The George

The George is the principal inn of the unnamed market-town near the Maylie cottage, and it serves as a crucial waypoint during one of the most anxious episodes in Oliver Twist's life. When Rose Maylie falls dangerously ill, Oliver is sent on an urgent errand to dispatch a letter summoning Mr. Losberne from Chertsey. The George is where he must arrange for an express horse, and it is on its very threshold that he stumbles into Monks—a chance encounter that reveals the hidden enemy's proximity and sets in motion the final unraveling of the mystery surrounding Oliver's birth.

Location and Appearance

The George is described as a large house with all its woodwork painted green, standing in one corner of the market-place. Its sign is prominently displayed, and it is the most substantial building among the white bank, red brewery, and yellow town-hall that surround the square. The inn has a stable-yard with a gateway where a postboy dozes, an ostler who refers visitors to the landlord, and a pump by the stable-door where the landlord—a tall gentleman in a blue neckcloth, white hat, drab breeches, and matching boots—leans while picking his teeth with a silver toothpick. The deliberate, unhurried pace of the establishment contrasts sharply with Oliver's desperate urgency.

Oliver's Errand and the Encounter with Monks

On the evening of Rose's sudden fever, Mrs. Maylie gives Oliver her purse and instructs him to run to the market-town—no more than four miles away by the footpath—and have a letter dispatched by express to Chertsey. Oliver reaches the town in a great heat, covered with dust, and immediately spots The George. He speaks to the postboy, who refers him to the ostler, who in turn refers him to the landlord. The landlord takes an unconscionably long time making out the bill, and then a horse must be saddled and a man dressed, costing ten more minutes. Oliver, in a desperate state of impatience, feels he could have jumped on the horse himself and galloped away. At last the rider sets off, and Oliver, somewhat relieved, turns to leave the inn-yard. As he passes through the gateway, he accidentally stumbles against a tall man wrapped in a cloak who is coming out of the inn door. That man is Monks. Monks recoils violently, fixing his large dark eyes on Oliver and muttering, "Death! Who would have thought it! Grind him to ashes! He'd start up from a stone coffin, to come in my way!" He shakes his fist, advances as if to strike, and then falls to the ground in a violent fit, writhing and foaming. Oliver, supposing him a madman, runs into the house for help and then hurries home, shaken by the encounter.

Narrative Significance

The George functions as a point of dangerous intersection between Oliver's innocent errand and the hidden machinations of Monks. It is the only place in the novel where Oliver and Monks come face to face without intermediaries, and the encounter reveals Monks's visceral hatred and his fear of being exposed. The inn's very ordinariness—its green paint, its leisurely landlord, its stable-yard bustle—makes it an unlikely setting for such a revelation, underscoring the theme that peril can lurk in the most commonplace surroundings. The George also serves as a marker of the social distance Oliver has traveled: as a parish boy he would have stared up at such an inn with awe, thinking it a mighty palace; now he enters it on a mission of life-and-death importance, only to collide with the man who has sworn to destroy him.