Oliver Twist

Oliver is sent from one workhouse to another, a “child farm” of sorts, where juvenile offenders are kept by the state. Mrs. Mann, the head of the workhouse, skimps wherever she can and pockets most of the stipend rather than spend money on the children. Children are forced to “exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food” (8). Children frequently die in the workhouse, often from starvation, but the deaths are consistently overlooked and even covered up by parish officials. In Chapter 2, Oliver is nine years old and is described as pale and thin but with a good heart. On Oliver’s ninth birthday, the beadle named Mr. Bumble arrives at the workhouse to take Oliver away. He is declared old enough to work.

In his conversation with Mrs. Mann, it is revealed that Mr. Bumble names the orphans alphabetically and was the one who gave Oliver Twist his name. Oliver pretends to hate the idea of leaving the workhouse and feigns tears. Though Oliver is happy to leave, he does not want to leave his friends behind. Mr. Bumble brings Oliver to speak with the parish board, which will decide his fate. The board members are deluded about the conditions of poverty. They ask Oliver about his religion and order him to say his prayers, despite the fact that no one has ever taught him to say them. Oliver is then sent to the adult workhouse, where he will pick oakum.

The board believes that poor people enjoy workhouses and have set in motion a plan to lower the number of impoverished souls. The staple meal of the workhouse is a watery gruel, designed to starve the poor to oblivion, and save the parish some money. Oliver and some of the other boys in the workhouse are thus on the brink of starvation. They draw lots to decide who will ask for more food. Oliver draws the short straw and says to the master, “Please, sir, I want some more” (20). The master hits Oliver and rushes to the board, where he reports the incident to them. The board is convinced that Oliver will become a ruffian and does its best to get rid of him. The board members offer £5 to anyone who will take Oliver off their hands.

Chapter 3 begins with an imprisoned Oliver crying in the darkness. Oliver is forced to pray under rushing water in the freezing cold and is repeatedly caned by Mr. Bumble. Oliver is also made an example of to the others. The young boy is taken into the hall and publicly flogged to ensure that none else will dare to do the same. Dickens implies that if Oliver had a pocket-handkerchief, the young boy would have attempted to hang himself. Mr. Gamfield, the chimneysweep, passes by the workhouse with his donkey and sees the bill posted by the board. Gamfield coincidentally requires the precise sum offered by the parish. He goes before the board and tells them that he wants Oliver to be his apprentice. The board, including one Mr. Limbkins, and Mr. Gamfield discuss the frequent deaths of young boys in the line of chimneysweep work.

Initially, the board makes a show of refusing Mr. Gamfield but only does so in order to lower their initial offer of five pounds to three. One of the board members tells Mr. Gamfield that Oliver would “be cheap with nothing at all, as a premium […] He wants the stick, now and then: it’ll do him good; and his board needn’t come very expensive, for he hasn’t been overfed since he was born. Ha! Ha! Ha!” (28). When Mr. Bumble fetches Oliver, the young boy wrongfully believes that the board means to have him killed. Mr. Bumble attempts to get Oliver to be grateful that he is becoming an apprentice. The beadle brings Oliver to the magistrate in order to get the papers signed. The magistrate notices that Oliver is staring at Mr. Gamfield in horror and commands the board to bring Oliver back to the workhouse. The bill advertising £5 for anyone willing to take Oliver is placed outside the workhouse once more.

The board considers sending Oliver to sea as a cabinboy, where he would very likely meet his end. The board members and parish officials believe that “the skipper would flog him to death, in a playful mood, some day after dinner, or would knock his brains out with an iron bar” (35). As Mr. Bumble returns from asking if any ship may require a cabin boy, he sees Mr. Sowerberry, the church undertaker. The two men discuss the expense of burying the poor, both eager to keep more money for themselves, neither sympathetic to the growing number of deaths as a result of the “new system of feeding” (37). The men speak of the evils of juries, who seemingly fault the board and the parish for the many deaths of the poor.

Oliver is shown off to Mr. Sowerberry so the latter can ensure that “he can get enough work out of a boy without putting too much food into him” (40). Mr. Sowerberry agrees to take Oliver and when Mr. Bumble goes to fetch the boy, Oliver begins to cry. Mr. Bumble berates him for being ungrateful, but Oliver continues to cry out, “Everybody hates me. Oh! Sir, don’t, don’t pray be cross to me!” (42). Mr. Bumble is largely unaffected and tells Oliver to dry his tears and compose himself. Mr. Bumble brings Oliver to meet Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry. Mrs. Sowerberry despises Oliver on sight, is unwilling to feed him, and pushes him down into the cellar. Oliver is given scraps initially left out for the dog by Charlotte, another child working for the Sowerberrys. That night, Oliver sleeps surrounded by coffins. 

Oliver ruminates on his new environs and apprenticeship. The darkness and the constant reminders of death depress Oliver and he wishes that “he could be lain in a calm and lasting sleep in the churchyard ground” away from the troubles and miseries of his life (47). Oliver falls asleep to such melancholy thoughts and is woken the next morning by Noah Claypole, a charity-boy who threatens to beat Oliver. Noah also works for the Sowerberrys and is pleased by Oliver’s arrival. Previously used to being the lowest rung on the ladder and frequently bullied by the other shop-boys, Noah is now able to bully Oliver. Charlotte and Noah are friends. She saves Noah some bacon from Mr. Sowerberry’s breakfast but Oliver is forced to once again survive on scraps.

A month later, Mr. Sowerberry speaks with his wife about the possibility of making Oliver a mute mourner, a dramatic addition to funerals for children because of the young boy’s “expression of melancholy in his face” (52). That same day, Mr. Bumble visits Mr. Sowerberry to arrange a funeral for one of the poor people in the workhouse, and becomes enraged by the deceased’s audacity to die under parish care. In his rage, Mr. Bumble fails to acknowledge Oliver’s presence and the boy is relieved. Mr. Sowerberry and Oliver go to measure the corpse for the coffin and they discover that the poor woman starved to death, leaving behind an impoverished family on the brink of death themselves. Her husband is beside himself with grief and blames the parish and the law for her death. The clergyman makes the grieving family wait over an hour in the rain and spends only four minutes on the burial service before hurrying off. The poor woman’s coffin is the last in a shared grave, “within a few feet of the surface” (60). Oliver is sullen after the affair. When Mr. Sowerberry insists that he will soon get used to it, Oliver does not believe him.