Nancy
Outer characterization
In the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Nancy is a young woman who has been a criminal since she was a child. She is first described alongside her friend Bet:
They wore a good deal of hair, not very neatly turned up behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings. They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of colour in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty. Being remarkably free and agreeable in their manners, Oliver thought them very nice girls indeed. (Chapter 9, 78%)
However, although the girls look “stout and hearty”, Nancy believes that her difficult life has made her look older than she really is: “ ‘I am younger than you would think, to look at me.’ ” (Chapter 40, 22%). After she has been to see Rose Maylie, Bill Sikes and Fagin notice that she has grown “pale and thin” (Chapter 44, 11%).
It is possible that Nancy is a prostitute. This is hinted at when, for example, she talks about her childhood “in the midst of cold and hunger, and riot and drunkness, and – and – something worse than all – as I have been from my cradle.” (Chapter 40, 22%). In a later introduction to the novel, Dickens describes Nancy as a ‘prostitute’, but this word was understood in a broader sense in the Victorian era: it included women who lived with men they were not married to. We know that Nancy lives with Bill Sikes and that they are not married.
