Oliver Twist Son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming, he is thought to be an orphan. A dear, grateful, gentle child, who "instead of possessing too little feeling, possessed rather too much." He had not learned "that self-preservation is the first law of nature."
Sally Thingummy An old pauper woman who is an inmate of the workhouse and later dies there. She attends at Oliver's birth, "rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer."
Agnes Fleming Oliver's mother; the daughter of a retired naval officer. "She was found dying in the street . . . but where she came from, or where she was going to, nobody knows."
Mrs. Mann An elderly woman who conducts an infant farm (the then equivalent of a foster home). "A woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children," so of the funds provided for their sustenance "she appropriated the greater part . . . to her own use."
Mr. Bumble The parish beadle (a minor church official); "a fat man, and a choleric (cranky show-off) [with] a great idea of his oratorical powers and his importance." "He had a decided propensity for bullying: derived no inconsiderable pleasure from the exercise of petty cruelty; and, consequently, was (it is needless to say) a coward."
Mr. Limbkins Head of the parish board; "a particularly fat gentleman with a very round, red face."
The Workhouse Master "A fat, healthy man."
Gamfield A chimney sweep, "whose villainous countenance was a regular stamped receipt for cruelty."
Mr. Sowerberry An undertaker; "a tall, gaunt, large-jointed man," in matrimonial disputes denominated "a brute, an unnatural husband, an insulting creature, a base imitation of a man."
