Oliver taken in by Mr. Brownlow

After being falsely arrested for pickpocketing and collapsing in a fainting fit at the Bow Street police office, Oliver Twist is carried away by the very gentleman he was accused of robbing, Mr. Brownlow. The coach rattles over nearly the same ground Oliver had traversed when he first entered London with the Artful Dodger, but turns a different way at the Angel at Islington and stops before a neat house in a quiet shady street near Pentonville. Here, a bed is prepared without loss of time, and Oliver is carefully and comfortably deposited. He is tended with a kindness and solicitude that knows no bounds.

Illness and Recovery

For many days, Oliver remains insensible to all the goodness of his new friends. The sun rises and sinks, and rises and sinks again, many times, while the boy lies stretched on his uneasy bed, dwindling away beneath the dry and wasting heat of fever. Weak, thin, and pallid, he awakens at last from what seems to have been a long and troubled dream. Feebly raising himself in the bed, with his head resting on his trembling arm, he looks anxiously around. The curtain at the bed's head is hastily drawn back, and a motherly old lady, very neatly and precisely dressed, rises from an arm-chair close by, in which she had been sitting at needle-work. She gently places Oliver's head upon the pillow, smoothing back his hair from his forehead, and looks so kindly and loving in his face that he cannot help placing his little withered hand in hers. The old lady, Mrs. Bedwin, tells him he must be very quiet, or he will be ill again. A gentleman with a very large and loud-ticking gold watch in his hand feels his pulse and says he is a great deal better. The crisis of the disease is safely past; Oliver belongs to the world again. In three days' time he is able to sit in an easy-chair, well propped up with pillows, and Mrs. Bedwin has him carried downstairs into the little housekeeper's room.

The Portrait and the First Meeting with Mr. Brownlow

While sitting in Mrs. Bedwin's room, Oliver fixes his eyes most intently on a portrait which hangs against the wall, just opposite his chair. It is the portrait of a lady with a beautiful, mild face. Oliver says the eyes look so sorrowful, and where he sits, they seem fixed upon him; it makes his heart beat, as if it were alive and wanted to speak to him but could not. Mrs. Bedwin, surprised, wheels his chair round to the other side so he won't see it. When Mr. Brownlow enters, he raises his spectacles on his forehead and thrusts his hands behind the skirts of his dressing-gown to take a good long look at Oliver. His heart, being large enough for any six ordinary old gentlemen of humane disposition, forces a supply of tears into his eyes. Mr. Brownlow asks Oliver his name, and Oliver replies, "Twist, Oliver Twist." The old gentleman then points hastily to the picture over Oliver's head, and then to the boy's face. There is its living copy: the eyes, the head, the mouth, every feature is the same. The expression is, for the instant, so precisely alike that the minutest line seems copied with startling accuracy. Oliver, not strong enough to bear the start it gives him, faints away.

Life at Mr. Brownlow's

The subject of the picture is carefully avoided after Oliver recovers. The picture itself is removed, because Mr. Brownlow said that as it seemed to worry Oliver, perhaps it might prevent his getting well. Oliver says he liked to see it, he quite loved it. Mrs. Bedwin promises it shall be hung up again when he is well. The days of Oliver's recovery are happy days. Everything is so quiet, and neat, and orderly; everybody so kind and gentle, that after the noise and turbulence in the midst of which he has always lived, it seems like Heaven itself. Mr. Brownlow causes a complete new suit, and a new cap, and a new pair of shoes, to be provided for him. Oliver gives his old clothes to a servant who had been very kind to him, and asks her to sell them to a Jew and keep the money for herself. He feels quite delighted to think that they are safely gone, and that there is now no possible danger of his ever being able to wear them again. They are sad rags, and Oliver has never had a new suit before. Mr. Brownlow shows Oliver his study, full of books from floor to ceiling, and tells him he shall read them if he behaves well. Oliver says he thinks it would be a much better thing to be a book-seller than a book-writer, at which the old gentleman laughs heartily. Mr. Brownlow tells Oliver he is more interested in his behalf than he can well account for, even to himself, and that the persons on whom he has bestowed his dearest love lie deep in their graves, but he has not made a coffin of his heart. He asks Oliver to tell his story, but the interview is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Grimwig.

The Errand and the Test

Mr. Grimwig, an eccentric old friend of Mr. Brownlow, expresses strong suspicion of Oliver, declaring that the boy will not return if sent on an errand with a five-pound note and valuable books. Mr. Brownlow, to prove him wrong, sends Oliver to return books to the book-stall keeper and pay him four pounds ten shillings. Oliver, delighted to be of use, eagerly takes the five-pound note and the books, promising not to be ten minutes. Mrs. Bedwin follows him to the street-door, giving him many directions, and watches him as he looks gaily round and nods before turning the corner. The two old gentlemen sit in the dark parlour with the watch between them, waiting. Mr. Grimwig earnestly hopes Oliver will not come back, to prove his judgment correct. But Oliver does not return because he is intercepted by Nancy and Bill Sikes, who drag him back to Fagin's den, confirming the very suspicion Mr. Brownlow had tried to disprove. The advertisement Mr. Brownlow subsequently places in the paper, offering a reward for information about Oliver, is what brings Mr. Bumble to London to blacken Oliver's character, leading Mr. Brownlow to believe, for a time, that the boy is an impostor.

Thematic Significance

Oliver's brief stay with Mr. Brownlow establishes the novel's moral pole of domestic virtue and benevolent paternalism, a stark alternative to the workhouse's institutional cruelty and Fagin's criminal exploitation. The portrait of Agnes Fleming, which so powerfully affects Oliver, serves as the first concrete clue to his parentage and introduces the mystery of his identity. The episode also dramatizes the precariousness of Oliver's rescue: his re-capture by the gang demonstrates how the forces of criminality and social neglect constantly threaten to reclaim him, and how even a well-intentioned act of charity can be undone by the machinations of those who wish him harm. The trust Mr. Brownlow places in Oliver, and the boy's eagerness to prove himself worthy, create a bond that will ultimately be restored and become the foundation of Oliver's happy ending.