Oliver Twist · Chapter
A Strange Interview, Which Is a Sequel to the Last Chapter explained
Nancy secretly meets Rose Maylie and reveals that she overheard a conversation between Fagin and Monks, in which Monks is revealed to be Oliver's half-brother and has been plotting to destroy Oliver.
What happens
Nancy secretly meets Rose Maylie and reveals that she overheard a conversation between Fagin and Monks, in which Monks is revealed to be Oliver's half-brother and has been plotting to destroy Oliver. Despite Rose's pleas to escape her life of crime, Nancy refuses to leave Bill Sikes and returns to the gang.
Themes in this chapter
Identity and Secret Origins
Monks is revealed to be Oliver's brother, and the secret of Oliver's parentage is central to the plot.
Compassion and Redemption
Rose shows compassion to Nancy despite her criminal past, and Nancy struggles with her own sense of shame and desire for redemption.
Crime and Punishment
Nancy's involvement with thieves and her fear of Sikes highlight the consequences of a life of crime.
Characters to notice
- Nancy
Nancy secretly meets Rose Maylie to reveal Monks' plot against Oliver, but refuses to leave her life with Sikes.
- Rose Maylie
Rose listens to Nancy's revelations and pleads with her to escape her criminal life, but is ultimately unable to persuade her.
- Monks
Revealed through Nancy's account as Oliver's brother who conspires with Fagin to ruin Oliver.
- Fagin
Mentioned as Monks' co-conspirator in the plot against Oliver.
- Bill Sikes
Nancy fears Sikes would murder her if he knew of her meeting with Rose.
- Oliver Twist
The subject of Monks' plot, revealed to be Monks' younger brother.
Key passages
“I am the girl that dragged little Oliver back to old Fagin's on the night he went out from the house in Pentonville.”
Nancy confesses to Rose that she was the one who brought Oliver back to Fagin after he escaped.
Nancy reveals her role in Oliver's recapture.
“In short, Fagin,' he says, 'Jew as you are, you never laid such snares as I'll contrive for my young brother, Oliver.'”
Monks boasts to Fagin that he will devise even worse traps for Oliver, his own brother.
Monks is revealed as Oliver's brother and vows to destroy him.
“When ladies as young, and good, and beautiful as you are, give away your hearts, love will carry you all lengths—even such as you, who have home, friends, other admirers, everything, to fill them. When such as I, who have no certain roof but the coffinlid, and no friend in sickness or death but the hospital nurse, set our rotten hearts on any man, and let him fill the place that has been a blank through all our wretched lives, who can hope to cure us?”
Nancy explains to Rose that her love for Sikes, however destructive, is the only human connection she has, and she cannot abandon it.
Nancy justifies her loyalty to Sikes despite her wretched life.