#Gentle reader miss maners trial

She is described as 'so pale and reduced with watching and privation, that there would have been considerable difficulty in recognising her as the same Nancy who has already figured in this tale.' īy the end of the novel Nancy has dramatically lost weight through anxiety. In the original illustrations by George Cruikshank, Nancy is depicted as stout and fleshy, with a round, bulbous face. They were not exactly pretty, perhaps but they had a great deal of colour in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty.' They wore a good deal of hair, not very neatly turned up behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings. She is described thus when she first appears:Ī couple of young ladies called to see the young gentlemen one of whom was named Bet, and the other Nancy. The 'plump' Nancy as portrayed by George Cruikshank Her excuse for not attending is that she does not wish anyone to know about her nevertheless, she winds up attending it, presumably after having been physically threatened by Sikes.

#Gentle reader miss maners trial

Nancy is one of the members of Fagin's gang that few, if any, know about in central London, since she has recently moved from the suburbs - something referred to by Sikes when he and Fagin, concerned that Oliver might inform on them, are trying to convince her to attend his impending trial after he is mistakenly arrested for pickpocketing ('No one around here knows anything about you'). She apparently looks older than her years, as she tells Rose Maylie 'I am younger than you would think, to look at me, but I am well used to it.' She is typically depicted in her teens or mid-20s in film versions of the novel. From this it can be deduced that she is probably around seventeen. Her exact age is not mentioned in the book, although she says she has been a thief for 12 years (and began working for Fagin when she was half Oliver's age). Nancy was tainted and played at a young age by Fagin, the receiver of stolen goods who persuades poor youths to do his bidding. By the climax of the novel, she is emaciated with sickness and worry, and filled with guilt about the life she is leading. In spite of her criminality, Nancy is portrayed as a sympathetic figure, whose concern for Oliver overcomes her loyalty to Sikes and Fagin. 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. 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'). She is a member of Fagin's gang and the lover, and eventual victim, of Bill Sikes.Īs well as Nancy being a thief, a common suggestion is that she is a prostitute, in the modern sense of the word. Nancy is a fictional character in the 1838 novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and its several adaptations for theatre, television and films.