WHY DID NO-ONE WANT HIM

Oliver? I wouldn't say Oliver was unwanted. His mother didn't flee from her home and give birth in a workhouse because she didn't love him. None-the-less, Oliver was just one of many orphans.... couples who could afford children and had the ability to give children a better life did not. They gave money to charity, but they rarely took on the care of poor, lower class orphan. People who did take these children into their home, often did so in order to afford themselves an extra pair of hands.... work was a fair trade for room, but that didn't mean love and caring were involved, although emotional attachments were certainly formed in many cases.

Fagin wanted Oliver to steal; Mr. Brownlow wanted to help him, and he wanted him, but Oliver was stolen away; Sikes, like Fagin, wanted to use him; Nancy found love for him. Leeford (Monks), who could have helped Oliver and afforded him a better life cheated him and wanted him out of the way. None-the-less, orphanges at the time didn't often move their children past the workhouses or childhoods of labor.