Oliver Twist Video

Video Transcript:

Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, is a novel set in 19th-century Victorian England. A young-orphan boy is raised in a workhouse outside of London and is eventually taken in by thieves. The novel critiques the unjust consequences of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which took away the rights of citizenship from paupers and assigned them to workhouses.

Oliver is born in a workhouse to an unknown mother who dies in childbirth. He is first taken to a terrible orphanage, but when he is nine, he is sent back to the workhouse, where all the boys suffer harsh treatment and near starvation. One day, the boys draw straws to choose who will ask for more food. When Oliver loses, he must beg for “more” after his first serving of gruel and is banished as a result. He is sent to apprentice with an undertaker named Mr. Sowerberry, but runs away after suffering further neglect and the unkindness of a boy named Noah Claypole. Noah ruthlessly taunts Oliver over his mother’s death.

Oliver walks towards London but grows weak. He meets a boy named Jack Dawkins, who calls himself “The Artful Dodger.” The Dodger promises to take Oliver to a place where a gentleman will give him free lodging and food and indeed delivers him to an apartment in London and an ugly old man named Fagin.

Fagin is the leader of a gang of boys who are all pickpockets and thieves. After Oliver is falsely accused of stealing an old gentleman’s handkerchief, Oliver is arrested, but a bookseller who witnessed the theft testifies in court that he saw another boy commit the crime. In sympathy, the old gentleman whose handkerchief was taken, Mr. Brownlow, decides to take Oliver in.

Oliver is overjoyed with Mr. Brownlow, but Fagin and his co-conspirators worry Oliver will give away their hiding place. One day, as Oliver is returning books for Mr. Brownlow, a young prostitute named Nancy kidnaps Oliver and takes him back to Fagin.

Next, Oliver is forced to break into a house with Bill Sikes, a vicious thief who works for Fagin. Oliver is shot by a servant, while Sikes and his partner escape, leaving Oliver in a ditch. The next day, Oliver returns to the house, where the kind owner, Mrs. Maylie, and her beautiful niece Rose, protect Oliver from the police and nurse him back to health.

Oliver slowly recovers with the generosity of his new friends and the help of a kind doctor, Mr. Losberne. When Oliver is well enough, Mr. Losberne takes him to see Mr. Brownlow, but Mr. Brownlow has left for the West Indies.
Oliver enjoys spending time with Mrs. Maylie and Rose in their country cottage. One day, however, Oliver awakens from a nightmare to find Fagin and his mysterious partner, Monks, staring at him through his window. Oliver raises the alarm, but the two men escape.

When Nancy overhears Fagin and Monks plotting against Oliver, she decides to visit Rose and reveal her discovery: Monks is Oliver’s half-brother, who wants to destroy Oliver so that he—Monks—can keep their father’s whole inheritance. However, Nancy tells Rose that she will not betray Fagin or her abusive boyfriend Sikes.

Mr. Brownlow returns to London from the West Indies. Rose privately tells Mr. Brownlow about Monks’ plot. Mr. Brownlow and Mr. Losberne then strategize about how to find Nancy so that they can learn more about Oliver’s parentage.

Nancy meets with Rose and Mr. Brownlow near the London Bridge just past midnight. Fagin is suspicious of Nancy’s covert actions and sends his new boy, Noah, Oliver’s old nemesis, to spy on her. At the bridge, Nancy tells Rose and Mr. Brownlow what Monks looks like and how to find him. However, she still refuses to betray Fagin and Sikes. Noah having overheard this conversation, reports back to Fagin and Sikes what he knows. Sikes, enraged at Nancy, beats her to death with his pistol.

Next, Monks admits to Mr. Brownlaw that he has been plotting to disinherit his half-brother, Oliver. Monks’ real name is Edward Leeford. His mother burned his father’s will immediately after his death, in an effort to disinherit his father’s mistress—Oliver’s mother Agnes. This left Oliver without any parents or financial support after Agnes died giving birth to him. Monks, who is now known to everyone as Edward, further confesses that he paid Fagin to turn Oliver into a thief in order to destroy his life. He also gave Oliver’s identity papers to Fagin for safekeeping in order to hide the truth about Oliver’s true patronage and his rightful inheritance.

Meanwhile, Sikes is on the run for Nancy’s death. An angry mob chases him down and he accidentally hangs himself after falling off a roof.
Eventually, under pressure from Mr. Brownlow, Edward testifies under oath about how he tried to swindle Oliver out of his inheritance, but Oliver agrees that he will share the inheritance with Edward. When Edward takes his money to the New World, however, he falls into his reckless ways, goes to jail, and then dies.

Soon, Fagin is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death by hanging. Mr. Brownlow and Oliver visit him in prison; Fagin eventually tells Oliver that his identity papers are hidden in a canvas bag in a hole of his chimney.
Mr. Brownlow officially adopts Oliver as his own son. They live in peace and comfort, close to both the Maylies and Mr. Losberne, in the English countryside.