Lesson video

Hello everyone, welcome to our final Oliver Twist lesson.

Today we are going to look at the end of a novel and Charles Dickens will reveal the novel's greatest mystery.

What family does Oliver Twist come from? You are in for a huge surprise.

Let's begin.

For today's lesson you will need an exercise book or paper and a pen.

If you do not have this equipment press the pause button on your video now go and collect this equipment and then we will begin our lesson.

Let's begin with a recap from our last lesson.

What happens to Fagin and Bill Sikes at the end of the novel? You have four options.

Option one, they were both arrested.

Option two, they were both hanged.

Option three, they escaped and lived happily ever after.

Or option four, they died peaceful deaths.

Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer.

I will now tell you the right answer which is of course option two.

Fagin and Bill Sikes were both hanged.

Fagin was arrested by the police sent to prison and then sent to be hanged at the gallows.

Bill Sikes, hanged himself by mistake.

He fell off a roof had his neck tangled in a rope and was hanged.

Well done if you got that right.

I will now explain our plan for today's lesson.

First of all we will learn about Mr Leeford's story.

Now you have never seen a name Mr Leeford before but I will introduce this character in a minute.

Then we will introduce Monks' story.

and then we will learn about what happens at the very end of our novel.

Let's begin.

Now as you may remember Monks met Fagin and organised for Oliver to be kidnapped for a second time.

Nancy overheard this conversation and Nancy went to tell Rose all about the criminals' plans.

Now Rose told Mr Brownlow and Mr Brownlow next managed to capture Monks.

He brought Monks back to his house and summoned all the characters to hear Monks' story.

We're now going to look at what Monk says about his life.

Now Dickens says that this story is a true tale of grief and trial and sorrow.

Kind of a sort of story that Monks is about to tell is a very sad story.

Monks reveals that his real name is Edward Leeford.

Monks or he, is the son of a month called Mr Leeford.

I'm now going to talk about Mr Leeford's story and what's happened in his life.

Here is a picture of Mr Leeford.

Now Mr Leeford was a young man when he met his wife who became Mrs Leedord.

Mr and Mrs Leeford had a son called Edward who is otherwise known as Monks.

Now, Mr Leeford did not really like his wife, Mrs Leeford.

And in fact they separated.

So they no longer lived together.

Mrs Leeford was forced to raise Monks alone.

Mr Leeford meanwhile fell in love with another woman who was not his wife.

Mr Leeford fell in love with a lady called Agnes Fleming.

Now some of you might think that this picture is rather familiar.

You've seen this picture from earlier in the story.

I'll explain this in a few minutes time.

Now Agnes and Mr Leeford had a son too.

Their son is Oliver.

So Olivers' parents are Agnes and Mr Leeford And Monks parents are Mr Leeford and Mrs Leeford.

Now that makes Oliver Monks half brother.

Some of you may recognise this picture.

This is the portrait of Agnes which was on Mr Brownlow's wall.

Oliver spent a long time looking at this portrait because it is his mother and it looks just like Oliver.

Now, Mr Leeford was very good friends with Mr Brownlow and before Mr Leeford died he gave Mr Brownlow this picture of his loved one Agnes.

And that is why it hanged on Mr Brownlow's wall.

Mr Leeford became very rich and wrote a will.

Now a will is a document which describes who will inherit your wealth after you die.

Let me explain this in a bit more detail.

So imagine that you have a mother and a father and they make lots of money throughout their life.

And they have kids they may have a daughter and the son.

Now one day the mother and the father are going to pass away.

But what's going to happen to their money? Well, that's why the mother and the father will write a will before they die.

This will is a document which describes what will happen with all of their wealth and all of their money.

Now a will is used to describe who will receive the inheritance from the mother and the father.

In other words the will describes who will receive the mother and father's money.

Unusually this past that this money and wealth passes down to the parents' children.

But in this situation it's a little bit more complicated because Mr Leeford has two sons Monks and Oliver.

So here's the question.

