Oliver Twist · Chapter
How Oliver Passed His Time in the Improving Society of His Reputable Friends explained
Fagin lectures Oliver on ingratitude and threatens him with hanging if he tries to escape.
What happens
Fagin lectures Oliver on ingratitude and threatens him with hanging if he tries to escape. Oliver is left alone for days in the dirty, decaying house, wandering through gloomy rooms. Later, the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates return, and Oliver helps clean the Dodger's boots while they discuss the virtues of being a 'prig' (thief).
Themes in this chapter
Innocence and Corruption
Fagin deliberately poisons Oliver's mind with threats and criminal ideology, attempting to corrupt his innocence.
Crime and Punishment
The chapter explores the criminal underworld's code and the constant threat of hanging as punishment for betrayal.
Characters to notice
- Oliver Twist
Oliver is imprisoned in Fagin's house, subjected to threats and isolation, and begins to help the Dodger with his boots.
- Fagin
Fagin lectures Oliver on ingratitude, threatens him with hanging, and leaves him locked in the house to brood.
- The Artful Dodger
The Dodger returns and has Oliver clean his boots while smoking and discussing the pride of being a 'prig'.
- Charley Bates
Charley Bates joins the Dodger in smoking and praising the life of a thief, calling Sikes's dog an 'out-and-out Christian'.
Key passages
“the wily old Jew had the boy in his toils. Having prepared his mind, by solitude and gloom, to prefer any society to the companionship of his own sad thoughts in such a dreary place, he was now slowly instilling into his soul the poison which he hoped would blacken it, and change its hue forever.”
Fagin had Oliver trapped and, after making him lonely and miserable, was gradually filling his mind with corrupting ideas to turn him into a criminal.
This passage illustrates Fagin's deliberate corruption of Oliver's innocence.
“Mr. Fagin concluded by drawing a rather disagreeable picture of the discomforts of hanging; and, with great friendliness and politeness of manner, expressed his anxious hopes that he might never be obliged to submit Oliver Twist to that unpleasant operation.”
Fagin ended his lecture by describing the horrors of hanging in a friendly tone, warning Oliver that he would face execution if he betrayed them.
Fagin uses veiled threats to control Oliver through fear.
“What a pity it is he isn't a prig!”
It's too bad he's not a thief.
The Dodger laments that Oliver hasn't yet been turned to a life of crime.