130 pages • 4 hours read
Oliver Twist
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Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Chapters 1-5
Reading Check
1. How does Oliver’s mother die?
2. How old is Oliver when the parish board sends him to labor in a workhouse?
3. In what profession does Oliver ultimately receive an apprenticeship?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following quotes best reflects the novel’s use of irony to critique social institutions?
A) “The hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities” (Chapter 2).
B) “The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men, and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have discovered—the poor people liked it!” (Chapter 2).
C) “‘Well,’ replied the undertaker, ‘I was thinking that if I pay so much towards [the poor], I’ve a right to get as much out of ‘em as I can, Mr Bumble; and so—and so—I think I’ll take the boy myself’” (Chapter 4).
D) "I wish some well-fed philosopher, whose meat and drink turn to gall within him; whose blood is ice, whose heart is iron; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the dainty viands that the dog had neglected” (Chapter 4).
2. What primarily motivates Mr. Bumble in his position as beadle?
A) compassion
B) hatred
C) faith
D) greed
3. Oliver’s last name (and the circumstances in which he received it) suggests all but which of the following regarding identity?
A) It is essentially arbitrary.
B) It can shift over time.
C) It is divinely given.
D) It can shape an individual’s life.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Oliver ask the master of the workhouse for more gruel? What does this action reveal about his character?
2. What sorts of causes of death does Mr. Sowerberry tend to encounter in his work as undertaker? What do they reveal about Victorian society?
Chapters 6-10
Reading Check
1. Where does Oliver go after running away from Mr. Sowerberry?
2. Whom is Oliver accused of pickpocketing?
Multiple Choice
1. Oliver’s observations of funeral mourners suggest which of the following?
A) Money and greed often taint familial relationships.
B) The lower classes are too numb and dehumanized to feel grief.
C) Death is an equalizer affecting the poor and the rich alike.
D) Bereaved relatives find solace in religious belief.
2. Which of the following best describes the Artful Dodger?
A) friendly and naive
B) intelligent and cruel
C) precocious and resourceful
D) moody and suspicious
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Oliver attack Noah Claypole?
2. What details of the Artful Dodger’s appearance hint at his true status in society?
3. What do Fagin and the boys do with the handkerchiefs they steal?
Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. Whom do Fagin and Bill Sikes send to retrieve Oliver?
2. How do Mr. Brownlow and Mr. Grimwig decide to test Oliver’s character?
Multiple Choice
1. The portrait that hangs in Oliver’s room at Brownlow’s, repeatedly troubling the boy, is an example of which of the following?
A) caricature
B) allusion
C) satire
D) foreshadowing
2. What does Oliver’s appearance before the magistrate suggest about the Victorian legal system?
A) It is overly lenient.
B) It is frequently biased.
C) It is chronically overburdened.
D) It is excessively bureaucratic.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What seems to be Fagin’s attitude towards Bill Sikes?
2. How does Nancy alter her appearance to make herself seem more trustworthy to the police?
Chapters 16-20
Reading Check
1. How does Mr. Bumble meet Mr. Brownlow?
2. Why do Sikes and Fagin decide to use Oliver during the burglary in Chertsey?
Multiple Choice
1. In berating Oliver for his ingratitude, Fagin most closely resembles which of the following characters?
A) Bill Sikes
B) Mr. Bumble
C) Mr. Fang
D) Noah Claypole
2. Fagin’s remark that “Their [most of his boys’] looks convict ‘em when they get into trouble” suggests which of the following (Chapter 19)?
A) True goodness can’t be feigned.
B) Poverty corrupts moral character.
C) Boys like the Artful Dodger are reckless.
D) Fagin is tired of his criminal lifestyle.
SHORT-ANSWER RESPONSE
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What are some of the factors that likely influence Nancy’s conflicted feelings regarding Oliver?
2. Why is Fagin so confident that he can make a criminal out of Oliver?
Chapters 21-25
Reading Check
1. How is Oliver injured?
2. Who is old Sally?
Multiple Choice
1. Dickens implies that Mr. Bumble’s interest in Mrs. Corney is which of the following?
A) romantic
B) brotherly
C) selfless
D) mercenary
2. Which of the following passages best provides a clue to Oliver’s class background?
A) “‘Jump up,’ said the [driver]. ‘Is that your [Sikes’s] boy?’” (Chapter 21).
