Oliver Twist

Sikes and Oliver enter the dilapidated house to find Toby Crackit and a sleeping Barney. Toby is wearing respectable-looking clothes meant to trick and seduce a servant into letting him inside the house. Sikes is strangely kind to Oliver as the older man makes him sit by the fire to rest. The men begin drinking and toasting to the success of the robbery. The men make Oliver have a drink as well and it makes him fall into a coughing fit that they find amusing. The men take a short nap before their plan is to begin but Oliver is fitful and restless.

A little after 1 a.m., the men rise and put on shawls and coats that will hide their identity. The men load themselves up with pistols and other weapons and tools for the job. Oliver is exhausted and simply follows Sikes. The group hurries through the town and to a house a little ways outside of town. Toby climbs over the wall and Sikes passes him Oliver before climbing over it himself. It is only then that Oliver begins to realize that “housebreaking and robbery, if not murder, were the objects of the expedition” (254). Oliver falls to his knees and begs for Sikes to let him go. Bill makes to shoot Oliver but Toby knocks the gun out of Sikes’s hand and covers Oliver’s mouth to keep him silent. Toby says he will kill Oliver with a blow to the head if he does not acquiesce.

The men yank off a shutter from a small lattice window with a crowbar and pass Oliver through the window after giving him detailed instructions to go to the front door and unlock it. Though the men believe they hear a noise, they send Oliver through the window anyway. Sikes points the pistol at Oliver, telling him that he would be within range the entire time, should he decide to make a break for it. Oliver decides that he will attempt to warn the family, even if it means his own death. As Oliver advances forward, Sikes begins to cry for him to come back. Alarmed, Oliver drops his lantern, and sees a bright flash of light before he staggers backwards. Sikes shoots at the men on the stairs and drags Oliver back through the window.

Oliver is bleeding heavily so Sikes ties a shawl around the boy, carrying him quickly away from the house. 

Dickens introduces the reader to a new character, Mrs. Corney, who is a matron at the workhouse where Oliver was born. It is a cold night and Mrs. Corney is thinking about her dead husband and the loneliness that she now finds herself in. She wonders at the ingratitude of the paupers, thinking about how everyone has things to be grateful for, as she makes tea with a silver spoon. As she is feeling sorry for herself, someone knocks on the door and Mrs. Corney assumes that a pauper is dying: “They always die when I’m at meals” (260). It is not a pauper at her door, however, but Mr. Bumble. The two parochial employees commiserate about the ungrateful and “obstinate” paupers under their care (262). After they finish talking about the death and sickness among those in their care, Mr. Bumble produces two bottles of wine for them. Though he initially makes to leave, he stays when Mrs. Corney offers him some tea.

Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney flirt over the cups of tea and chat about the cats that Mrs. Corney seems so fond of. Despite their previous conversation about dying paupers, Mrs. Corney accuses Mr. Bumble of being “cruel” and “hard-hearted” only when he alludes that he would drown any cat who did not like living with her (265). Mr. Bumble protests this. Neither of them sees the irony in their statements. He moves his chair away from the fire and towards Mrs. Corney’s other side. This sandwiches Mrs. Corney between the fireplace and Mr. Bumble, giving her no room to escape. Mr. Bumble asks Mrs. Corney if she is hard-hearted and proceeds to kiss her. Mrs. Corney makes to scream but there comes a knock on the door.

An old woman at the door tells Mrs. Corney that an “old Sally” is on her deathbed and there is something she wishes to tell the matron before she passes (267). Mrs. Corney is irritated at this and begins muttering “invectives against old women who couldn’t even die without purposely annoying their betters” (268). She makes to leave and tells Mr. Bumble to wait for her return. Mr. Bumble, upon being left alone, begins counting and taking inventory of Mrs. Corney’s furniture and possessions. 

Mrs. Corney enters the sick room of old Sally. There, she greets the parish apothecary’s apprentice with a great deal more friendliness. They chat about the weather and the cold for a while before a moan from old Sally reminds them to tend to her. The apprentice gets bored and leaves the room after idly making a toothpick out of a quill and sitting before the fire. This leaves the women alone in the room with old Sally. The old ladies begin speaking about themselves but Mrs. Corney gets impatient and demands to know how long she would have to wait before old Sally awakens.

Mrs. Corney tells them not to bother her for unimportant things and just as she makes to leave, old Sally grabs her arm. Mrs. Corney makes the other two women leave and old Sally confesses that she once stole a gold necklace from a young woman who died in childbirth. Old Sally states that the young mother told her that the gold necklace would help Oliver and aid him in finding some friends in the world. Mrs. Corney demands to know the baby’s name and old Sally reveals that they named him Oliver. Old Sally dies before she can reveal more about the gold jewelry. Mrs. Corney opens the door and leaves the old woman to care for the body, pretending that old Sally had nothing important to tell her after all. 

Fagin is at the house with Mr. Chitling, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates. The former is brooding before the fire while the other boys are playing cards. The Dodger is cheating by sneaking glances at Chitling’s cards and the man believes that the boy must have excellent luck. Eventually, the boys wonder why Chitling looks so glum. Fagin refuses to participate but the boys begin teasing Chitling about his crush on Betsy. Charley keeps teasing Chitling and the older boy attempts to throttle him; in doing so, he accidentally punches Fagin in the chest.

The Dodger goes to the door when he hears the bell ring from downstairs. He comes back up to tell Fagin that someone has returned alone and the information makes Fagin uncharacteristically anxious. Charley Bates and Tom Chitling are banished from the room and a haggard Toby Crackit is brought in their stead. Crackit refuses to answer any questions until he gets food and drink and it is only after that Toby begins to speak. Toby asks how Bill Sikes is getting on and the question sends Fagin into a rage.

Toby tells them that the job was a failure and that they’d all run away from the house. According to Toby, Sikes left Oliver in a ditch somewhere and no one has any clue if the boy is alive or dead. Fagin is in a rage as he rushes from the house.