Nancy is the sympathetic lover of Bill Sikes in the novel Oliver Twist , in its film versions, and in the stage and film versions of the musical Oliver! . She is affectionately known by Fagin's boys and some others as Nance . She was corrupted at the age of six by Fagin, the seemingly lovable but heartless villain who persuades otherwise innocent youths to do his bidding. She is seventeen in the book, though visibly in her twenties or thirties in film versions of the novel. Nancy is one of the members of Fagin's gang that few, if any, know about in London - 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 ). 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. She works at a public bar, drinks heavily in the original novel and its film versions, (but not in the musical) and has a side job as a prostitute.Unlike other characters throughout Oliver Twist , Nancy is not entirely good (Oliver Twist himself, Rose, Mr. Brownlow) or entirely bad (Monks, Fagin, Bill Sikes). She has conflicts between her inner conscience and her devotion to Sikes. Nancy is also an important figure in Oliver Twist because she is the only character who fluctuates between the world of good and evil. With Fagin and Bill Sikes, she is corrupt though conscience-stricken, yet she cares for Oliver so profoundly that it results in her death.Eventually she is killed - brutally - by Sikes because he mistakenly believes that she has informed on him. In reality, Nancy has been trying to prevent Oliver from being kidnapped a second time, but she has managed to keep Bill's name out of it. Fagin, furious at what he thinks she has done, tells Sikes about her actions, and makes it sound as if she informed on him, knowing that this will probably result in her being murdered and thus silenced. Ironically, it is her murder and the subsequent search for her killer, Bill Sikes, that helps bring down Fagin's gang.In the musical Oliver! , and in the 1948 and 2005 film versions of Oliver Twist , Oliver is still in the clutches of the gang when Nancy meets Mr. Brownlow, his benefactor. In the musical and the 1948 film, she makes arrangements to return him to Brownlow on London Bridge , if Brownlow goes with no police. Sikes discovers that she is up to something, secretly follows her and Oliver to the bridge, and beats her to death on the spot after assuming that she has betrayed him. As in the novel, this is what brings down Fagin's gang, although Fagin is never caught in the musical.Nancy commits one of the most noble acts of kindness in the story when she ultimately risks her life to help Oliver.Her character represented Dickens' view that man, however tainted by society, could still retain a sense of good. One of the main reasons Dickens puts Nancy in Oliver Twist is so that she can be contrasted with Rose Maylie. Dickens was also criticized for using a character that was a thieving, whoring, slut of the streets. Dickens, however, defended his decision in the Preface to the story when it appeared in novel-form, explaining that it was his intention to show criminals, however petty, in all their deformity , and that he had thought that dressing Nancy in anything other than a cheap shawl would make her seem more fanciful than real as a character.The 2007 miniseries version of Oliver Twist is the only one in which Nancy, who is supposedly white, is played by an African-American actress. Show less «