B) “Wot an inwalable boy that’ll make, for the old ladies’ pockets in chapels! His mug is a fortun’ to him” (Chapter 22).
C) “[T]he child’s death, perhaps, is on me besides! They would have treated him better, if they had known it all!” (Chapter 24).
D) “They fired and hit the boy. We cut over the fields at the back, with him between us—straight as the crow flies—through hedge and ditch. They gave chase” (Chapter 25).
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Mrs. Corney keep secret after old Sally’s death and why?
2. How does Fagin react when he learns that Sikes abandoned Oliver in a ditch?
Chapters 26-30
Reading Check
1. Whom does Fagin encounter on his way back from Sikes’s home?
2. Where does Oliver go after waking up in the ditch?
Multiple Choice
1. Mr. Bumble’s anger when he finds Noah and Charlotte kissing underscores which of the following?
A) his hypocrisy
B) his greed
C) his cold-heartedness
D) his ignorance
2. Mr. Losberne’s response when he finds Mr. Giles preparing to turn Oliver in suggests which of the following?
A) It is important to respect the letter of the law.
B) Legality and morality don’t always coincide.
C) The legal system should provide second chances.
D) Capital punishment is immoral.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who is Monks and what seems to be his connection to Fagin and Oliver?
2. What does Rose Maylie argue about the role environment plays in shaping moral character? How does her position compare to Mr. Losberne’s?
Chapters 31-35
Reading Check
1. Whom does Harry Maylie want to marry?
2. Why does Mr. Losberne try to find Mr. Brownlow?
Multiple Choice
1. Rose’s reasons for refusing Harry Maylie highlight the importance of which of the following?
A) career prospects
B) romantic love
C) gender norms
D) social status
2. Which pair of terms best describes Dickens’s depictions of the countryside and London, respectively?
A) wealthy versus impoverished
B) nostalgic versus futuristic
C) unspoiled versus corrupt
D) lonely versus crowded
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why, according to Oliver, is Rose unlikely to die from her illness? What is Mrs. Maylie’s response?
Chapters 36-40
Reading Check
1. What was in the locket that old Sally stole and Mrs. Bumble managed to track down?
2. How does Nancy learn about the plot surrounding Oliver?
Multiple Choice
1. The fact that Monks throws the locket in the lake implies which of the following?
A) He is angry with Mrs. Bumble and wants to spite her.
B) He is so wealthy that he doesn’t see the locket as valuable.
C) He wants to conceal the circumstances of Oliver’s birth.
D) He knew Agnes and wants to protect her reputation.
2. What is ironic about Nancy’s love for Bill Sikes?
A) It governs Nancy’s life, but Sikes does not share her feelings.
B) It speaks to her goodness but keeps her tied to the criminal underworld.
C) It leads her to try to reform him, which makes him resent her.
D) It conflicts with Nancy’s probable work as a prostitute.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Bumble find his marriage to Mrs. Bumble unsatisfying?
2. Why are the Maylies’ servants reluctant to allow Nancy to see Rose?
Chapters 41-45
Reading Check
1. Which character joins Fagin’s gang in these chapters?
2. What does Fagin hope to persuade Nancy to do?
Multiple Choice
1. Mr. Brownlow implies that his trip abroad involved which of the following?
A) escaping the pollution and disease of London
B) finding Harry Maylie and informing him of Rose’s illness
C) raising funds for charitable work
D) uncovering evidence of Oliver’s identity
2. Which of the following best describes Fagin’s beliefs about human nature?
A) He views people as fundamentally selfish.
B) He views people as fundamentally selfless.
C) He views people as fundamentally rational.
D) He views people as fundamentally emotional.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How do the other members of Fagin’s gang react to the arrest and deportation of the Artful Dodger? What does this suggest about how they view their relationship to the law and the legal system?
2. Why is Fagin so quick to suspect Nancy of having an affair? How do his suspicions relate to his overall philosophy, as he explains it to Noah Claypole?
Chapters 46-50
Reading Check
1. What identifying mark does Monks have, leading Mr. Brownlow to recognize his description?
2. How does Bill Sikes die?
Multiple Choice
1. The way in which Sikes’s dog dies suggests a parallel with which character?
A) Agnes
B) The Artful Dodger
C) Fagin
D) Nancy
2. Mr. Brownlow says that when he attempted to track down his friend Edward Leeford’s fiancée (Agnes), he discovered that she and her family had moved away. Which of the following was most likely responsible for their abrupt departure?
