Oliver Twist

Fagin is in a fit of rage after hearing the news of Nancy from Noah. He is infuriated by Nancy’s betrayal and the “bitter disappointment at the loss of his revenge on Sikes; the fear of detection, and ruin, and death” (553). When the bell rings, Fagin goes to the door to find Sikes. Fagin stares at Sikes, trying to decide what to do. Fagin asks Sikes how he’d respond if Noah betrayed their trust. Sikes replies that he would kill the boy. Fagin then asks Sikes what he’d do if Fagin or Charley or the Dodger betrayed them and Sikes does not change his answer. After hearing all of this, Fagin wakes Noah and prompts the boy to tell Sikes what he spied.

Before letting the boy speak however, Fagin manipulates the narrative to make it sound as though Nancy has directly betrayed Sikes. Fagin then makes Noah tell Sikes how the lady drugged him the week before with laudanum. Sikes responds violently but Fagin keeps him from leaving the house. He says, “you won’t be–too–violent, Bill?” (C558). Both men understand however, that Bill will kill Nancy.

Bill rushes home. Nancy is in bed and when she sees him, she smiles. Bill throws the burning candle away and though Nancy tries to open the curtain, Bill stops her, saying “there’s enough light for wot I’ve got to do” (560). Nancy is understandably alarmed. She begs for him to tell her what she has done to enrage him. Bill tells Nancy that she was spied on and Nancy begs for mercy. Nancy tells him that she refused to betray him. She also tells him about the house that Rose offered her, and tries to get him to free her so that she can leave and never return.

Sikes makes to shoot her but realizes that will get him caught. Instead, he beats Nancy brutally, making her bleed. Nancy clutches Rose’s handkerchief to her desperately as Sikes beats Nancy to death with a heavy club.

Chapter 48 begins with a condemnation of Sikes’s evil deed. Sikes hasn’t moved since he murdered Nancy and is unable to keep from staring at her corpse. Sikes is terrified by what he’s done. He tries to cover up the body with a rug but that only scares him more. He burns the murder weapon. Sikes cleans himself off but there are bloodstains that refuse to come out. Sikes is so haunted that “all this time he had, never once, turned his back upon the corpse; no, not for a moment” (563). Sikes is shaken when he realizes that his dog’s feet are bloody. Sikes gets his dog and leaves the apartment.

Sikes is not sure where to go and feels lost as he heads out of London to a small town in the area. Sikes is paranoid and feels as though everyone he passes is staring at him in suspicion. It is night when he arrives at another small town and gets dinner at a public house. Sikes watches as a salesman begins trying to sell a stain remover. The salesman tries to get the bloodstain out of Sikes’s hat without knowing what it truly is, and the paranoia makes Sikes fall into a rage. He runs away in a panic.

Sikes stops a little ways away to listen to some men discuss the news of a murder from London. He is seemingly unbothered by the news though as he walks in the night, Sikes feels like he is being haunted by Nancy. Bill continues to feel Nancy’s figure behind him and knows that “the eyes were there” (570). Sikes thinks that he can feel Nancy’s dead eyes watching him. In the middle of the night, Bill wakes, hearing that there’s a fire at a farm close by. Sikes works tirelessly to put the fire out and finds solace in the work for he does not think about his crime for a moment. Sikes is eating breakfast with some of the townsmen when the topic of the murder comes up. Sikes hurries away at that and begins to head back to London. He resolves to hide at Fagin’s for a while, get money from the old man, and escape for France.

Sikes worries that his dog will give him away and decides to drown it in a nearby pond. The dog suspects that its owner is planning something and runs away when Sikes attempts to “attach the handkerchief to his throat” (574). Sikes sits and waits for the dog to return but it doesn’t. Sikes keeps walking to London. 

Mr. Brownlow harshly interrogates Monks. Mr. Brownlow has arrested Monks on the street with two other men and brings the villain back to his home. Inside, it is revealed that Monks’s real name is Edward Leeford and that Mr. Brownlow was his “father’s oldest friend” (578). Brownlow reveals that he would have married Monks’s aunt, had she not died before their wedding. Brownlow demands that Monks tell him of his evil plan but the young man refuses. Brownlow decides to tell Monks what he already knows instead.

