Oliver Twist · Chapter
Oliver Walks to London. He Encounters on the Road a Strange Sort of Young Gentleman explained
Oliver, having run away from the undertaker's, walks toward London over the course of a week, suffering hunger, cold, and rejection from villagers who threaten him with jail or dogs.
What happens
Oliver, having run away from the undertaker's, walks toward London over the course of a week, suffering hunger, cold, and rejection from villagers who threaten him with jail or dogs. After receiving small kindnesses from a turnpike-man and an old lady, he arrives in Barnet exhausted. There he meets the Artful Dodger, a peculiar boy who offers him food and lodging. The Dodger leads Oliver to a dilapidated house where Fagin and a group of young thieves are gathered. Fagin welcomes Oliver, and after a meal and a drink of gin-and-water, Oliver falls into a deep sleep.
Themes in this chapter
Innocence and Corruption
Oliver's innocence is contrasted with the Artful Dodger's worldly, roguish demeanor and Fagin's manipulative welcome, foreshadowing the corrupting environment Oliver is about to enter.
Social Injustice and Poverty
Oliver's week-long journey highlights the indifference and hostility of society toward the poor, as he is threatened with jail, chased away, and given only meager charity by a few kind souls.
Characters to notice
- Oliver Twist
Oliver walks seventy miles to London over seven days, suffering hunger, cold, and rejection. He meets the Artful Dodger in Barnet and is taken to Fagin's den.
- The Artful Dodger
The Dodger encounters Oliver in Barnet, offers him food and lodging, and leads him to Fagin's house, introducing him as 'my friend Oliver Twist.'
- Fagin
Fagin welcomes Oliver to his den, grins obsequiously, and offers him sausages and gin-and-water while his young pupils pretend to help Oliver.
- Charley Bates
Charley Bates is one of the young gentlemen in Fagin's den who shakes Oliver's hand and participates in the mock civilities.
Key passages
“London!—that great place!—nobody—not even Mr. Bumble—could ever find him there!”
Oliver thinks that in the vastness of London, no one, not even Mr. Bumble, will be able to find him.
Oliver's hope that London offers anonymity and escape from his past.
“He had often heard the old men in the workhouse, too, say that no lad of spirit need want in London; and that there were ways of living in that vast city, which those who had been bred up in country parts had no idea of.”
Oliver recalls workhouse elders saying that a spirited boy could always get by in London, where there were opportunities unknown in the countryside.
The romanticized view of London as a place of opportunity for the desperate.
“The turnpike-man gave him a meal of bread and cheese; and the old lady, who had a shipwrecked grandson wandering barefoot in some distant part of the earth, took pity upon the poor orphan, and gave him what little she could afford—and more—with such kind and gentle words, and such tears of sympathy and compassion, that they sank deeper into Oliver’s soul, than all the sufferings he had ever undergone.”
A turnpike-man and an old lady, who had a lost grandson, show Oliver kindness that affects him more deeply than his hardships.
The power of compassion in contrast to the cruelty Oliver has faced.
“Hullo, my covey! What’s the row?”
Hello, my friend! What's the trouble?
The Artful Dodger's slangy, confident greeting to Oliver.