Oliver Twist · Chapter
IV: Oliver, Being Offered Another Place, Makes His First Entry Into Public Life explained
Oliver is apprenticed to Mr.
What happens
Oliver is apprenticed to Mr. Sowerberry, the undertaker, after the workhouse board considers sending him to sea. He is taken by Mr. Bumble to the undertaker's shop, where he meets Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry. Despite Oliver's emotional plea of loneliness, he is treated harshly and given a meager meal of dog scraps before being sent to sleep among the coffins.
Themes in this chapter
Social Injustice and Poverty
Oliver is treated as a burden, given dog scraps, and forced to sleep among coffins, highlighting the dehumanization of the poor.
Innocence and Corruption
Oliver's innocent plea of loneliness is met with harshness and indifference, as the adult world corrupts and exploits his vulnerability.
Class and Hypocrisy
Mr. Bumble and Mr. Sowerberry joke about coffin profits while Oliver suffers, exposing the hypocrisy of those in authority.
Characters to notice
- Oliver Twist
Oliver is taken to the undertaker's shop, weeps from loneliness, and is given scraps to eat before being sent to sleep among coffins.
- Mr. Bumble
Mr. Bumble escorts Oliver to Mr. Sowerberry, displaying a stern demeanor but briefly showing astonishment at Oliver's emotional outburst.
- Mr. Sowerberry
The undertaker who takes Oliver as an apprentice; he jokes with Bumble about coffin profits and shows little concern for Oliver's welfare.
- Mrs. Sowerberry
The undertaker's wife, who complains about Oliver's small size and potential cost, and pushes him downstairs to eat dog scraps.
- Charlotte
A slatternly girl in the kitchen who serves Oliver the cold bits meant for the dog.
Key passages
“Oliver, instead of possessing too little feeling, possessed rather too much; and was in a fair way of being reduced, for life, to a state of brutal stupidity and sullenness by the ill usage he had received.”
Oliver had too much feeling, not too little, and the mistreatment he endured was pushing him toward a life of dullness and bitterness.
The narrator contrasts Oliver's sensitivity with the harshness of his environment.
“I wish some well-fed philosopher, whose meat and drink turn to gall within him; whose blood is ice, whose heart is iron; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the dainty viands that the dog had neglected.”
The narrator wishes a comfortable, cold-hearted philosopher could witness Oliver's desperate hunger as he ate the scraps the dog had left behind.
A satirical jab at those who moralize about poverty without understanding its realities.