Who will receive Mr Leeford's money? Okay let's now revise what we've been through so far.

Here's a question.

How is Oliver related to Monks? You have four options.

Option one, they were both brothers.

Option two, they are cousins.

Option three, they are half-brothers or option four Monks is Oliver's uncle.

Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer.

I will now tell you the right answer which is of course they are half brothers.

Oliver is Monks half brother.

Oliver and Monks both share the same father Mr Leeford but they both have different mothers.

Oliver's mother is Agnes while Monk's mother is Mrs Leeford.

Well done if you got that right.

I will now explain what happens in the rest of Monks' story.

As you may remember Mr Leeford became very rich and wrote a will.

Now Mr Leeford had had a very difficult decision to make as he wrote this will.

Mr Leeford would give the inheritance to which son? Monks or Oliver? Now Mr Leeford did not like Monks or Mrs Leeford very much at all.

This is what Dickens writes.

Mr Leeford talked of miseries which his wife had brought upon him of the rebellious disposition, vice malice and premature bad passions of Monks his son.

As you can see Mr Leeford did not have much affection for Monks at all.

Mr Leeford seemed to think that Monks was rather immoral.

Mr Leeford therefore did not want Monks to receive the inheritance.

He wanted Oliver to receive his inheritance instead.

But Mr Leeford's will contains one very strange rule.

The will states that Oliver will only inherit Mr Leeford's wealth if he commits no crimes.

If Oliver does commit a crime Monks will receive the fortune instead.

Now you may remember earlier in the novel Monks met Fagin.

And Monks persuaded Fagin to try and kidnap Oliver for a second time and make Oliver a criminal.

What we now know helps us understand Monk's plan.

Monks knew that if Oliver became a criminal again he would not receive Mr Leeford's inheritance instead Monks would receive the inheritance and become very rich.

As you can see this is a very clever plan.

Okay, let's now test your understanding of that idea.

Why did Monks want Fagin to kidnap Oliver and make him a criminal? You have four options.

Option one, Oliver would waste his inheritance if he was a criminal.

Option two, Oliver would not receive his inheritance if he was a criminal.

Monks would receive it instead.

Option three, Monks wants Oliver to end up in jail or option four, Monks wants to reunite with his half brother Oliver in Fagin's gang.

Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer.

I will now tell you the right answer which is of course option two.

Monks wants Fagin to kidnap Oliver and make him a criminal because Oliver will not receive his inheritance if he was a criminal.

Monks would receive it instead.

Well done if you got that right.

Let's now take a look at the ending of our novel.

Oliver receives his inheritance.

He is rewarded for never allowing himself to fall into a life of crime.

Now, when you think about the story you will recognise that there are any occasions when Oliver could have become a criminal but chose to do the right thing instead.

For example Jack and Charlie took Oliver into the streets to train him to become a pickpocket.

But Oliver did not take part in these crimes.

Oliver did not help Jack and Charlie steal Mr Brownlow's handkerchief.

Oliver was determined to do the right thing.

When Bill Sykes took Oliver to the main Lee's house he wanted Oliver to help her rob a house.

But Oliver did not want to be a criminal.

He did not want to burgle this house and instead chose to do the right thing.

Oliver tried to alert the house about the burglary instead and ended up being shot.

All because Oliver was making the right choice.

He did not want to be a criminal.

And throughout the novel Oliver is consistently chosen not to join Fagin's gang when he knew that they were criminals.

Oliver has always done the right thing.

And because of this Oliver therefore receives his inheritance and becomes very rich.

And Oliver is also adopted by Mr Brownlow at the end of the novel.

And Oliver lives happily ever after.

This is what Dickens writes.

Mr Brownlow went on from day to day filling the mind of his adopted child with stores of knowledge and becoming attached to him more and more as his nature developed itself and showed the thriving seeds of all he wished him to become.

Oliver tried by adversity remembered its lessons in mercy to others and mutual love fervent thanks to Him who had protected and preserved him.

