Oliver runs away to London

Oliver Twist's flight to London is the decisive turning point that propels him from the systematic cruelties of parish and apprenticeship into the criminal underworld, and ultimately toward the discovery of his true identity. After months of relentless ill-treatment at the hands of Noah Claypole, Charlotte, and Mrs. Sowerberry, and a final beating from Mr. Sowerberry himself, Oliver, left alone in the undertaker's gloomy workshop, makes the desperate decision to escape. He ties his few articles of clothing into a handkerchief, waits for morning, and slips out into the open street, uncertain where to go but resolved to leave his misery behind.

The Decision to Flee

The immediate cause of Oliver's flight is a violent confrontation with Noah Claypole, who taunts him about his dead mother, calling her "a regular right-down bad 'un." Oliver, who had borne months of abuse with meek submission, is roused to fury by this insult. He seizes Noah by the throat and fells him to the ground, an act of defiance that shocks the household. Mrs. Sowerberry, Charlotte, and Noah together overpower Oliver, drag him into the dust-cellar, and lock him up. When Mr. Bumble is summoned, he blames the outbreak on "Meat," claiming Oliver has been overfed, and recommends starving him down. Mr. Sowerberry, yielding to his wife's tears, gives Oliver a severe drubbing. That night, alone in the silent workshop, Oliver gives way to his grief, then cautiously undoes the door and looks out into the cold, dark night. With the first ray of light, he arises, unbarred the door, and steps into the street.

The Journey to London

Oliver walks twenty miles on his first day, tasting nothing but a crust of dry bread and a few draughts of water begged at cottage-doors. He spends the night under a hay-rick, cold, hungry, and more alone than he has ever felt. The next day he exchanges his only penny for a small loaf, but his strength fails; his feet become sore, his legs tremble. He begs from stage-coach passengers, but they mock him, telling him to run for a halfpenny and then declaring him an idle young dog when he cannot keep up. In some villages, painted boards warn that beggars will be sent to jail, frightening Oliver into hastening through. A good-hearted turnpike-man gives him a meal of bread and cheese, and a benevolent old lady, thinking of her own shipwrecked grandson, gives him what little she can afford, with tears of sympathy that sink deeper into Oliver's soul than all his sufferings.

Arrival in Barnet and Meeting the Artful Dodger

Early on the seventh morning, Oliver limps into the little town of Barnet, with bleeding feet and covered with dust. He sits on a doorstep as the town awakens; some people stare, but none relieve him. A boy who had passed him returns and surveys him earnestly from across the way. This boy, about Oliver's own age but with the airs and manners of a man, is snub-nosed, bow-legged, and wears a man's coat that reaches nearly to his heels. He addresses Oliver as "my covey" and, learning that Oliver is hungry and tired, takes him to a chandler's shop, purchases ham and a loaf, and leads him to a small public-house. Over a pot of beer, the boy, who calls himself Jack Dawkins but is better known as the Artful Dodger, offers Oliver a place to stay in London with a "spectable old gentleman" who will give him lodgings for nothing. Oliver, tempted by the offer and having no other prospects, agrees to accompany him.

Entering London and Fagin's Den

The Dodger objects to entering London before nightfall, so it is nearly eleven o'clock when they reach the turnpike at Islington. They cross from the Angel into St. John's Road, through Exmouth Street and Coppice Row, down a little court by the side of the workhouse, across Hockley-in-the-Hole, into Little Saffron Hill and Saffron Hill the Great. The streets are narrow, muddy, and filthy; the air is impregnated with foul odours. The Dodger pushes open the door of a house near Field Lane and draws Oliver into the passage. They ascend dark, broken stairs to a back-room where a very old, shrivelled Jew, Fagin, stands over a frying-pan with a toasting-fork. Several boys, none older than the Dodger, sit smoking long clay pipes and drinking spirits. The Dodger introduces Oliver as his friend, and Fagin, grinning, takes him by the hand, hoping for the honour of his intimate acquaintance. Oliver, exhausted, is given a glass of hot gin-and-water and soon sinks into a deep sleep on one of the sacks that serve as beds.

Consequences and Significance

Oliver's flight sets in motion the central conflicts of the novel. It leads directly to his involvement with Fagin's gang, his arrest for pickpocketing, his rescue by Mr. Brownlow, his recapture by Nancy and Sikes, and his eventual rescue by the Maylies. The journey itself, a grueling seven-day walk of nearly seventy miles, is a vivid illustration of the vulnerability of a homeless child in early nineteenth-century England. The advertisement Mr. Brownlow later places in the newspaper—offering five guineas reward for information about Oliver—becomes a crucial plot device, drawing Mr. Bumble to London and enabling him to blacken Oliver's name. The flight also marks Oliver's first independent act of agency, a desperate bid for freedom that, despite its immediate dangers, ultimately leads him to the family and identity he has been denied. The memory of the blessing from his dying friend Dick, uttered as Oliver fled, stays with him through all his subsequent struggles.