Gold locket and ring
The gold locket and ring are the most consequential physical objects in Oliver Twist, functioning as the sole material link to Oliver's parentage and the central piece of evidence in the mystery of his birth. Stolen from a corpse, pawned, redeemed, purchased by a villain, and finally thrown into a river, these small items trace a path through the novel's lowest depths and highest revelations, embodying the struggle between concealment and truth that drives the plot toward its resolution.
Origin and Theft
The locket and ring originally belonged to Agnes Fleming, the young mother of Oliver Twist. On her deathbed in the workhouse, Agnes entrusted the objects to the nurse Old Sally, charging her to keep them safe for the child's sake. Old Sally, however, stole them from the body almost before it was cold. As she confessed on her own deathbed years later, "I robbed her, so I did! She wasn't cold—I tell you she wasn't cold, when I stole it!" The only thing the dying mother had kept—"Rich gold, that might have saved her life"—was taken by the woman who had promised to guard it. Old Sally then pawned the locket and ring, and for years she paid the interest to prevent the pawn ticket from expiring, hoping that something might eventually come of the trinkets. She died still clutching the worn and tattered pawnbroker's duplicate.
Recovery and Sale
After Old Sally's death, Mrs. Bumble, then the workhouse matron, retrieved the pawn ticket from the dead woman's hand and redeemed the pledge herself. The locket and ring thus passed into her possession. When Mr. Bumble later encountered Monks in a public-house and hinted that his wife possessed information about Oliver's mother, Monks arranged a nocturnal meeting in a ruined building by the river. There, after paying twenty-five sovereigns, Mrs. Bumble produced a small kid bag containing the locket and ring. The locket bore the engraved word "Agnes" with a blank left for the surname, followed by a date within a year before Oliver's birth. Monks, examining the contents with desperate eagerness, found two locks of hair and a plain gold wedding-ring inside.
Destruction by Monks
Having secured the objects, Monks immediately moved to destroy all evidence of Oliver's identity. In the same ruined building, he opened a trap-door that revealed the dark, rushing water of the Thames below. Tying the little packet to a leaden weight, he dropped it into the stream. "If the sea ever gives up its dead," he said as he closed the trap-door, "it will keep its gold and silver to itself, and that trash among it." With this act, Monks believed he had permanently erased the proof of Oliver's birth and his claim to the inheritance left by their father, Edwin Leeford.
Recovery and Revelation
Monks's attempt to destroy the evidence was ultimately futile. The testimony of Mrs. Bumble and the two old women who had witnessed Old Sally's deathbed confession and subsequent visit to the pawnbroker's shop provided the necessary proof. When confronted by Mr. Brownlow in the presence of Oliver, Rose Maylie, and the others, Monks was forced to confess the entire scheme. The locket and ring, though lost in the river, had already served their purpose: their existence and the story of their theft and disposal corroborated the written declarations that Monks had signed, and they formed the material foundation upon which Oliver's true parentage was established. The revelation that Oliver was the illegitimate son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming, and that Rose was Agnes's younger sister, completed the resolution of the novel's central mystery.
Narrative Significance
The gold locket and ring function as what might be called a narrative linchpin: they are the one concrete object that connects Oliver to his mother, his father's will, and his inheritance. Their journey from Agnes Fleming's neck to Old Sally's hands, to the pawnbroker's shop, to Mrs. Bumble's keeping, to Monks's purchase, and finally to the bottom of the Thames traces the novel's concern with hidden identity and the struggle between those who would suppress the truth and those who seek to uncover it. The objects also serve as a moral touchstone: the theft of the locket from a corpse is presented as a particularly vile act, and Monks's willingness to destroy them reflects the depth of his hatred. Their ultimate loss in the river, while depriving Oliver of a physical keepsake, does not prevent justice from being done, suggesting that truth, once set in motion, cannot be permanently drowned.