These are all matters which needs not to be told.

I have said that they were truly happy.

What's an amazing story.

At the end of this novel Oliver is adopted by Mr Brownlow and receives the inheritance from his father.

He is rich but more importantly he is loved.

Think about the astonishing journey that we've been on with Oliver.

Since the start of this story.

At the beginning of our novel Oliver was a very lonely, poor orphan.

He's been through all sorts of hardships and suffering.

He's been in the workhouse.

He's been in the sour berries.

He's been in Fagin's gang.

He's been betrayed.

He's been taken to court and yet through Oliver's whole story he's always tried to do the right thing.

He has never turned to crime and Oliver's story ends happily.

He has changed from a poor, lonely orphan to a rich boy who is now loved by his adopted father.

What a journey? Now to finish this lesson we are going to write a paragraph.

You are going to choose one writing task to complete from a choice of three.

Task A, is extremely challenging.

Task B, is quite challenging.

And task C, is challenging.

You only need to complete one task.

I am now going to go through each of these three tasks and explain what each one requires.

Here is task A.

This is extremely challenging.

Write a paragraph summarise in the end of the novel.

Include what Monks reveals about Mr and Mrs Leeford and Agnes.

Why Oliver receives his inheritance.

Mr Brownlow's actions at the end of the novel.

And you can try to use some of these key words and this table here as you write.

Now this is an extremely challenging task.

Some of you will want to complete this but not all of you will want to.

If you do want to complete task A press the pause button on your video now and complete this paragraph in your book or on your page.

Off you go.

If you do not want to complete task A keep on watching this video.

I'm going to tell you about task B.

Here is task B.

Write a paragraph summarising the end of the novel.

And here is a rough paragraph plan that you can use to write.

I've given you some sentences to help you structure your paragraph.

And here is a table of key words.

If you would like to complete task B press the pause button on your video now and complete this paragraph in your book or on your page.

I will now explain task C.

Here is task C.

Complete the paragraph.

You will see that there's many missing words.

Use the key word table to help write this paragraph.

Complete this paragraph in your book or on your page.

Off you go.

I will now show you the right answers for this paragraph.

Mr Leeford married Mrs Leeford and had a son called Edward otherwise known as Monks.

Mr Leeford separated from his wife and fell in love with Agnes.

They had a son called Oliver.

Mr Leeford wanted to leave his inheritance for Oliver.

Mr Leeford's will said that Oliver would only receive his inheritance if he did not commit any crimes otherwise it would be given to Monks.

Monks therefore tried to arrange for Oliver to be kidnapped and turned into a criminal.

Thankfully, Oliver has lived a moral life throughout this story and receives his inheritance.

At the end of the novel he is adopted by Mr Brownlow and lives happily ever after.

Well done if you got those answers right.

Now there's also an extension task that you can complete if you'd like to.

Write a paragraph slash essay on the question above.

What is the central message of Oliver Twist? Complete this paragraph or essay in your book or on your page if you would like to.

Press the pause button now and complete this paragraph or essay if you want.

Now you can also share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram Facebook or Twitter tagging at @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

And that brings us to the end of our final lesson on Oliver Twist.

I hope that you've learned to love this novel just as much as I do.

Now Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens first novels.

He's go on to write many more.

There is a whole universe of Charles Dickens novels out there full of danger, adventure and fascinating characters.

And it's no exaggeration to say that Charles Dickens changes society through such books.

His books opened the eyes of his readers to the social problems of the country.

Even today Charles Dickens novels still inspire readers all around the world to become more kind and loving people.

Now if you've enjoyed Oliver Twist and you'd like to read another Charles Dickens novel I'd highly recommend The Christmas Carol.

It's a story about very selfish old man who hates Christmas called Ebenezer Scrooge and is visited by three ghosts who attempt to get him to change his ways it's class.

And that's it for me it has been a pleasure to teach you across the last number of lessons.

And before you leave make sure you complete the quiz on all the learning you've done today.