Oliver Twist: Early Years

• Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse, and it was uncertain if he would live.
• He lay breathless for a time, deciding between this world and the next.
• After some struggles, he breathed, coughed, and cried.
• The pale mother asked to see the child and died.
• The doctor advised her not to speak of dying yet.
• The doctor noted the mother was a good-looking girl and wondered where she came from.
• An old woman said the mother was found in the street the previous night where no one knew where she was going.
• The doctor noted she had no wedding ring or a nurse dressed Oliver as he cried loudly.
• If Oliver knew what the future held, he would have cried even louder.

Early Years

• Oliver was bottle-fed when remembered and sent to a smaller workhouse three miles away.

• Twenty to thirty orphans resided, without enough food or clothing.

• Mrs. Mann oversaw the children, receiving seven and a half pence per child weekly and kept most of it.

• This system did not produce healthy children.

• On his ninth birthday, Oliver was pale, thin, and below average height, but full of spirit.

• He was locked in the coal cellar with two other children who were beaten by Mrs Mann for saying they were hungry.

• Mr. Bumble, a workhouse official and fat man, arrived to take Oliver back to the large workhouse because he was too old to remain with Mrs. Mann.

• Mrs. Mann told Oliver to bow to Mr. Bumble.

• Oliver obeyed.

• Mr. Bumble said "Will you go along with me, Oliver?" in a clear, ringing tone.

• Oliver pretended to be sad, knowing hunger and mistreatment aid tears.

• Mrs. Mann gave him a thousand kisses and bread and butter, so that he would not be too hungry when he got to the workhouse.

• Oliver was hesitant to go with Mr, Bumble after catching the sight of Mrs. Mann making threatening gestures at him.

• Mr. Bumble took Oliver from the home where he never received kindness.

• Life in the workhouse was severe.

• Members of the board of management ruled that the children should work to earn their living, receiving thin soup three times a day, an onion twice a week, and half a cake on Sundays.

• Boys ate in a large stone hall, served by the master and women.

• Each boy used one small bowl, with bread only on public holidays.

• The bowls never needed washing because the boys polished the bowls with their spoons.

• Oliver and companions suffered hunger for three months.

• One tall boy threatened to eat the boy next to him if he did not receive extra soup.

• Oliver was chosen to ask the master for more soup.

• Oliver approached the master after supper and requested more.

• The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned pale and stared with horror and amazement at the small boy for some seconds.

• The master turned pale, struck Oliver with a spoon, and called for Mr. Bumble.

• Mr. Bumble told Mr. Limbkins that Oliver Twist had asked for more.

• This caused surprise and discussion among the board.

• One gentleman said Oliver would be hanged one day.

• Oliver was locked up, and a notice offered five pounds to anyone who would take him.

A Chimney Sweep Offers to Take Oliver

• For weeks after asking for more soup, Oliver was punished in a dark room.
• He was allowed to wash himself every morning under a pump with Mr. Bumble watching.
• He was beaten every other day.
• Mr. Gamfield, a chimney sweep, saw the notice while wondering how to pay his rent.
• He told a gentleman on the board that he would be ready to take the boy who was offered as an apprentice.
• Mr. Bumble told Oliver to look happy and say that he would be apprenticed.
• The magistrate asked if Oliver was fond of sweeping chimneys.
• Bumble replied yes to please the magistrate, giving Oliver a threatening look at Oliver.
• The magistrate asked Gamfield if he would treat, feed, and do all of that sort of thing.
• Gamfield replied that when he says he will, he means it.
• The magistrate said Gamfield looked honest and open-hearted while stamping cruelty on his face due to being half blind.
• Oliver was staring at his future master's cruel face with a mix of horror and fear.
• Oliver begged to be sent back to the dark room rather than be sent away with the awful man.
• Mr. Bumble called Oliver shameless and ungrateful.
• The magistrate refused to sign the papers, ordering the boy to be taken back to the workhouse and treat him kindly.
• The next morning, the public was again informed that five pounds would be paid to anybody that would take possession of Oliver Twist.

