Nancy, in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

One of his most memorable tragic characters

“Oliver Twist” is the most melodramatic of Charles Dickens’s novels and is peopled by stock characters who would have been familiar to those acquainted with the popular theatre of the day, Dickens being a lifelong enthusiast of drama and the theatre.

These characters include the innocent child (Oliver), the two-dimensional villain (Sikes and Monks), the wily avaricious Jew (Fagin) and the whore with the heart of gold (Nancy).

However, Dickens’s treatment of Nancy, who repents her past life but sacrifices her future one by seeking to do good in saving Oliver, also reveals his wider interest in trying to do something to address a social evil, namely the prevalence of prostitution in 19th century London.

In 1847, some eight years after the completion of “Oliver Twist”, Dickens opened Urania Cottage, a home for rescued and reformed prostitutes that aimed to set them on a new path, including emigration to Australia where they could make a fresh start. It is interesting to note that this was a proposition that was made to Nancy in his novel.

Many people will know about Nancy from having seen either the stage or film version of Lionel Bart’s musical “Oliver!” (1960/1968), but this should not be relied upon…