Oliver Twist Study Guide

Oliver Twist was first published in 1837 in serial format, in Bentley’s Miscellany, which
Dickens was editing at the time. Oliver Twist was Dickens’s second novel and his first real
social novel, critiquing the harm public institutions inflicted on the poor. Dickens would come to
be known as the master of this form, and would continue it in Nicholas Nickleby, which he
would write while still working on Oliver Twist. The novel tells the story of Oliver, a young
orphan raised in a workhouse seventy miles outside of London, who runs away and finds himself
taken in by thieves. It was written partially in reaction to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834,
which, among other things, essentially took the rights of citizenship away from paupers, who
were interred in workhouses and forfeited their political rights in order to receive aid.
Oliver Twist was well-received, and spawned many other orphan tales, although it was not as
big a success as The Pickwick Papers. Many also criticized Dickens for his portrayal of
criminals and prostitutes in the novel, which at the time was controversial.
Oliver Twist has also become one of the most dramatized of Dickens’s works—it was produced
in multiple theaters before the serialization was even complete.

Oliver Twist Summary

Oliver Twist is the story of a young orphan, Oliver, and his attempts to stay good in a society
that refuses to help. Oliver is born in a workhouse, to a mother not known to anyone in the town.
She dies right after giving birth to him, and he is sent to the parochial orphanage, where he and
the other orphans are treated terribly and fed very little. When he turns nine, he is sent to the
workhouse, where again he and the others are treated badly and practically starved. The other
boys, unable to stand their hunger any longer, decide to draw straws to choose who will have to
go up and ask for more food. Oliver loses. On the appointed day, after finishing his first serving
of gruel, he goes up and asks for more. Mr. Bumble, the beadle, and the board are outraged, and
decide they must get rid of Oliver, apprenticing him to the parochial undertaker, Mr.
Sowerberry. It is not great there either, and after an attack on his mother’s memory, Oliver runs
away.
Oliver walks towards London. When he is close, he is so weak he can barely continue, and he
meets another boy named Jack Dawkins, or the artful Dodger. The Dodger tells Oliver he can
come with him to a place where a gentleman will give him a place to sleep and food, for no rent.
Oliver follows, and the Dodger takes him to an apartment in London where he meets Fagin, the
aforementioned gentleman, and Oliver is offered a place to stay. Oliver eventually learns that
Fagin’s boys are all pickpockets and thieves, but not until he is wrongfully accused of their crime
of stealing an old gentleman’s handkerchief. He is arrested, but the bookseller comes just in time
to the court and says that he saw that Oliver did not do it. The gentleman whose handkerchief
was taken, Mr. Brownlow, feels bad for Oliver, and takes him in.
Oliver is very happy with Mr. Brownlow, but Fagin and his co-conspirators are not happy to
have lost Oliver, who may give away their hiding place. So one day, when Mr. Brownlow
entrusts Oliver to return some books to the bookseller for him, Nancy spots Oliver, and kidnaps
him, taking him back to Fagin.
Oliver is forced to go on a house-breaking excursion with the intimidating Bill Sikes. At
gun point Oliver enters the house, with the plan to wake those within, but before he can, he is
shot by one of the servants. Sikes and his partner escape, leaving Oliver in a ditch. The next
morning Oliver makes it back to the house, where the kind owner, Mrs. Maylie, and her
beautiful niece Rose, decide to protect him from the police and nurse him back to health.
Oliver slowly recovers, and is extremely happy and grateful to be with such kind and
generous people, who in turn are ecstatic to find that Oliver is such a good-natured boy. When he
is well enough, they take him to see Mr. Brownlow, but they find his house empty—he has
moved to the West Indies. Meanwhile, Fagin and his mysterious partner Monks have not given
up on finding Oliver, and one day Oliver wakens from a nightmare to find them staring at him
through his window. He raises the alarm, but they escape.

Nancy, overhearing Fagin and Monks, decides that she must go to Rose Maylie to tell
her what she knows. She does so, telling Rose that Monks is Oliver’s half-brother, who has been
trying to destroy Oliver so that he can keep his whole inheritance, but that she will not betray
Fagin or Sikes. Rose tells Mr. Brownlow, who tells Oliver’s other caretakers, and they decide
that they must meet Nancy again to find out how to find Monks.
They meet her on London Bridge at a prearranged time, but Fagin has become suspicious,
and has sent his new boy, Noah Claypole, to spy on Nancy. Nancy tells Rose and Mr.
Brownlow how to find Monks, but still refuses to betray Fagin and Sikes, or to go with them.
Noah reports everything to Fagin, who tells Sikes, knowing full well that Sikes will kill Nancy.
He does. Mr. Brownlow has in the mean time found Monks, who finally admits everything that
he has done, and the true case of Oliver’s birth.
Sikes is on the run, but all of London is in an uproar, and he eventually hangs himself
accidentally in falling off a roof, while trying to escape from the mob surrounding him. Fagin is
arrested and tried, and, after a visit from Oliver, is executed. Oliver, Mr. Brownlow, and the
Maylies end up living in peace and comfort in a small village in the English countryside.

