Lesson video

The texts we're about to read contains a graphic description of death.

For some people this will be a sensitive topic.

If that's applies to you, you may want to complete the rest of this lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support you.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to our next lesson of "Oliver Twist." In today's lesson, we are going to find out what happens to the novel's villains at the end of our story.

In particular, we're going to look at the final moments in the life of Fagin and Bill Sikes.

These two men have done all sorts of evil things the whole way through our story.

They've kidnapped Oliver, they've tried to turn him into a criminal, and in our last lesson, Bill Sikes brutally murdered Nancy.

She was on her knees praying for mercy to God and Bill Sikes took a heavy club and struck her across the head.

These are two evil men who deserve punishment.

When will justice be done? But now, finally, they might receive the punishment that they deserve.

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 this 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 did Nancy reveal to Rose? You have four options.

Option one.

Nancy revealed that the gang are planning to kidnap Oliver and make him a criminal.

Option two.

Nancy revealed that the gang are planning to kill Oliver.

Option three.

Nancy revealed that the gang are planning to leave Oliver alone.

Or option four.

Nancy revealed that the gang will ask the police to arrest Oliver.

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 one.

Nancy revealed that the gang are planning to kidnap Oliver and make him a criminal.

This is all part of Monks and Fagin's plan.

Well done if you got that right.

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

First of all, we will learn about Fagin's death.

We will then learn about Bill's death and we will analyse Bill's death in a bit more detail.

We will answer this question, "How is Bill's death a fitting punishment for his crimes?" Let's first of all learn about Fagin's death.

As you may remember, Fagin met Monks and they came up with a truly terrible plan.

They are planning to kidnap Oliver for a second time.

Now, thankfully Nancy overheard this conversation and Nancy told Rose Mailey all about Fagin's plans.

Rose has now got the police involved and thankfully the police have arrested Fagin.

They have taken Fagin to a jail.

Fagin is now in his cell.

He is very nervous and frightened because he knows that the next day he is going to go to the gallows.

Now here is a picture of a gallows.

This is a place where criminals were hanged.

Fagin is going to be killed or executed the next day for all of his crimes.

Let's now read about how Fagin feels really nervous about his upcoming death.

"It was not until the night of this last awful day, "that a withering sense of his helpless, "desperate state came in its full intensity "upon his blighted soul.

"Not that he had ever held any defined "or positive hope of mercy, "but that he had never been able to consider "more than the dim probability of dying so soon.

"He had sat there awake but dreaming.

"Now, he started up, every minute, "and with gasping mouth and burning skin, "hurried to and fro in such a paroxysm of fear and wrath "that even the other prisoners, used to such sights, "recoiled from him with horror.

"He grew so terrible, at last, "in all the tortures of his evil conscience, "that one man cannot bare to sit there, eyeing him alone.

"And so the two kept watch together." The night before Fagin's death, as you can see, he is so worried about his upcoming death.

He is shaking.

He's walking to and fro in the prison cell.

Fagin's behaviour is so strange the other prisoners become rather frightened of him.

And as we said, the next day, Fagin is taken to the gallows and hanged for all of his crimes.

Okay, I've got some questions for you now.

How is Fagin going to die? I'll give you a clue.

He's going to go to the gallows and what's going to happen to him there? He is, of course, going to be hanged.

Fagin is going to be hanged for all of his crimes.

Question two, how does Fagin feel about his upcoming death? Does he feel relaxed about it? Of course not.

Fagin feels very nervous.

Fagin is very nervous about his upcoming death.

Well done if you got those two questions right.

We're now going to learn about Bill's death.

Before we begin, let me give you a bit of extra information about this extract.

In this extract, Bill is being chased by a group of policeman and a large crowd.

This crowd wants justice for all of Bill's crimes.

If they get their hands on Bill, they will kill him.

He's running through a building and they're all chasing him.

And then he climbs on top of some rooftops, he gets a rope, he ties a rope around him, he ties the rope to a chimney, and he decides he's going to try to lower himself down.

But then Bill sees something truly terrifying.

