Monks's hatred

Monks, whose real name is Edward Leeford, is the half-brother of Oliver Twist, and his hatred for the younger boy is the engine of the novel's most sustained villainy. It is not a casual malice but a deep, inherited obsession, passed down from his mother and fused with his own vicious nature. This hatred dictates his every action, from his secret pact with Fagin to his destruction of evidence, and its eventual exposure is the key to unraveling Oliver's true identity and securing his inheritance.

Origins and Inheritance of Hatred

Monks's hatred is a legacy from his mother, who on her deathbed bequeathed to him "her unquenchable and deadly hatred of all whom they involved" in the secret of Oliver's birth. She had burned the will that would have provided for Agnes Fleming and her child, and she instilled in Monks a solemn oath: "if ever it crossed my path, to hunt it down; never to let it rest; to pursue it with the bitterest and most unrelenting animosity." Monks himself admits that he had inherited this hatred "long before" her death, suggesting a nature already predisposed to cruelty. His father, Edwin Leeford, had described his son as possessing a "rebellious disposition, vice, malice, and premature bad passions" and had been trained to hate him. This familial curse of spite is the soil in which Monks's personal vendetta grows.

Manifestations of Hatred: The Conspiracy Against Oliver

Monks's hatred is not a passive emotion but a driving force for action. He seeks out Fagin, the old Jew, and strikes a bargain: if Oliver is recovered, Monks will pay a sum, and more if the boy is made a thief. His goal is not merely to keep Oliver poor but to destroy him utterly. He tells Fagin, "if he could gratify his hatred by taking the boy's life without bringing his own neck in danger, he would." Failing that, he vows to "be upon the watch to meet him at every turn in life" and to contrive "such snares" for his young brother that would surpass even Fagin's cunning. This hatred is so consuming that when he accidentally encounters Oliver in the market-town, he is thrown into a violent fit, shaking his fist and cursing the boy with "black death on your heart." He later confesses that his plan was to "drag" Oliver "to the very gallows-foot," a scheme that would have satisfied his need for revenge while also fulfilling his mother's dying wish.

The Destruction of Evidence and the Climax of Hatred

The most concrete expression of Monks's hatred is his systematic destruction of all proof of Oliver's parentage. He recovers the gold locket and wedding ring that old Sally had stolen from Agnes Fleming's corpse, and in a dramatic nocturnal scene with Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, he ties the packet to a leaden weight and drops it into the dark, rushing water of the Thames, declaring, "If the sea ever gives up its dead, as books say it will, it will keep its gold and silver to itself, and that trash among it." This act is the culmination of his plot, intended to ensure that Oliver can never claim his rightful name or inheritance. However, his hatred is also his undoing. When confronted by Mr. Brownlow, who has pieced together the entire conspiracy from Nancy's intelligence and his own investigations, Monks is overwhelmed. The accumulated charges—his cowardice, his lies, his complicity in a murder—break his resolve. He is forced to confess, to sign a statement of truth, and to make restitution to Oliver, thus turning his own hatred into the instrument of his defeat.

Thematic Significance: Hatred as a Corrupting Force

Monks's hatred serves as a dark counterpoint to the novel's themes of benevolence and redemption. It is a sterile, self-consuming passion that isolates him and leads to his ruin. Unlike the grudging sympathy that characters like Nancy or even the Artful Dodger occasionally evoke, Monks is portrayed as irredeemable. His hatred is not born of circumstance or poverty but of a perverse will, making him a figure of pure villainy. His eventual fate—squandering his portion in the New World, returning to crime, and dying in prison—is presented as the natural end of a life governed by such a corrosive force. In the moral economy of the novel, Monks's hatred is the shadow that makes Oliver's eventual happiness and the triumph of goodness all the more luminous.