Oliver Twist

For the first eight or nine years of his life, Oliver Twist is raised at a distant branch-workhouse under the care of Mrs Mann, an elderly woman paid a small weekly sum by the parish to look after destitute infant orphans. Rather than spending this money properly on the children, Mrs Mann keeps most of it for herself, leaving Oliver and the other boys chronically hungry and neglected. Officials visit only occasionally, and always after being warned in advance, so the children are hastily cleaned up to look well cared for whenever inspectors come. Despite this harsh upbringing, Oliver grows into a thin but strong-spirited boy, and even manages to mark his ninth birthday, though not happily — spending it locked away with two other boys as punishment.

On this same day, Mr Bumble, the pompous and self-important parish beadle, arrives at Mrs Mann's gate with important news. After exchanging a few sharp words about the boys previously sent away from her care — whose fates Mrs Mann can barely recall — Bumble announces that the parish board has decided Oliver must be brought back to the main workhouse. Mrs Mann quickly washes and dresses Oliver, who says a tearful goodbye to Dick, his only real friend among the boys, before being led away by Bumble to begin a new chapter of his hard life.

At the workhouse, Oliver is placed under the care of the parish board of gentlemen, who inform him gravely that he is a lucky orphan being raised at the expense of the parish, and that he will be taught a useful trade. His first night there is spent crying alone, and his days soon fall into a grim routine of picking oakum and surviving on a meagre, unchanging diet of watery gruel, served just once a day from a large boiler known as "the copper." The boys, driven half-mad with constant hunger, eventually can bear it no longer. They agree that, by drawing lots each evening, one boy will be chosen to step forward after supper and dare to ask the master for more — and the lot falls to Oliver Twist.

That evening, trembling but desperate, Oliver approaches the master with his empty bowl and utters six words that shock the entire room into stunned silence. The horrified master strikes out at him, and the assistants and other boys freeze in fear and disbelief. Word of the incident quickly reaches the solemn parish board, where Mr Bumble bursts in to report what has happened. The gentlemen, especially one particularly harsh member in a white waistcoat, are utterly scandalised, predicting darkly that a boy so bold will surely come to a bad end. In their alarm, the board resolves to be rid of Oliver as quickly as possible, posting a notice on the workhouse gate offering a reward of five pounds to any tradesman willing to take him on as an apprentice.