130 pages • 4 hours read
Charles DickensOliver Twist
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1838A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “IN WHICH A MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER APPEARS UPON THE SCENE; AND MANY THINGS, INSEPARABLE FROM THIS HISTORY, ARE DONE AND PERFORMED”
Fagin calms himself in the streets of London after a carriage almost hits him. He travels through a series of alleyways before he finally emerges in another neighborhood and asks a tradesman if any mutual acquaintances they know are at the “Cripples” (288). Fagin wonders if Sikes is there but the tradesman is not sure. The Three Cripples is the public house, a bar, that Fagin and Sikes often frequent. The bar is full of people of Fagin’s caliber, all seemingly similarly interested in shady business ventures.
Fagin speaks with the landlord and asks if Barney, Sikes, or Monks is present. The landlord says that he has not seen Barney or Sikes but that Monks will likely be arriving at the bar soon. Fagin tells the landlord to ask Monks to visit him tomorrow. The two men laugh about how drunken Phil Barker is and how they might rat him out to the police. Fagin thinks that Phil may be valuable yet. Fagin arrives at Sikes’s house to try and get some answers out of Nancy. He finds Nancy with her head on the table and he thinks that she’s drunk. Fagin questions her about Bill and Oliver’s whereabouts but she has no answers for him.
Nancy tells Fagin that Oliver is better dead than among them. Fagin is enraged by this and tells Nancy that if Sikes returns without Oliver, that she better kill the man herself. Fagin is so angry that he shares too much information, saying “the boy’s worth hundreds of pounds to me” (295). When Fagin realizes that he has said too much, he tries to ascertain how much Nancy understood of what he said. She tells Fagin that “you must say it all over again, if it’s anything you want me to do” and it convinces the old man that she is drunk after all (296).
Fagin leaves and just as he is heading home, someone whispers to him. It is Monks, and the two men enter the house. Fagin tells Monks about the failed robbery and the unknown whereabouts of Oliver. Monks is sufficiently startled. He tells Fagin that he should have “kept him here among the rest, and made a sneaking, sniveling pickpocket of him at once” (299). Fagin disagrees, saying that Oliver “was not like other boys in the same circumstances” and is not as easy to sway and corrupt (300).
At the mention that Oliver could be dead, Monks is boundlessly terrified and repeats over and over that killing the boy was never his intention or goal. Suddenly, Monks spies the shadow of a woman in a cloak and a bonnet. Fagin thinks that Monks is seeing things but goes to check the house anyway. They find nothing because the house is locked up. Monks nervously leaves.
Chapter 27 Summary: “ATONES FOR THE UNPOLITENESS OF A FORMER CHAPTER; WHICH DESERTED A LADY, MOST UNCEREMONIOUSLY”
Chapter 27 finds Mr. Bumble having finished counting and making an inventory of Mrs. Corney’s belongings and furniture. After having done this, he begins going through Mrs. Corney’s drawers. Within them, he finds a padlocked box that is clearly filled with coins. Mr. Bumble declares, “I’ll do it!” in an apparent state of excitement (306). It is only after this that Mrs. Corney enters the room in a state of shock and panic. Mr. Bumble brings her some peppermint and alcohol to calm her down. He asks what has put her in such a state and she responds by saying that she is a “foolish, excitable, weak creetur” (308). Mr. Bumble begins flirting with Mrs. Corney again and suggesting that an addition of another room to her quarters would make it far more comfortable, especially for a couple.
“Coals, candles, and house-rent free […] Oh, Mrs. Corney, what an angel you are,” Mr. Bumble says, as if it were the most romantic sentiment in the world (309). Mrs. Corney is nonetheless moved by this and sinks into Mr. Bumble’s arms. Mr. Bumble tells her that Mr. Slout, the head of the workhouse, will be dead within the week. Mr. Bumble plans on taking Mr. Slout’s place, marrying Mrs. Corney, and living rent-free in her quarters. Mrs. Corney says yes to his proposal and Mr. Bumble asks her what had upset her earlier. Mrs. Corney says that she will only tell him after they are married. Mr. Bumble assumes that a pauper has made untoward advances on Mrs. Corney but she assures him that none would dare.
Mr. Bumble goes to Mr. Sowerberry’s and overhears Noah asking to kiss Charlotte. The beadle bursts in and begins shouting about the vileness and wickedness of kissing. Noah immediately blames it on Charlotte, telling Mr. Bumble that she kisses him frequently without his consent. Mr. Bumble has none of it and orders Noah downstairs. He leaves an order for old Sally’s coffin and leaves.
Chapter 28 Summary: “LOOKS AFTER OLIVER, AND PROCEEDS WITH HIS ADVENTURES”
Sikes carries an unconscious Oliver as he flees from the men chasing them. Sikes shouts and curses at Toby Crackit, who refuses to stop and help with Oliver. Toby, “preferring the chance of being shot by his friend, to the certainty of being taken by his enemies, fairly turned tail, and darted off at full speed” (316). Upon seeing this, Sikes leaves Oliver in the ditch, covered with a cloak, and darts off in the other direction. The three men pursuing Sikes have a discussion among themselves about who was the most afraid before they admit that they were all afraid. The man who led the pursuit is one Mr. Giles, the butler and steward of the house, and upon his direction, the men all turned around and went back home.
