Summary: Chapter 1
Oliver Twist is born a sickly infant in a workhouse. The
parish surgeon and a drunken nurse attend his birth. His mother
kisses his forehead and dies, and the nurse announces that Oliver’s
mother was found lying in the streets the night before. The surgeon
notices that she is not wearing a wedding ring.
Summary: Chapter 2
So they established the rule that all
poor people should have the alternative . . . of being starved by
a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Authorities at the workhouse send Oliver to a branch-workhouse for
“juvenile offenders against the poor-laws.” The overseer, Mrs. Mann,
receives an adequate sum for each child’s upkeep, but she keeps
most of the money and lets the children go hungry, sometimes even
letting them die.
On Oliver’s ninth birthday, Mr. Bumble, a minor church
official known as the parish beadle, informs Mrs. Mann that Oliver
is too old to stay at her establishment. Since no one has been able
to discover his mother’s or father’s identity, he must return to
the workhouse. Mrs. Mann asks how the boy came to have any name
at all. Mr. Bumble tells her that he keeps a list of names in alphabetical order,
naming the orphans from the list as they are born.
Mrs. Mann fetches Oliver. When Mr. Bumble is not looking,
she glowers and shakes her fist at the boy, so he stays silent about
the miserable conditions at her establishment. Before Oliver departs, Mrs.
Mann gives him some bread and butter so that he will not seem too
hungry at the workhouse.
The workhouse offers the poor the opportunity to starve
slowly as opposed to quick starvation on the streets. For the workhouse, the
undertaker’s bill is a major budget item due to the large number of
deaths. Oliver and his young companions suffer the “tortures of slow
starvation.” One night at dinner, one child tells the others that if
he does not have another bowl of gruel he might eat one of them. Terrified,
the children at the workhouse cast lots, determining that whoever
loses shall be required to ask for more food for the boy. Oliver
loses, and after dinner, the other children insist that Oliver ask
for more food at supper. His request so shocks the authorities that
they offer five pounds as a reward to anyone who will take Oliver
off of their hands.
Summary: Chapter 3
In the parish, Oliver has been flogged and then locked
in a dark room as a public example. Mr. Gamfield, a brutish chimney
sweep, offers to take Oliver on as an apprentice. Because several
boys have died under his supervision, the board considers five pounds
too large a reward, and they settle on just over three pounds. Mr.
Bumble, Mr. Gamfield, and Oliver appear before a magistrate to seal
the bargain. At the last minute, the magistrate notices Oliver’s
pale, alarmed face. He asks the boy why he looks so terrified. Oliver
falls on his knees and begs that he be locked in a room, beaten,
killed, or any other punishment besides being apprenticed to Mr.
Gamfield. The magistrate refuses to approve the apprenticeship,
and the workhouse authorities again advertise Oliver’s availability.