Roused into new strength and energy and stimulated by the noise of the angry crowd below, Bill set his foot against a stack of chimneys, fastened one end of the rope tightly and firmly round it, and with the other made a strong running noose by the aid of his hands and teeth almost in a second.

He could let himself down from a building by the cord to within a less distance of the ground than his own height, and have his knife ready in his hand to cut it then and drop.

At the very instant, when he brought the loop over his head, previous to slipping it beneath his armpits, at that very instant the murderer looking behind him on the roof, threw his arms above his head and uttered a yell of terror.

"The eyes again!" he cried in earthly screech.

Staggering as if struck by lightning, he lost his balanced and tumbled over the parapet.

The noose was on his neck, and ran up with his weight tight as a bowstring and swift as the arrow it speeds.

He fell for five and 30 feet.

There was a sudden jerk, a terrific convulsion and shaking of his limbs.

And there he hung with the opened knife clenched in his stiffening hand.

The old chimney quivered with a shock but stood up bravely.

The murderer swung lifeless against the wall.

"A dog, which had lain concealed till now, "ran backwards and forwards on the parapet "with a dismal howl, and collecting himself for a spring, "jumped for the dead man's shoulders.

"Missing his aim, he fell into the ditch, "turning completely over as he went, "and striking his head against a stone, "dashed out his brains." So Bill's on the rooftops.

There's an angry crowd below.

He's got his rope.

He's tied the rope to a chimney.

He's tied the rope round them.

He's getting ready to escape.

Bill might get away with this.

He's just about to lower himself down and then he sees something truly terrifying.

And he screams, "The eyes again!" He then falls back, falls off the building.

The rope gets tied around his neck and Bill is hanged.

What did Bill see? What did he mean when he talked about the eyes? Well, we're not quite sure, but I think he maybe had a hallucination of Nancy's eyes.

Now a hallucination is when you see something that isn't really there.

It's when you see something from your imagination.

So if you've been walking in the desert for a long time and you're very, very thirsty, you might have a hallucination of a pool of water.

The pool of water isn't really there.

It's something from your imagination.

Now Bill here is maybe having a hallucination of Nancy's eyes looking at him.

Maybe he's remembering the moment that she looked up to him, pleading for mercy before he killed her.

Perhaps deep down Bill feels very guilty for his murder of his girlfriend.

He is haunted by her eyes.

Next Bill's dog, Bullseye, crawls towards the roof and looks over and sees Bill's hanging body.

And it decides it's going to try to jump to be reunited with its master.

So Bullseye jumps and it just about misses Bill and falls to the floor and its brains are dashed out across the ground.

It is fitting that this villain and his dog should receive such a violent death after all their violent crimes.

I will now test your understanding of this extract.

Question one, what sight did Bill probably see before he died? I'll give you a clue.

He probably saw a hallucination of someone who is very important to Bill.

This is the answer.

Bill probably had a hallucination of Nancy's eyes.

Bill probably saw a hallucination of Nancy's eyes.

Question two, how did Bill die? I'll give you a clue.

Bill died with a rope and falling from a high place.

Bill is of course hanged.

Having seen this vision of Nancy's eyes, Bill fell off the roof.

His neck was caught in a rope and he was hanged.

Well done if you got both of those questions right.

We're now going to think about this question.

How is Bill's death a fitting punishment for his crimes? We're going to take a look at a few different quotations to explore this question.

Here's our first quotation.

This is taken from a part of the extract when Bill is on top of a roof.

He has got a rope and is about to lower himself from the rooftop all the way to the ground to escape the crowd.

And this is what happens next.

Let's read.

"At that very instant the murderer, "looking behind him on the roof, "threw his arms above his head and uttered a yell of terror.

"'The eyes again!' he cried in an unearthly screech." Now let's zoom into what Bill says.

These words, "The eyes again!" Now these words are very mysterious.

It's not at all clear what Bill has seen in this moment.

It seems likely, however, that Bill has had a hallucination of Nancy's eyes.

Now a hallucination is when you see something which isn't really there.

