Fagin and Sikes

Fagin and Bill Sikes are the two most formidable figures in the London underworld that entraps Oliver Twist, and their partnership is the axis around which the novel's most violent and desperate schemes revolve. Theirs is a bond forged not in friendship but in the cold calculus of mutual advantage: Fagin, the wily old fence, needs Sikes's brute strength and willingness to commit violent housebreaking; Sikes, the ruthless housebreaker, needs Fagin's capital, his network of fences and informants, and his supply of young thieves. Yet from their first appearance together, the relationship is saturated with contempt, suspicion, and the ever-present possibility of lethal betrayal. It is a criminal alliance that functions only as long as each man believes the other is more valuable alive than dead, and it ultimately collapses into a murderous confrontation that reveals the fragility of every bond in their world.

The Structure of the Partnership: Mutual Need and Mutual Contempt

The partnership is established on a foundation of reciprocal exploitation. Fagin provides Sikes with the proceeds from stolen goods, acting as the "melting-pot" that converts loot into cash. In their first extended interaction, Fagin hands over Sikes's share of a robbery, saying, "It's rather more than it ought to be, my dear; but as I know you'll do me a good turn another time" . Sikes accepts the money with undisguised suspicion, accusing Fagin of having "swallowed one or two" sovereigns on the way . This dynamic—Fagin's oily deference masking his resentment, Sikes's bullying contempt barely restrained—defines their every exchange. Sikes openly mocks Fagin, calling him a "covetous, avaricious, in-sa-ti-a-ble old fence" and threatening that if he had been Fagin's apprentice, he would have murdered him long ago . Fagin, in turn, trembles before Sikes's violence but never loses his calculating edge, always watching for an advantage. The Jew's habitual caution is evident when he warns Sikes to speak quietly, and Sikes retorts, "None of your mistering... you always mean mischief when you come that" .

The Chertsey Burglary: A Conspiracy Forged in Greed and Fear

The most detailed demonstration of their partnership occurs when they plan the burglary at Chertsey. Fagin, driven by greed for the "such plate" he anticipates, presses Sikes to proceed with the job . Sikes, however, reports that their inside man, Toby Crackit, has failed to corrupt the servants, and the job cannot be done as a "put-up job" . Fagin's face falls, and he laments the loss of anticipated profit. It is Sikes who proposes a riskier alternative: breaking in from the outside, for an extra "fifty shiners" . Fagin eagerly agrees, his eyes glistening. The crucial element Sikes demands is a boy small enough to climb through a window, and Fagin immediately offers Oliver Twist, whom he has been carefully grooming. Sikes is reluctant, warning Fagin that if anything goes wrong, "You won't see him alive again" . Fagin, however, has already calculated that Oliver's involvement will bind him irrevocably to the gang: "Once let him feel that he is one of us; once fill his mind with the idea that he has been a thief; and he's ours! Ours for his life" . This exchange reveals the core of their partnership: Fagin provides the human tools and the financial backing; Sikes provides the muscle and the willingness to take lethal risks. The plan is executed with cold precision, and when it fails and Oliver is shot, Sikes abandons the boy without a second thought, leaving him for dead in a ditch .

The Breaking Point: Nancy's Betrayal and Fagin's Manipulation

The partnership's fragile equilibrium is shattered by Nancy's secret meeting with Rose Maylie. When Fagin learns from his spy, Noah Claypole, that Nancy has betrayed them all—describing Monks, revealing the gang's meeting place, and confessing to having drugged Sikes with laudanum to make her escape—he sees his opportunity to destroy Sikes and secure his own position. He does not confront Sikes directly; instead, he craftily manipulates him. Fagin first asks Sikes a hypothetical question: what would he do to someone who "peached" on them all, of his own free will ? Sikes responds with a vow of savage violence: "I'd grind his skull under the iron heel of my boot into as many grains as there are hairs upon his head" . Only then does Fagin reveal that the traitor is Nancy, and that she acted of her own accord, not under duress. He goads Sikes by repeating the damning details: "She told it all every word without a threat, without a murmur" . Fagin's final instruction, delivered as Sikes rushes out, is chillingly pragmatic: "Not too violent for safety. Be crafty, Bill, and not too bold" . This is not a plea for mercy but a calculation of risk: Fagin wants Nancy silenced, but he wants Sikes to escape detection so that their criminal enterprise can continue.

The Aftermath: Fear, Flight, and the Collapse of the Alliance

Sikes's murder of Nancy, committed in a frenzy of rage and fear, destroys any remaining pretense of partnership. Fagin, now terrified that Sikes's crime will bring down the full weight of the law upon them all, distances himself. When Sikes, wounded and hunted, seeks refuge at Jacob's Island, he finds only Toby Crackit, Tom Chitling, and Kags—not Fagin. The old Jew has abandoned his most violent associate to his fate. The final rupture comes when Charley Bates, horrified by the murder, turns against Sikes and calls for his capture. The gang, once a cohesive unit under Fagin's direction, disintegrates into a collection of terrified individuals, each looking out for himself. Fagin himself is soon arrested, and in his last night alive, his mind wanders to the men he has sent to the gallows, including, implicitly, Sikes. The partnership that began in mutual greed ends in mutual destruction: Sikes dies by his own rope, and Fagin dies on the scaffold, each a victim of the other's ruthlessness and their own. Their relationship stands as the novel's most potent symbol of the criminal world's internal logic—a world where trust is a weakness, violence is the ultimate currency, and every alliance is a temporary truce in a war of all against all.