Oliver is Apprenticed to an Undertaker

• Mr. Bumble met Mr. Sowerberry, the undertaker, who took measurements of two dead women.
• Mr. Bumble responded that the coffins also are small.
• Mr. Sowerberry said the coffins were somewhat narrower than they used to be due to introducing the new system of feeding.
• Sowerberry asked if Bumble knew anybody who wanted a boy, as the undertaker would take him for himself.
• Mr. Bumble agreed that Oliver should go to him the same evening.
• Oliver was led away by Mr. Bumble to a new scene of suffering, carrying a brown-paper parcel.
• They walked in silence, Mr. Bumble making sure Oliver looked clean.
• Mr. Bumble told Oliver to hold up his head, but Oliver had tears in his eyes.
• Mr Bumble was angered, and Oliver said he would be good being lonely.
• Sowerberry entered the room and brought a lamp as Mr. Bumble brought Oliver to him.
• Mrs. Sowerberry, a short, thin, bad-tempered woman, said he was very small and wondered if he would grow and also thought they always cost more than they are worth.
• The undertaker's wife pushed Oliver down some stairs into a dark room with an untidy girl.
• Mrs. Sowerberry told Charlotte to give Oliver the bits of meat that were put aside for the dog.
• Oliver's eyes shone at the mention of meat
• Oliver ate rapidly, while Mrs. Sowerberry watched him with silent horror.
• Mrs. Sowerberry led the way upstairs again taking a dirty lamp and told him his bed was under the counter.
• Oliver obediently followed her.

Noah Claypole

• Oliver set the lamp down on a bench and looked around.

• An unfinished coffin in the middle of the shop made him fear, and he felt terror.

• Oliver was woken by a loud kicking at the door, unlocking the chain.

• An angry voice replied on the other side of the day, and the voice said that he would whip Oliver when he got in.

• Oliver opened the doors and saw nobody but a slightly older boy, sitting on a post in front of the house and eating bread and butter.

• The boy kicked the door and asked Oliver if he wanted a coffin.

• He said if continues making joke with his seniors he will want one himself and that he is Mr Noah Claypole.

• Noah kicked Oliver and entered the shop after telling Oliver that he works under him.

• Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry arrived and Charlotte kept a piece of bacon for Mr. Noah from the master's breakfast.

• Charlotte says to shut the door and drink your tea in the box, and Noah taunted him after this.

• Both Charlotte and Noah looked contemptuously at Oliver as he sat trembling on the box, where he began to eat.

• Noah was charity-boy, but he had no family; he lived home with a poor washerwoman and his father was a drunkard.

• Oliver suffered his ill-treatment for months until something occurred that indirectly changed Oliver's life.

• Oliver and Noah had gone down into the kitchen like usual, and Noah put his feet on the tablecloth.

• Noah pulled his hair to annoy him and asked how his mother was and Oliver said “She’s dead, Don’t say anything about her to me!”.

• Oliver gave a quick breath, something happened to his mouth and nose, and the man repeated his words.

• Oliver brushed the tear away by what Noah said causing tension to escalate.

• After a bit of silence, Noah asked what made you cry and that it wasn't real.

• Full of anger, Oliver jumps to his feet, shook Noah, and knocked him to the ground where Charlotte heard the noise and asked for help.

• Charlotte yelled "Oh, you little honor" where Mrs. Sowerberry helped hold him.

• After the danger passed, Noah strikes him with the stick dragging him back to the room and locking him up.

• Charlotte says she is going to faint and screamed asking for water.

• Mrs. Sowerberry almost couldn't breathe from the water that was poured over her head and wondered what was to happen next in the incident after the boys struck him and gave tears.

• Fortunate, the reply, was that this can't go on any longer was to happen to the master.

• The master will kick the door down and Mrs. Sowerberry thought of the police.

• Mrs. Sowerberry ordered Noah to run to Mr. Bumble, and Noah ran to the gate and started to knock at the door and gave large tears out of the gate.

• The tears for the boy and that it hurt both of them.

• Oliver has turned against him and that it hurt Charlotte and Mrs. Sowerberry and that it hurt real bad where Mr. Bumble was and Noah was told that it had hurt. .