Oliver Twist Character List

Oliver Twist
Oliver is a young, good-hearted, and kind--but often mistreated--orphan who is raised in a
workhouse, and finds himself indentured to an undertaker, living with thieves, and eventually
taken in by the kind Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Maylie. His generosity of spirit is total, and even
when faced with serious maltreatment, he never loses his sense of morality or kindness.
Fagin
A very old man, with a villainous-looking and repulsive face, Fagin is the leader of a gang of boy
thieves, and a very greedy and vicious man. It is Fagin who tries to turn Oliver into a thief, and
who betrays Nancy to Sikes, leading to her death.
Mr. Brownlow
Mr. Brownlow is a very respectable-looking elderly gentleman, who has had his heart broken
many times, including losing his fiancee on the day of their wedding. He takes a liking to Oliver
even after suspecting him of stealing his handkerchief, and takes him in, doing everything he can
to help him.
Nancy
Nancy is a young woman and prostitute raised into that profession by Fagin. Nancy eventually
betrays Fagin and Sikes to save Oliver, but she will not leave them, and pays her life for this
decision.
Bill Sikes
A stoutly-built man in his thirties, Bill is a vicious housebreaker and thief who often works with
Fagin, and is involved with Nancy. He often mistreats, and eventually kills her.
Rose Maylie
Rose is Mrs. Maylie’s niece, a beautiful seventeen-year-old woman, who is both intelligent and
perfectly kind. She is an orphan who is taken in by Mrs. Maylie, and ends up marrying Harry
Maylie.
Mr. Bumble
Mr. Bumble is the beadle of the parish, a fat and choleric man who takes great joy in abusing
those below him, and is often offended by their impositions on him.
Edward Leeford
Edward is Oliver’s half-brother, who goes by the alias Monks for most of the novel. He offers to
pay Fagin to corrupt Oliver, so that he may have Oliver’s inheritance. He is in his late twenties,
but haggard in appearance, with extremely deep set eyes, and suffers from fits.
Mrs. Maylie
Mrs. Maylie is an older lady, who despite her age is very dignified and stately. She is the owner
of the mansion that Sikes and Crackit attempt to rob, the mother of Harry Maylie and the adopted
aunt of Rose Maylie. In her kindness, she takes Oliver in.
Jack Dawkins
Jack Dawkins is better known as the artful Dodger, he is common looking enough but with the
airs and manners of a man, although he is about Oliver’s age. He is Fagin’s best pickpocket, and
it is he who finds Oliver and leads him to London and to Fagin’s place.
Charley Bates
Charley Bates is a sprightly young friend of the Dodger’s and another of Fagin’s boys. He is very
excitable, and laughs often. Other than Oliver, he is the only of Fagin’s boys to end up making
an honest living.
Mrs. Corney
Mrs. Corney, later Mrs. Bumble, is the matron of the workhouse at which Oliver was born. She
has been a widow for twenty-five years, and ends up marrying, dominating and humiliating Mr.
Bumble.
Mr. Losberne
Mr. Losberne is the doctor who tends to Oliver after the shooting, an eccentric, kind, hearty and
fat gentleman, who often acts without forethought, but is universally liked. He agrees to help the
ladies try to protect Oliver.
Mrs. Bedwin
Mrs. Bedwin is Mr. Brownlow’s housekeeper. She is a kind and motherly old lady who takes
care of Oliver in his illness, and never doubts his honesty even when he disappears with Mr.
Brownlow’s books and money.
Mr. Grimwig
Mr. Grimwig is an old friend of Mr. Brownlow’s, who is a little rough in manners, but a worthy
man. He is a stout old gentleman who talks something like a parrot and has a strong taste for
contradiction, and threatening to eat his own head.
Noah Claypole
Noah is a charity-boy with a fierce look who works for the undertaker and enjoys bullying
