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Nancy is a fictional character in the novel ''Oliver Twist'' and its numerous theatre, television and motion picture adaptations. She is a member of Fagin's gang and the lover, and eventual victim, of Bill Sikes. Though it is never explicitly stated in the novel, it is strongly implied that Nancy is a prostitute as well as a thief. Dickens expressly asserted this in his preface to the novel's 1841 edition ("the boys are pickpockets, and the girl is a prostitute"). Despite her criminality, Nancy is portrayed as a sympathetic figure, whose concern for Oliver overcomes her loyalty to Sikes and Fagin. By the climax of the novel she is emaciated with sickness and worry, and filled with guilt about the life she is leading. ==Background== Nancy was corrupted at a young age by Fagin, the receiver of stolen goods who persuades downtrodden youths to do his bidding. 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). From this it can be deduced that she is probably around seventeen. She is typically depicted in her teens or mid 20s in film versions of the novel. 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." 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"). 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. ==Description== In the novel she drinks heavily. She is described thus when she first appears: In the original illustrations by George Cruikshank, Nancy is depicted as stout and fleshy, with a round, bulbous face.〔Kitten, F., ''Dickens and his Illustrators'', Redway, 1899, pp.10-11.〕 By the end of the novel Nancy has dramatically lost weight through anxiety. 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."〔Dickens, C., ''Oliver Twist'', Chapter 39.〕 In the preface Dickens says in writing dialogue for Nancy, he deliberately avoided using the crude language that would have been used by a real person like Nancy: Instead Nancy and her friend Bet are introduced using faux-genteel terminology, portrayed as if seen though Oliver's innocent eyes, but recognisably ironic to the reader. Bet's brash refusal to get something for Fagin is described as "a polite and delicate evasion of the request" showing "the young lady to have been possessed of natural good-breeding."〔Dickens, C., ''Oliver Twist'', Chapter 13.〕 Nancy's visit to the magistrates is described in similar language. Only later, when Nancy speaks to Rose, does she explicitly describe herself as degraded and corrupted. Their criminal enterprises are spoken of in euphemisms, creating for the reader a "game of guessing the crime".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nancy (Oliver Twist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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