• Mr Bumble asks has Oliver not run away? Oliver says “No, sir, no”, that he’s turned wild.

• Noah lies about the events and said said he had been near death, causing Mr. Bumble to bring his stick, putting on his hat, and accompanies Noah Claypole with all speed to the undertaker's.

• Mr Sowerberry had been told of Oliver's offence, and he unlocked the cellar door and dragged Oliver out by the collar.

• He beat Oliver violently, and the clothes had been torn and his face was bruised, and his forehead was bloody.

• He explains his face to make Oliver shake and drag him.

• After a bit of silence, one of the boys asked what made you cry and that it wasn't real.

• Mrs. Sowerberry thought she deserved it and thought Oliver was an ungrateful child as she replies “She deserved what he said, and worse.”.

• Mrs. Oliver said she has did it. So Oliver calls her a liar. She said that she did.

• A flash came and tears gave no choice other. And Bumble followed making all the anger useless because he was now shut up.

• After tears left Mr. Sowerberry no choice, even making that the master was not needed.

• She did this without the other master around.

• Oliver locked the door and locked him upstairs in the work shop and shut Oliver up in the back kitchen.

• A flood of tears and a long time to cry came and made tears go everywhere.

• He could hear the insults and the beatings.

• Oliver gave in to the insults and cried.

• Oliver was motionless as the lamp was burning low showing his feet.

• Started listening carefully.

• Cold and windy. As he saw the shadows he knew that they were frightening. And the dark shadows were not there, and there was a loud scream as he closed the door again.

• Oliver tied up the few articles of clothing that he had and then waited till morning, getting up looking out the window, opening the door and leaving.

The Artful Dodger

• Around eight o'clock Oliver was five miles away. Running away was the plan and the idea to go to London.
• He walked twenty miles that day, tasting nothing but pieces of bread.
• The next day he fell asleep cold and stiff.
• He had to spend some money the next morning from hunger on a small loaf.
• The streets were empty, and it was his seventh morning, where he was being shown his sadness everywhere in the street.
• He was walking and sitting on a doorstep bleeding with dust being everywhere.
• Barnet was the place he was walking in. As he started running towards the boy on the side of the road, the boy offered the voice and the boys said “Hello! What’s the trouble?”.
• He was Oliver's age but was strange looking as if could be a man but also was short.
• And the clothes given to him and they looked worn and used that he could call himself a four-foot six tall gentleman.
• Oliver had no shelter, so Jack provided one forhim..
• Jack Dawkins, and was called “The Artful Dodger,” a name known widely.
• Meat, a big loaf of bread, shelter, and beer were also given where beer was about.
• The friendly conversation led to new a new friendship and name to Oliver with name new friends to Oliver and that was Jack Dawkins, but he was called The Artful Dodger, and did not enter the city before nightfall.
• Jack Dodgers objected, it was not near eleven when they were near the city.
• They passed through one of the ugliest and dirtiest parts when they reached the bottom of a hill, and just wondered what not to run away when Dodger pushed Oliver from his path when he could not move.
• He gave light to a faint light to the passage and showed a man's face.
• A new friend replied Jack and went upstairs, said the man.
• The face disappeared, and one hand held each other.
• After reaching a back room with Jack, the walls were black as they threw the the door, the ceiling being aged and dirty.
• Candle, sticks, loaf of bread in a plate in one cooking area.
• Seating around the table was four or five boys of the Dodger’s age and the Dodger spoke in a whisper in a low voice to a man, introducing his friend Oliver Twist.
• Jack says “This is him, Fagin”
• A very old Jew and was dressed in a dirty woollen coat with red hair.
• Shaking his hand and wanting to be friends with Fagin.
• Shook his hands hardly while they approached the house when there were rough beds made of old cloths,.especially the close ones.
• He said he had sorted the laundry and that it was all.
• Oliver was looking at the handkerchiefs that they had been sorting.
• Everybody started laughing together in the dark with all the pupils in the circle and at that moment, Jack.
• Dodger pulled a chair near the fire for Oliver to sit in.
• Then they sat down again to eat supper.