Oliver’s half brother, Monks, teams with Fagin in an attempt to recapture Oliver and lead him into a life of crime therefore negating the unknowing Oliver’s claim to his rightful inheritance which would then go to Monks.
Overhearing Monks and Fagin’s plans, Nancy, whom had always held great compassion for Oliver, tells the Maylies, Dr. Losberne and others.
Nancy, after meeting with Rose Maylie, is followed. When Fagin hears of this, he is enrages and tells Sikes who brutally murders her and flees to the country. Fagin is captured and sentenced to be hung. Sikes, with a mob on his tail, accidentally hangs himself trying to escape. Oliver is found to be the illegitimate son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming, after seducing Agnes Edwin dies leaving a will that states that the unborn child will receive the inheritance. Oliver collects his inheritance and is adopted by Mr. Brownlow.
Charles Dickens was writing Oliver Twist in 1837 and finished in 1836. He posted a new chapter every month to keep his readers captivated by the story and keep buying it. Dickens wrote Oliver Twist to sustain a living and also to educate the public about the underworld of London. Dickens was severely criticized for introducing criminals and prostitutes in Oliver Twist, to which Dickens replied “I saw no reason, when I wrote this book, why the very dregs of life, so long as their speech did not offend the ear, should not serve the purpose of moral, at least as well as its froth and cream.’’ This meant that even though they are criminals, some are not as bad as they may seem and that there is no reason why he should not write about them.
The novel Oliver Twist shows two criminals, Sikes and Fagin who do unlawful things like pickpocket and burgle. Dickens shows us that characters like this deserve to be punished and repent for their sins. However, dickens also shows us poor, innocent people like Oliver and Nancy who are led into the life of crime by no choice of their own. Some of these attitudes are shown clearly in chapters 47 and 48 in particular.
In chapters 47 and 48, Fagin makes a boy called Noah shadow Nancy, a prostitute in Fagin and Sykes’ gang, when she goes to meet Rose Maylie and Mr Brownlow on London Bridge. Fagin gets Noah to tell Sykes about what Nancy was doing, and in a blind fit of rage, Sykes sets out to find Nancy. Sykes finds Nancy at home, in bed. Sykes wakes the half-dressed girl from her slumber roughly and tells her to get up. Confused and weary from sleep, Nancy is slow to understand Sykes anger, and tells him how pleased she is to see him. Sykes, grasping her by head and throat, drags her into the middle of the room and places his hand upon her mouth to muffle her cries. Nancy fights weakly against him, begging him to release her for she will not cry out or scream. Sykes tells her about Noah and what he heard, calling her a she-devil while suppressing her breath. Nancy pleads and pleads, saying that she has been true to him. Sykes struggles to release his arms from Nancys grip but she gripped too tightly. Nancy tells Sykes of her plans with Rose to escape to a foreign country, and that she would take him with her. Sykes ignores her and reaches for his pistol, but at the risk of alarm at the sound of a gunshot, he hits Nancy’s upturned face with the pistol as hard as he can. Sykes then seizes a heavy, blunt object and kills her.
In chapters 47 and 48, dickens describes Fagin as something of a monster. “With face so distorted and pale, and eyes so red and bloodshot, that he looked less a man, than like some hideous phantom.’’ This makes the reader feel like Fagin is a very ill-looking man, and somewhat fearsome.
During chapter 47, Fagin is deliberately aggravating Sikes and speaking slowly to build tension because he wants him to react to everything he is saying. He wants him to get worked up and angry. Fagin wants Sikes to be as angry as possible when he reveals what Nancy has been doing so that he will kill her. This shows the reader that Fagin is very manipulative and nasty. He likes making people angry, and he knows how to make people do what he wants. When Fagin says “lost! She has pretty well settled that, in her own mind already.’’ He means that Nancy has already recognised Sikes as dead already as she is “plotting against him’’. Also, when Fagin shouts to Sikes “What if I did it! I, that know so much, and could hang so many myself!’’ Fagin is trying to see what Sikes will react like. Trying to get him really frustrated and tense, incase Fagin is trying to kill him.
Dickens often addresses Sikes as “The Robber” and “The Housebreaker”. Creating an image of a criminal and someone who does not respect other peoples possessions. Also, after killing Nancy we know Sikes is capable of murder. Sikes is presented as someone no one has any pity for, as he does not deserve it. Sikes death is very theatrical, he accidentally hangs himself on a rope he was going to use to escape from his pursuers.
During chapters 47 and 48 Dickens portrays Nancy as someone to be sympathised with and pitied. Although she is a prostitute and a criminal, she does not do it for the same reasons as Sikes and Fagin. As she was forced into the life of crime, she has no evil intentions. She shows a lot of care towards Oliver, and even when she is about to be killed, she still does not shout or scream at Sikes, she only accepts her fate. Dickens often addresses Nancy as “The Girl” portraying her as someone young and innocent, not yet a classed as a woman.
I’ve learned from these chapters that not all criminals are bad, and not all are in that occupation by their own choice. I think Dickens has managed to educate the reader about the time and the problems while keeping them interested.
