Oliver’s mother. After becoming pregnant she chooses to die anonymously in a workhouse rather than stain her family’s reputation.
Starts with
B
A brutal professional burglar brought up in Fagin’s gang. His murder of Nancy is the most heinous of the many crimes that occur in the novel.
Starts with
C
He's the author of the novel.
Starts with
D
He introduces Oliver to Fagin. The cleverest of Fagin’s gang. He talks and dresses like a grown man.
Contains
E
He behaves without compassion. Dickens satirizes his self-righteousness, greed, hypocrisy and pompous character, of which his name is an obvious symbol.
Starts with
F
He takes in homeless children and trains them to pick pockets for him. He is also a buyer of other people’s stolen goods. He rarely commits crimes himself.
Starts with
G
Brownlow’s pessimistic but good-hearted friend.
Contains
H
A rather dim member of Fagin’s gang. He has served time in jail for doing Fagin’s bidding.
Starts with
L
No character/no word
Starts with
M
A sickly, vicious young man, prone to violent fits and teeming with inexplicable hatred. With Fagin, he schemes to give Oliver a bad reputation.
Starts with
N
Her love for Sikes and her sense of moral decency come into conflict when Sikes abuses Oliver. She is among the noblest characters in the novel. In effect, she gives her life for Oliver when Sikes murders her for revealing Monks’s plots.
Starts with
O
He is an orphan born in a workhouse. He's between nine and twelve years old. His charms draw the attention of several wealthy benefactors.
Starts with
R
A beautiful, compassionate, and forgiving young woman. She establishes a loving relationship with Oliver even before it is revealed that the two are related.
Contains
S
The undertaker to whom Oliver is apprenticed. Though he makes a grotesque living arranging cut-rate burials for paupers, he is a decent man who is kind to Oliver.
Starts with
T
One of Fagin and Sikes’s associates, not too bright, he participates in the attempted burglary of Mrs. Maylie’s home.
