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Chapter 28
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Oliver Twist, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Thievery and Crime
Poverty, Institutions, and Class
Individualism and Social Bonds
Social Forces, Fate, and Free Will
City and Country
Summary
Analysis
The narrator introduces the people living in the Chertsey house: along with Giles, the butler and head servant, and Brittles, the younger servant, there are Mrs. Maylie, an older and distinguished woman, and her seventeen-year-old niece Miss Rose Maylie. A doctor arrives, breathless, having been shocked by the news of the robbery—the narrator points out, jokingly, that the doctor (Dr. Losborne) seems particularly upset that the robbery occurred by surprise and at night, as though those weren't usual characteristics of a robbery.
The broad outline of Oliver's new "family" is sketched. If Brownlow, back when he was in charge of Oliver, was something like Oliver's stepfather, then Losborne is a kind, well-meaning, if quick-to-anger uncle; Mrs. Maylie is a grandmother (like Mrs. Bedwin), and Rose is an aunt. As it turns out, of course, Rose really is Oliver's biological aunt—a coincidence that seems almost too perfect to be believed.
Themes
Literary Devices
The doctor talks to Giles, asking if Giles shot the intruder—Giles says, proudly, that he did. Losborne then checks on Oliver, saying that he is all right and stable, considering his wound. Losborne asks if Rose would like to see Oliver—Rose had asked previously to do so, but her aunt would not allow it (the two women have not seen Oliver since he came into the house; only the servants and the doctor have seen him). The doctor believes that Rose would very much be happy to see Oliver, and so insists upon their meeting. Mrs. Maylie also decides to see the "robber."
Losborne is an intelligent man, and he quickly realizes that Oliver, a young boy with goodness writ in his face, would not be capable of planning and executing a robbery, without being forced into it. Losborne, in later scenes, will also be the engine that drives away the investigators, and that ensures Oliver a safe haven at the Maylies' home near Chertsey.
Themes
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