In Oliver Twist, what is the name of the workhouse beadle?

In Oliver Twist, the workhouse beadle is Mr. Bumble. He is a minor parish official responsible for enforcing the rules of the workhouse where Oliver is raised, and Dickens portrays him as pompous, cruel, and deeply concerned with his own importance.

Bumble helps introduce Oliver to the harsh institutional world of the novel. After Oliver asks for more food, Bumble treats the request as an outrageous act of rebellion. He later participates in punishing Oliver and arranging his apprenticeship to the undertaker Mr. Sowerberry. His exaggerated speeches and official authority make him one of Dickens’s comic villains.

Bumble’s name reflects Dickens’s method of giving characters suggestive names: his bluster and self-importance are undercut by his foolishness. He later marries Mrs. Corney, the workhouse matron, but she dominates him. After becoming workhouse master, Bumble discovers that official power offers little protection from domestic humiliation.

By the end, Bumble and his wife lose their positions and are forced to enter the workhouse themselves. That reversal is Dickens’s satirical reminder that institutions built on cruelty can eventually trap their own officials.