Pain and cold wake Oliver and he realizes that “if he lay there, he must surely die” (321). Oliver has hallucinations of the night before, of lanterns, gunshots, and shouts. Oliver begins walking, following a road until he reaches a house. He realizes that the house looks familiar and comes to the conclusion that it is the house that they attempted to rob the night before. Oliver walks across the lawn, knocks on the door, and faints against one of the pillars. Inside, Mr. Giles is telling the tale of the night before to two other servants. He dramatizes every event, trying to play up his own bravery. However, when they hear the knock on the door, they are all too scared to open it. Eventually, Mr. Giles convinces Brittles to open the door, and they all find Oliver bleeding on the doorstep. Mr. Giles immediately drags him inside, calling up to the mistress of the house, proudly proclaiming, “[h]ere’s a thief, miss! Wounded, miss! I shot him, miss” (326).
A young woman comes downstairs and tells Mr. Giles that he is scaring her aunt almost as much as the robbers had. She tells Mr. Giles to care for Oliver and to treat him kindly. Mr. Giles carries Oliver upstairs carefully.
Chapter 29 Summary: “HAS AN INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE INMATES OF THE HOUSE, TO WHICH OLIVER RESORTED”
Mr. Giles helps serve breakfast to two women in a beautiful room. The old woman, Mrs. Maylie, and the young lady, Rose, are both described as lovely and respectable. They discuss how Brittles has been gone for more than an hour and make jokes at the man’s expense. A larger, concerned man rushes into the house and starts worrying over the two women. Mr. Losberne is introduced as the local doctor and the two women assure him they are fine. They urge him to head upstairs and care for the hurt robber and the man does as he is requested. The women wait in anticipation and worry as the doctor works on Oliver.
The doctor returns and asks if they have seen the robber. Mr. Giles hurries to explain that he had meant to tell them before Mr. Losberne had arrived. However, Giles had failed to say that the robber had been merely a boy so he “had flourished, in the very zenith of a brief reputation for undaunted courage” (334). Mrs. Mailey does not wish for Rose to see the robber but Mr. Losberne insists that it is imperative they see the thief.
Chapter 30 Summary: RELATES WHAT OLIVER'S NEW VISITORS THOUGHT OF HIM”
Mr. Losberne jokes that the thief “has not been shaved very recently, but he don’t look at all ferocious notwithstanding” (335). When the women step into the room they see Oliver, “worn with pain and exhaustion, and sunk into a deep sleep” (335). When Rose sees Oliver, she begins to cry and smooth his hair from his forehead. The two women and the doctor thus begin discussing if Oliver could have been the robber. Mr. Losberne insists that a life of sin can take root in anyone, no matter his or her appearance or age. Rose, on the other hand, believes that due to Oliver’s age, he should be given a second chance, no matter his sins of the past. The women and the doctor thus begin to plot and figure out a way to keep Oliver from being arrested.
Mrs. Maylie grants Mr. Losberne permission to do what he believes is best in order to save the boy. They all shelve the topic, insisting that they will make a decision upon hearing Oliver’s story. Later in the evening, Oliver wakes and tells them his story, despite still being ill and weak. The story leaves Rose, Mrs. Maylie, and Mr. Losberne in tears. After this, Mr. Losberne finds Mr. Giles and Brittles and demands to know if they would swear upon the Bible that Oliver is the robber from the night before. The two men are shaken by Mr. Losberne’s rage and say that they cannot be certain. Two police officers arrive and Mr. Losberne is infuriated at Mr. Giles for having called for them, though he is unable to say as much.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
In these chapters, Dickens frequently juxtaposes the interiority of the characters with their external actions. Depending on the character, the stark difference between their thoughts and their actions can often be read as hypocrisy. Dickens utilizes these clear moments of hypocrisy and irony in order to make clearer the injustice of the institutions in place. Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney are the characters that clearly represent the established systems–the crown and the church–that Dickens continuously criticizes throughout the novel.
The portrayal of Mr. Bumble in this section makes this hypocrisy abundantly clear. Mr. Bumble only decides to marry Mrs. Corney after he does a thorough inventory of everything she owns and finds a locked box containing a number of coins. Mr. Bumble’s decision is thus entirely an economic one. Bumble almost admits this when he hugs her and begins to list the free things that Mrs. Corney’s job for the church offers. “Coals, candles, and house-rent free […] Oh, Mrs. Corney, what an angel you are,” Mr. Bumble says (309). Bumble marries Mr. Corney almost solely for the economic benefits that come with her position at the parish workhouse. This attempt to extract more free things from the parish is precisely what Mr. Bumble frequently criticizes and despises paupers for doing. Mr. Bumble is far from needy and impoverished and yet he is ignorant to the hypocrisy of his own actions.
Mr. Bumble’s hypocrisy is made doubly clear when he admonishes Noah for kissing Charlotte. Mr. Bumble goes on a tirade, saying, “The sin and wickedness of the lower orders in this parochial district is frightful! If Parliament don’t take their abominable courses under consideration, this country’s ruined, and the character of the peasantry gone for ever!” (313). Mr. Bumble seems genuinely infuriated and disgusted by Noah’s actions, despite him having just kissed and flirted with Mrs. Corney without any consideration to his own “sin and wickedness” (313). Though Noah and Charlotte are far from the most innocent or likable characters in the novel, Mr. Bumble condemning acts that he too partakes in speaks to his own innate hypocrisy and cruelty towards those he perceives as less than him.
Dickens utilizes Mr. Bumble and his evident hypocrisy to display the in justice and duplicity that can be found amongst those tasked with helping the impoverished.
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