A) news that they stood to inherit a fortune from a distant relative
B) fear that Agnes’s pregnancy would become public knowledge
C) anger over Leeford’s apparent abandonment of Agnes
D) hope that they would be able to find employment in London
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What sorts of imagery does Dickens use to convey Sikes’s feelings of guilt after murdering Nancy?
2. How does Brownlow describe Edward Leeford Sr.’s marriage? What does it reveal about Victorian society?
Chapters 51-53
Reading Check
1. What is Rose’s connection to Oliver?
2. What happens to Fagin?
Multiple Choice
1. The Bumbles' ultimate fate is an example of which of the following literary devices?
A) dramatic irony
B) catharsis
C) poetic justice
D) tragedy
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. On what conditions did Edward Leeford leave half his estate to his then-unborn son? How does this relate to the novel’s depiction of moral character and social standing?
2. How does Dickens depict Fagin’s final moments?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Chapters 1-5
Reading Check
1. She dies giving birth to Oliver (technically, just afterward).
2. nine
3. undertaking
Multiple Choice
1. B
2. D
3. C
Short-Answer Response
1. The workhouse chronically underfeeds its residents, so Oliver and the other boys draw lots to decide who will approach the master for more food. Oliver draws the short straw and follows through on the plan despite his fear, revealing not only the extent of his hunger but also his commitment to doing the right thing (even at a cost to himself).
2. Exposure, starvation, and fever (i.e. likely some form of contagious disease) are among the cases Sowerberry mentions or handles. All of these relate to poverty in one way or another, which suggests that societal inequality and the absence of support for those in need are killing people.
Chapters 6-10
Reading Check
1. London
2. Mr. Brownlow
Multiple Choice
1. A
2. C
Short-Answer Response
1. Noah insults Oliver’s mother by implying she was a petty criminal (probably with the implication of prostitution); Oliver then lashes out to defend his mother’s honor.
2. The shabbiness of the Artful Dodger’s appearance suggests that he is poor, while the fact that he dresses in adults’ clothes hints that he has had to grow up quickly and learn to take care of himself. Finally, the contrast between his working-class accent and gentlemanly affectations implies that he isn’t who he pretends to be.
3. They remove any embroidered initials from the handkerchiefs and resell them.
Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. Nancy
2. They give him £5 and some books and send him on an errand.
Multiple Choice
1. D
2. B
Short-Answer Response
1. Fagin appears to both fear and hate Bill Sikes. For example, Dickens describes Fagin as treating Sikes with “abject humility” but also responding to a joke about murdering Sikes with a (private) “evil leer” (Chapter 13).
2. Nancy dons an apron and bonnet and carries a basket and keys when she goes to inquire after Oliver. These tokens of feminine domesticity help persuade the police of her trustworthiness.
Chapters 16-20
Reading Check
1. Bumble answers an advertisement Brownlow has placed in the paper requesting information about Oliver Twist.
2. They choose to use him because Oliver is small enough to squeeze through a window.
Multiple Choice
1. B
2. A
Short-Answer Response
1. Nancy seems to see something of her own childhood (or the innocent childhood she wishes she had had) in Oliver; she may have maternal feelings for him as well. On the other hand, she loves and is deeply loyal to Sikes, while simultaneously fearing his violence. She also seems to feel bound to Fagin, for whom she has worked since she was a child; although she blames him for ruining her life, he’s also the closest thing she has to a parent.
2. Fagin believes that a child in Oliver’s position—alone, impoverished, and frightened—will inevitably do what it takes to survive; he isolates him, for example, in the hopes that Oliver will grow so desperate for care and protection that he will come to rely on Fagin. Fagin also suggests that becoming part of the criminal underworld seals one’s fate permanently, both because society offers so few opportunities for reform and because the urge to belong is so strong: “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!” (Chapter 19).
Chapters 21-25
Reading Check
1. The residents of the house Sikes and Toby are attempting to rob shoot at the intruders, wounding Oliver in the arm.
2. a pauper woman who served as a nurse or midwife at Oliver’s birth
Multiple Choice
1. D
2. C
Short-Answer Response
1. She doesn’t tell anyone about the gold necklace old Sally stole from the dying young mother, presumably because she hopes to acquire it for herself.