Oliver. He later, with Charlotte, steals from the Sowerberrys and runs away to London, where he
joins Fagin’s gang.
Harry Maylie
Harry is Mrs. Maylie’s son. He is about 25, has a frank and handsome face and an easy
demeanor, and is deeply in love with Rose. Although first ambitious, he chooses to be come a
country cleric so that he will be on Rose’s level, and she will agree to marry him.
Mr. Giles
Mr. Giles is a rather fat man who works as butler and steward to Mrs. Maylie. He shoots Oliver
during the robbery, which he is at first very proud of, then very guilty about.
Toby Crackit
Bill Sikes’s partner in crime, Toby is known for his flashiness and ability to seduce servants into
helping him and Sikes break in.
Mr. Sowerberry
Mr. Sowerberry is the parochial undertaker, a tall and gaunt man, who takes Oliver on as an
indentured servant. He rather likes Oliver, but cannot stand up to his wife’s hatred of the orphan.
Mrs. Sowerberry
Mrs. Sowerberry is the undertaker’s wife, a short, thin woman with a vixenish countenance, who
has a strong dislike for Oliver, and treats him accordingly.
Mr. Brittles
Mr. Brittles is a short and heavy man who has worked for Mrs. Maylie since he was a child as a
“lad of all-work.” Everyone in the household still considers him a boy, although he is in his
thirties.
Barney
Barney is the waiter at The Three Cripples. He has a very nasal voice and also works for Toby
Crackit.
Charlotte
The Sowerberry’s servant, Charlotte will do anything for Noah Claypole, including stealing
twenty pounds from the Sowerberry’s and running away to London.
Tom Chitling
Another of Fagin’s boys, Chitling is eighteen, but not as accomplished a thief as the Dodger, and
has just come from spending six weeks in jail.
Mr. Blathers
Mr. Blathers is an officer from Bow Street, a stout man of about fifty, who comes to Mrs.
Maylie’s after the robbery.
Mr. Duff
Mr. Duff is an officer from Bow Street, a red-headed, bony man with a sinister expression, who
comes to Mrs. Maylie’s after the robbery.
Dick
Dick is a young companion of Oliver’s at the workhouse, who blesses Oliver as he runs away
from the undertaker’s. Dick dies before Oliver can come back to save him.
Betsy
Betsy is a young woman prostitute who visits at Fagan's. Sheis a little messy and not quite pretty,
but free and easy and hearty. She goes crazy when she sees Nancy's dead body.
Mrs. Mann
Mrs. Mann runs the orphanage where Oliver grows up. She keeps for herself most of the money
allotted by the parish for the care of the orphans, and neglects them rather steadily.
Mrs. Thingummy
Also known as Old Sally, Mrs. Thingummy is an old woman pauper who acts as nurse during
Oliver’s delivery, while having had a little too much beer. She steals a locket from Oliver’s dead
mother, which holds the key to his identity.
Mr. Fang
Mr. Fang is the magistrate to whom Oliver is taken when accused of stealing the handkerchief.
He is a lean, long-backed, stiff-necked, middle-sized balding man, with a stern and flushed face.
The bookstall keeper
The bookstall keeper is the man who saw the robbing of Mr. Brownlow, and convinces Mr. Fang
to drop the charges against Oliver.
Mr. Kags
Mr. Kags is a fifty-year-old robber and ex-convict with a scarred face, who is companions with
Toby Crackit
Mr. Gamfield
Mr. Gamfield is a chimney sweep who is in debt to his landlord, and so is intrigued by the
workhouse’s offer of Oliver and, more importantly, five pounds. He is a very cruel man who has
already caused the death of several young chimneysweeps apprenticed to him.
Mr. Lively
Mr. Lively is a small man who works in Saffron Hill, buying and selling stolen goods.
The master
The master is a fat, healthy man, who is in charge of giving out the food at the workhouse.
Mr. Limbkins
Mr. Limbkins is a member of the board of the workhouse.

