Dickens online info charles biography of nancy

Character in the novel Oliver Twist

Fictional character

Nancy is a fictional character in the 1838 novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and its several adaptations for theatre, television and films.

She is a member of Fagin's gang and the lover, and eventual victim, of Bill Sikes.

As well as Nancy being a thief, a common suggestion is that she is a prostitute, in the modern sense of the word.

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At no point is this stated directly in the novel; rather it stems from Dickens describing her as such in his preface to the 1841 edition ("the boys are pickpockets, and the girl is a prostitute"). However, it has been speculated that he is invoking the term's then-synonymous usage referring to a woman living out of wedlock or otherwise on the margins of "respectable" society.^{[citation needed]}

In spite of her criminality, Nancy is portrayed as a sympathetic figure, whose concern for Oliver overcomes her loyalty to Sikes and Fagin.

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