2. Fagin panics and races off to find Oliver.
Chapters 26-30
Reading Check
1. Monks
2. back to the house Sikes and Crackit had attempted to rob (now identified as belonging to Mrs. Maylie)
Multiple Choice
1. A
2. B
Short-Answer Response
1. Monks is a mysterious man Fagin seeks out when he learns that Oliver is missing. Fagin seems to be acting at least partly in concert with or on the orders of Monks; although Monks does not want to see Oliver killed (for fear of the potential legal consequences), he wants him kept out of the way (e.g. deported or consigned to a life of criminality).
2. Rose believes that children are essentially good; if they behave badly or even commit crimes, it is probably because they have grown up in impoverished, abusive, or neglectful environments. Mr. Losberne is more skeptical, arguing that children can be inveterate criminals (though he ultimately intercedes to prevent Oliver from going to prison).
Chapters 31-35
Reading Check
1. Rose
2. because Oliver continues to worry about what Mr. Brownlow must think of him
Multiple Choice
1. D
2. C
Short-Answer Response
1. Oliver tells Mrs. Maylie that God would not allow Rose to die because she is so good. Mrs. Maylie considers this a naïve and childish view, but she does suggest that God will ultimately cause events to turn out for the best.
Chapters 36-40
Reading Check
1. locks of hair and an inscribed ring bearing the name “Agnes” and the year prior to Oliver’s birth
2. She overhears a conversation between Fagin and Monks.
Multiple Choice
1. C
2. B
Short-Answer Response
1. Bumble no longer wields the power he did as beadle, particularly because he is not able to dominate and control his wife the way he expected he would.
2. The servants see Nancy as disreputable (in particular, the repeated references to the “chaste” housemaids imply that the servants suspect Nancy of being a prostitute or otherwise “fallen” woman). At the very least, they view her obvious poverty with distaste.
Chapters 41-45
Reading Check
1. Noah Claypole
2. kill Sikes
Multiple Choice
1. D
2. A
Short-Answer Response
1. The Artful Dodger’s arrest saddens the other members of Fagin’s gang, primarily because they see it as putting an end to an otherwise promising career: “Oh, why didn’t he rob some rich old gentleman of all his walables, and go out as a gentleman, and not like a common prig, without no honour nor glory” (Chapter 43). The reference to honor suggests that they see themselves as having and following their own moral code distinct from the law.
2. Fagin correctly guesses that Nancy is contemplating some sort of betrayal, but he is wrong about the details. Because his entire worldview assumes that people act only in their own self-interest, he suspects Nancy of having a lover; it does not occur to him that she might put herself in harm’s way with no benefit to herself.
Chapters 46-50
Reading Check
1. a red mark on his neck that resembles a burn
2. He accidentally hangs himself while trying to evade arrest for Nancy’s murder.
Multiple Choice
1. D
2. B
Short-Answer Response
1. After killing Nancy, Sikes imagines he sees her—and specifically her gaze—following him everywhere in silent condemnation. He is also obsessed with the thought of lingering bloodstains on his clothes, his dog, etc. Lastly, Dickens uses the interplay of light and darkness to suggest Sikes’s sense of guilt. He insists on keeping the room dark as he kills Nancy, as though he is ashamed to see himself do it. In the morning, the rising sun—normally a symbol of hope—fills Sikes with horror, as he imagines it shedding literal light on what he has done.
2. Brownlow says that Edward Leeford’s family effectively forced him to marry a woman (Monks’s mother) whom he didn’t love for financial and/or status-related reasons: “[F]amily pride, and the most sordid and narrowest of all ambition, forced your unhappy father [into marriage] when a mere boy” (49). The couple proved even less suited to one another after the marriage and eventually separated. The episode is an indictment of the extent to which greed and social climbing permeated Victorian society, affecting even personal and familial relationships.
Chapters 51-53
Reading Check
1. She is his aunt.
2. He is executed (though the novel does not depict this).
Multiple Choice
1. C
Short-Answer Response
1. Edward Leeford stipulated that his illegitimate son (Oliver) should inherit his half of the estate only if he had “never […] stained his name with any public act of dishonour, meanness, cowardice, or wrong” (Chapter 51). This parallels the novel’s ultimate association of moral character with class status, although in this case wealth functions as the reward for goodness.
2. Fagin is frightened, angry, and lonely in the days before his execution; he shows no real remorse, trying to avoid his fate even during his meeting with Oliver.
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