Oliver Twist and Bill Sikes

Oliver Twist and Bill Sikes are bound by a relationship of pure coercion: Sikes, a brutal housebreaker, uses the threat of immediate death—backed by a loaded pistol, a trained dog, and his own violent reputation—to force Oliver into participating in a burglary at Chertsey. The relationship is one-sided, built on terror rather than any pretense of loyalty or mutual interest, and it ends only when Sikes himself dies, hanged by his own rope during the pursuit that follows Nancy's murder.

The Induction into Terror

Oliver is delivered to Sikes by Fagin and Nancy on the night before the expedition. Sikes wastes no time establishing absolute dominance. He pulls off Oliver's cap, throws it into a corner, and sits the boy before him. Taking up a pocket-pistol, he shows Oliver the powder, the bullet, and the wadding, then loads the weapon with deliberate care. Once it is loaded, he grasps Oliver's wrist and puts the barrel so close to the boy's temple that they touch; Oliver cannot repress a start. Sikes then delivers his ultimatum: if Oliver speaks a single word while they are out of doors except when spoken to, "that loading will be in your head without notice." He adds a chilling rationale: as far as he knows, nobody would ask particularly after Oliver if he were disposed of, so he need not take the trouble to explain matters except for the boy's own good. Nancy, reinforcing the threat, translates it into plain terms: if Oliver is crossed by Sikes in this job, Sikes will prevent his ever telling tales by shooting him through the head, and will take his chance of swinging for it as he does for many other things every month of his life. Sikes approves, noting that women can always put things in fewest words.

The Journey and the Burglary

Throughout the journey from London to Chertsey, Sikes maintains his grip on Oliver, physically and psychologically. He drags the boy through the crowded streets of Smithfield, past the roaring cattle market, and onto a cart that gives them a lift as far as Isleworth. When they stop at a public-house called the Coach and Horses, Sikes dismounts with great precipitation, holding Oliver by the hand all the while, and bestows a furious look upon him, rapping his side-pocket—where the pistol is—in a significant manner. At the deserted house near Chertsey, Oliver, well-nigh mad with grief and terror, realizes that housebreaking and robbery, if not murder, are the objects of the expedition. He clasps his hands together and involuntarily utters a subdued exclamation of horror. Sikes, trembling with rage, draws the pistol from his pocket and hisses, "Get up, or I'll strew your brains upon the grass." Oliver falls on his knees and begs for mercy, pleading to be allowed to run away and die in the fields rather than be made to steal. Sikes swears a dreadful oath and cocks the pistol; only Toby Crackit's intervention—striking the pistol from Sikes's grasp—prevents an immediate shooting. Sikes then forces Oliver through a small lattice window into the house, warning him that he is within shot all the way and that if he falters, he will fall dead that instant.

The Aftermath of the Shooting

When the burglary goes wrong and Oliver is shot, Sikes does not abandon him immediately. He carries the wounded boy on his back across the fields, pursued by the alarmed household. Only when the chase grows too hot does Sikes throw the prostrate form of Oliver into a dry ditch, covering him with a cape, and make his own escape. The relationship, however, has left its mark on Oliver. When he later recounts his history to Mrs. Maylie, Rose, and Mr. Losberne, the memory of Sikes's brutality is central to his tale. The doctor, listening, reflects on the difficulty of proving Oliver's innocence: the boy's story, viewed with the eyes of practical police-officers, has many ugly points, including the fact that he was brought down to Chertsey by men who seemed to have taken a violent fancy to him, whether he would or no, and was put through a window to rob a house.

The Dog as Extension of the Threat

Sikes's dog, Bull's-eye, functions as an extension of his master's coercive power. During the journey to Sikes's lodging after Oliver's recapture, Sikes commands the dog to mind the boy, and the animal growls, licking his lips and eyeing Oliver as if anxious to attach himself to his windpipe. Sikes regards the dog with grim approval, noting that he is "as willing as a Christian." The dog's presence multiplies the threat: Oliver is not only under the gun but under the jaws of a trained, vicious animal. Later, during Sikes's flight after murdering Nancy, the dog becomes a liability. Sikes resolves to drown him, picking up a heavy stone and tying it to his handkerchief, but the animal, sensing his master's intent, scours away at his hardest speed and escapes. The dog's abandonment of Sikes mirrors the collapse of the murderer's last semblance of control.

The End of the Coercion

The relationship ends with Sikes's death. Cornered on the roof of a house on Jacob's Island, with the crowd howling below, Sikes fastens a rope around a chimney stack and prepares to lower himself into Folly Ditch. But as he brings the loop over his head, he sees a vision—the eyes of the murdered Nancy—and staggers. He loses his balance and tumbles over the parapet. The noose, still around his neck, runs up tight as a bow-string, and he falls for thirty-five feet, dying instantly. Oliver is never again subjected to Sikes's coercion; the threat is extinguished with the man himself.