her and her sister, Agnes, in when her mother died. Her sister has been missing for many years, and the search for her has been ongoing. Mr Brownlow is now a part of the overall family tree, since Edward Monks is made his grandchild. As in the book, Monks becomes aware that Oliver is his half-brother, born to the missing Agnes who had a relationship with his father, and seeks to end his life so that there is no competition to his inheritance. As a result, Oliver is ultimately revealed to be Mr Brownlow's grandchild, in addition to being Rose's nephew and Monks' half-brother, as in the novel. Unlike the book, however, Monks is not an unattractive, nervous and cowardly epileptic, but a scheming, manipulative and attractive gentleman engaged to Rose, who clearly doesn't like him.
Nancy is even more of a mother figure to Oliver than in the original novel, the famous musical version or especially, the David Lean film version, in which she does not even express any concern at all for him until after she and Sikes bring him back to Fagin's. In the 2007 version, she is seen constantly looking after him and tending to his needs (she even kisses him tenderly at one point, stopping just short of telling the boy that she loves him).
When a gun was pointed at Sikes when he attempts to rob the house, he uses Oliver as a shield from the shots, injuring him. Oliver is taken back to Fagin's lair to recover, rather than being nursed back to health in the countryside by the Maylie family, as in the novel. It is Nancy's informing Rose, and a highly skeptical Mr Brownlow, of Oliver's whereabouts that results in her demise at the hands of Sikes. Her ghost continues to haunt him when he returns to London with Oliver, resulting in him choosing to hang himself in the sewers as a means of escaping the London crowds who chase him.
Meanwhile, Monks' murderous motive is discovered by Mr Brownlow and Rose; he is disowned and sent to the West Indies, and Oliver, escaping the clutches of the crazed Sikes, returns to the Brownlow household, and is welcomed. It is the Artful Dodger, rather than Oliver, who visits the condemned Fagin in prison, and goes to his public execution. Sikes's dog finds Dodger and the two disappear into the crowds together. Fagin has genuine concern for Oliver in this version.
Read more about this topic: Oliver Twist (2007 TV Miniseries)
Famous quotes containing the word differences:
“The extent to which a parent is able to see a child’s world through that child’s eyes depends very much on the parent’s ability to appreciate the differences between herself and her child and to respect those differences. Your own children need you to accept them for who they are, not who you would like them to be.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“The country is fed up with children and their problems. For the first time in history, the differences in outlook between people raising children and those who are not are beginning to assume some political significance. This difference is already a part of the conflicts in local school politics. It may spread to other levels of government. Society has less time for the concerns of those who raise the young or try to teach them.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“What we have to do ... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton (b. 1947)