You see something because of your imagination.

Now it's very significant that Bill might be having a hallucination of Nancy's eyes.

If this is a case, it would suggest that Nancy's eyes are firmly lodged in Bill's memory.

Maybe he thinks about Nancy's eyes a lot.

If this is the case, perhaps Bill is suffering from a lot of guilt for his murder of Nancy.

He imagines Nancy's eyes before she died everywhere he goes.

Press the pause button on your video now, and take some notes upon this quotation.

Off you go.

Let's now take a look at this next quotation.

Bill now falls off the roof and the rope ties round his neck.

Let's read.

"The noose was on his neck.

"It ran up with his weight, tight as a bowstring "and swift as the arrow it speeds.

"He fell for five and 30 feet.

"There was a sudden jerk, a terrific convulsion "of the limbs, and there he hung, "with the open knife clenched in his stiffening hand." Now I'm very interested in the language that Dickens uses to describe Bill's death here.

First of all, he describes this rope like a noose.

Now a noose is the name of a rope that is used to hang people.

So earlier on in this lesson, we learned that Fagin is hanged at the gallows.

Now at the gallows, Fagin would be hanged with a noose.

This is a rope that goes round his neck.

Now it's interesting that Dickens describes this rope as a noose.

And he also, later on, if you take a look at the second word in pink, he also describes Bill being hung with this rope.

So Dickens deliberately uses language that is related to hanging.

I wonder why this would be.

Well, to give you some information about Victorian punishment, the most common way for criminals to be executed was through hanging.

So Bill Sikes deserves to die this death.

Bill Sikes hangs by falling from this building and the rope going around his neck.

Now if Bill Sikes had been arrested, he would have also been hanged.

So in a sense, Bill Sikes receives the death that he deserves.

Press the pause button on your video now, and take some notes upon this quotation.

Off you go.

Let's now complete a paragraph.

Now I'm going to give you a bit of a rough plan to help you write this.

Here is your first two sentences.

Dickens suggests that Bill suffers the death that he deserves.

Before this villain falls off the roof, he screams, "The eyes again!" And then you're going to add your own words.

Bill's rope then wraps around his neck like a noose and he is hung.

It is fitting that Bill should die such a violent death.

And to help you write this, I'm going to give you some key words.

You don't need to use all these key words.

Just use a few of them in your answer.

Press the pause button on your video now and complete this paragraph in your book or on your page.

Off you go.

Let's now take a look at some exemplar answers.

Here's our acceptable answer.

Dickens suggests that Bill suffers a death that he deserves.

Before this villain falls off the roof, he screams, "The eyes again!" It is likely that Bill is having a hallucination of Nancy here.

He perhaps remembers her eyes just before he murdered her.

This sight is so shocking that the villain falls off the roof.

Bill's rope then wraps around his like a noose and he is hung.

It is fitting that Bill should die such a violent death.

If Bill had been arrested, he would have been hanged as a punishment for all of his crimes.

Bill suffers the horrible death that he deserves.

And here is our good answer.

Dickens suggests that Bill suffered the death that he deserves.

Before this villain falls off the roof, he screams, "The eyes again!" It is likely that Bill sees a haunting hallucination of Nancy's eyes at this moment.

Perhaps he remembers his lover looking up at him, pleading for mercy, before he violently murdered her.

Dickens may be suggesting that Bill has been tortured with guilt for the rest of his sorry existence after this brutal crime.

The wretched villain is so shocked by this terrifying vision that he falls off the roof.

Bill's rope then wraps around his neck like a noose and he is hung.

It is fitting that Bill should die such a violent death.

Through being hanged, this criminal suffers the same punishment that he would face for his crimes.

Such a demise is a violent end to a violent life.

Well done for all of your hard work.

And that brings us to the end of our lesson.

Well done for all of your amazing work.

We only have one more lesson left of "Oliver Twist." In our final lesson, we will discover the mystery of Oliver's family.

Dickens has a lot of surprises up his sleeves.

The end of this novel is going to blow your mind.

I'll see you next time.

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