Introduction
Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. The Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that respect. As a result he has become the leader of the gang of child criminals, trained by the elderly Fagin. He becomes Oliver's closest friend (although he betrays him when Oliver was mistakenly caught) and he tries to make him a pickpocket but soon realizing that Oliver won't so he feels sorry for him saying "What a pity ain´t a prig!". He also has a close relationship with Charley Bates. Ultimately the Dodger is caught with a stolen silver snuff box and presumably sent to a penal colony in Australia (only alluded to in the novel). The Dodger chooses to consider himself a "victim of society," roaring in the courtroom "I am an Englishman; where are my rights?" The judge has little patience with the Dodger's posturing, and orders him out of the courtroom immediately after the jury convicts him of the theft.
He was a snub-nosed, flat-browed, common-faced boy enough; and as dirty a juvenile as one would wish to see; but he had about him all the airs and manners of a man. He was short of his age: with rather bow-legs, and little, sharp, ugly eyes. His hat was stuck on the top of his head so lightly, that it threatened to fall off every moment--and would have done so, very often, if the wearer had not had a knack of every now and then giving his head a sudden twitch, which brought it back to its old place again. He wore a man's coat, which reached nearly to his heels. He had turned the cuffs back, half-way up his arm, to get his hands out of the sleeves: apparently with the ultimated view of thrusting them into the pockets of his corduroy trousers; for there he kept them. He was, altogether, as roystering and swaggering a young gentleman as ever stood four feet six, or something less, in the bluchers.
The role of the Artful Dodger has been played by several notable performers. British actor Anthony Newley played the character in a 1948 film adaptation of the story. The role was amplified in the musical Oliver!. The part was first played by Martin Horsey (actor, director and author of "L'Chaim"), and later by Tony Robinson, Davy Jones, Steve Marriott and Phil Collins among others.[citation needed] Elijah Wood also portrayed the character. He was played by Harry Eden in Roman Polanski's big-budget 2005 film version. He was also played by Matthew Conwell in the 2010 Footlite Musicals production of Oliver
In the BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist in 2007, in which he is played by Adam Arnold, the Artful Dodger is shown to care deeply about Nancy. He is shown to have been very upset about her eventual death and is also shown to be slightly jealous of not being Nancy's favorite when Oliver is being nursed by her after being shot.[citation needed]
In Peter F. Hamilton's Void Trilogy, Aaron pilots a spaceship called the Artful Dodger

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