Edward Leeford Senior was married to an older woman and they conceived Edward Leeford Junior, who now goes by Monks. Monks’s parents despise one another and separate after his birth. Monks and his mother live far away and Edward Leeford falls in love with a friend’s young daughter. They get engaged and at the same time, a distant relative dies and leaves Edward with a lot of money. Edward travels to Rome to sort out the will and Monks and his mother travel to meet him there. Edward gets ill and dies in Rome without a will and leaves the estate and the large sum of money to his wife and son.

Before Edward’s departure for Rome, he goes to Brownlow and leaves him a portrait of the young woman he loves. He tells Brownlow that he plans on leaving England with the money and though Edward does not reveal that he plans on escaping with a woman, Brownlow hazards a guess. Brownlow visits the girl and the “the scene of his […] guilty love” but finds that the family has already fled the neighborhood (583). Mr. Brownlow then tells him that he previously saved Oliver from the brink of death. Monks is shocked by the news.

Brownlow sees a semblance of his friend and the young woman in Oliver. Before Brownlow is able to figure out the truth, however, Oliver is taken away from him, which he knows is entirely Monks’s doing. Brownlow decided to leave for the West Indies in search of Monks to try and discover the truth. Since then, Brownlow has been searching for Monks fruitlessly. Monks denies all of this but Mr. Brownlow begins accusing him of trying to kill Oliver, of destroying the will, of hiding proof of Oliver’s lineage, and of causing Nancy’s death. The last accusation terrifies Monks and he finally agrees to confess and tell the whole story before witnesses.

Mr. Losberne enters the room and tells them that Nancy’s murderer will be found that night. People have spotted Sikes’s dog at a house by the river and the police have offered a reward to anyone who captures him. Brownlow adds to the reward and leaves for the police office so that he can witness Sikes’s capture. Mr. Losberne keeps an eye on Monks.

Chapter 50 begins with a detailed description of the decrepit neighborhood and the nearby “Folly Ditch” on the bank of the river that often fills with water (590). Chitling, Crackit, and another thief are in one of the upstairs rooms discussing Fagin’s recent arrest. Charley and Toby were able to escape but Fagin, Noah, and Betsy were all captured. The men think that Noah will sell Fagin out and that the old man will be found complicit in Nancy’s murder and hanged. Chitling reveals that there was a mob when Fagin was captured and all the men fear for their own fates. In that moment, Sikes’s dog enters the room and they worry that Sikes is soon to show up as well.

They try to convince one another that Sikes must have already left the country, but there is a knocking from downstairs and everyone is initially too scared to see who it might be. Crackit eventually lets Sikes in and the murderer looks horrible, with “blanched face, sunken eyes, hollow cheeks, beard of three days’ growth, wasted flesh, short thick breath” (596). When Sikes finds out that Fagin has been captured, he is enraged. Crackit tells Sikes he can hide there for as long as it is safe. It is revealed that the body has not been buried and Sikes wonders why “they keep such ugly things above the ground” (597).

Charley arrives and begins shouting at Sikes. He calls him a “monster” and is utterly terrified of him (598). Sikes seems ashamed and strangely hurt that Charley distrusts him. Charley begins shouting for help, shaming the other three men for harboring Sikes after what he’s done. Charley then attacks Sikes, throwing himself “single-handed, upon the strong man” and the surprise of it sends Sikes to the floor (598). The large man and small boy begin fighting on the ground, struggling, as Charley continues to shout for help.

The shouting brings people running to the door and officers begin knocking for them to open up. Charley does not falter, calling out, “[h]e’s here! Break down the door! […] Run straight to the room where the light is. Break down the door!” (599). Sikes throws and locks Charley in another room before asking for a rope so that he can escape out a window. A large mob forms outside and a man on horseback continues to egg on the participants, offering twenty guineas to anyone who can bring him a ladder.

Sikes climbs onto the roof and the mob points him out to the officers. Folly Ditch isn’t full of water like Sikes had hoped, but instead covered in mud. The man on horseback continues to raise the price for Sikes’s live capture. Sikes is stunned for a moment by the mass of people, but then decides to tie the rope to the chimney and loop the other end around his arms so he can climb down into the ditch. Just as Sikes is about to pull the loop over his arms, he slips and cries out “the eyes again!” (604). Sikes stumbles over the parapet and hangs himself. Sikes’s dog attempts to jump from the roof to his master’s shoulders but misses, falls into the ditch and “dashed out his brains” (604).