Oliver Twist Summary

Oliver Twist begins in a workhouse in 1830s England, in an unnamed village, where a young woman,
revealed to be Oliver's mother, gives birth to her son and promptly dies. The boy, lucky to survive, is
raised until the age of nine in a "farm" for young orphaned children, and then is sent to the local
workhouse again, where he labors for a time, until his innocent request for more food so angers the
house's board and beadle, Mr. Bumble, that the workhouse attempts to foist Oliver off as an apprentice
to some worker in the villager. Oliver is eventually given over to a coffin-maker named Sowerberry.
Oliver works as a "mute" mourner for Sowerberry, and must sleep at night among the coffins. After a
fight with Noah, another of Sowerberry's apprentices, over Oliver's unwed mother (whom Noah insults),
Oliver runs away to London, to make his fortune.
Near London, Oliver meets a well-dressed young boy who introduces himself as the Artful Dodger, a
thief under the employ of a local crime boss named Fagin. The Dodger takes Oliver to Fagin, who
promises to help Oliver but really holds him hostage, and forces him to go on a thieving mission with the
Dodger and Bates, another young criminal. Bates and Dodger try to steal the handkerchief of an old man,
who notices Oliver (an innocent onlooker), and believes him to be the thief. Oliver is caught and hauled
to jail, only to be released into the old man Brownlow's company after Brownlow sees that Oliver had
nothing to do with the crime. Brownlow nurses Oliver for a time and vows to educate him properly. But
after sending Oliver out to return some books and money to a bookseller, Brownlow is shocked to find
that Oliver does not return—Oliver has been picked up by Nancy, an associate of Fagin's, and taken back
to the criminal gang.
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The remainder of the novel comprises Brownlow's attempts to find Oliver, and Oliver's attempts to escape
Fagin, his criminal associate Sikes, and the other boys. Fagin orders Oliver to accompany Sikes and
another thief named Toby Crackit on a house-breaking, in a country village, that goes awry; Oliver is shot
in the arm in the attempt, by a servant named Giles of the Maylie house (the house being broken into);
Oliver nearly dies, but walks back to the house the next morning and is nursed back to health
by Rose, Mrs. Maylie, and a local doctor named Lorsborne. Lorsborne later takes Oliver into London to
find Brownlow, but they discover Brownlow has gone to visit the West Indies. Oliver is crestfallen, but is
happy nonetheless with the Maylies, and is educated by an old man in the Maylies' village. Later, on a trip
into London, Rose is visited by Nancy, who wishes to come clean about her involvement in Oliver's
oppression, and Oliver finds that Brownlow is back in the city, having returned from the West Indies.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Corney, mistress of the workhouse, receives a package from a dying woman
named Old Sally, which Sally in turn received from Oliver's mother upon her death. The package
contains material indicating Oliver's family history, which is of interest to a friend and shadowy associate
of Fagin's named Monks. Nancy meets with Rose and Brownlow in secret in London, to discuss what she
has overheard, from Fagin and Monks, regarding Oliver's parentage; Noah, sent to spy on Nancy,
overhears this conversation, and reports it to Fagin. Fagin tells Sikes, misleadingly, that Nancy has
"peached" on the whole gang (even though Nancy refused to incriminate Fagin or Sikes to Brownlow),
and Sikes, in a fit of rage, kills Nancy, then goes on the lam with his dog.
Brownlow realizes that he recognized Oliver as resembling the picture of a woman in his parlor, and also
recognized a man he comes to realize is Monks. Brownlow pieces together the mystery of Oliver's
parentage: Oliver's father is also Monks' father, and Monks' mother defrauded Oliver's mother, an unwed
woman named Agnes, of the inheritance Oliver's father, Edwin, intended to leave to Oliver and Agnes.
Monks wishes to destroy these facts of Oliver's parentage in order to keep all the inheritance for himself.
But Brownlow confronts Monks with these facts, and Monks agrees, finally, to sign an affidavit admitting
his part in the conspiracy to defraud Oliver.
Meanwhile, the members of Fagin's gang are all caught: Noah; Charlotte, his partner; the Dodger; and
Fagin himself. Sikes dies, by accident, attempting to escape a mob that has come to kill him following
Nancy's death. Brownlow manages to secure half of Oliver's inheritance for Oliver, and gives the other
half to Monks, who spends it in the New World on criminal activity. Rose Maylie, long in love with her
cousin Harry, eventually marries him, after Harry purposefully lowers his social station to correspond
with Rose's; Rose was said to be of a blighted family, and in the novel's final surprise, this "blight" is
revealed: Rose's sister was Agnes, meaning that Rose is Oliver's aunt.
At the novel's end, Oliver is restored to his rightful lineage and is adopted by Brownlow. The pair live in
the country with Harry, who has become a parson, and Rose, along with Losborne and Mrs. Maylie.
Oliver can, at last, be educated in the tranquility and manner he deserves, as the son of a gentleman.
Key Facts about Oliver Twist

 Full Title: Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress

 When Written: Written serially, February 1837 to April 1839
 Where Written: London, England
 When Published: February 1837 to April 1839; revised 1847
 Literary Period: Victorian
 Genre: Victorian social novel; Bildungsroman (novel of education); novel of morality
 Setting: London, England, and the countryside surrounding, 1830s
  Climax: Oliver is shot by a servant of the Maylies; he recovers under their care, and begins the
process of learning his true parentage
 Antagonist: Monks and Fagin
 Point of View: third-person omniscient

Extra Credit for Oliver Twist

Musical adaptation. Many have come to know the general story of Oliver Twist via the musical Oliver!,
which premiered in 1960 in London, and which was made into a successful motion picture in 1968. The
musical retains many of the characters made most famous in the novel, including Fagin and the Artful
Dodger.