:: nancy, part one (chs. 39-40) ::

it kept coming back to me: why do we feel so much for nancy? why is she so sympathetic? I don't think it's just because the girl has played a bigger role than, say, bet (and could I please argue that bet is nancy's counterpart?).
   after a lot of thinking it over, I came up with some vague notions stemming from my own feelings about her and organized them as best as I could into some semblance of order.
   and sorry if you expected some insightful revelation.

nancy is constantly mistreated -- by sikes, by fagin, by society. a prostitute/mistress, "respectable" people won't relate to her; fagin knows what she is, and despises her guilt as he admires her sharpness; sikes has her loyalty, and knows it, using her as he uses his dog -- to order about and kick when he feels like it. abuse always inspires pity, and add to that the rest of her circumstances. who wouldn't feel for someone in a situation like that? reason number one in her favor.

despite this horrendous treatment, nancy has flashes of sweetness and humility, treating others (SIKES) much better than they treat her.

        'Why, you don't mean to say, you'd be hard upon me to-night, Bill,' said the girl, laying her hand upon his shoulder.        'No!' cried Mr. Sikes. 'Why not?'        'Such a number of nights,' said the girl, with a touch of woman's sweetness, which communicated something like sweetness of tone, even to her voice; 'such a number of nights as I've been patient with you, nursing and caring for you, as if you had been a child: and this the first I've seen you like yourself; you wouldn't have served me as you did just now, if you'd thought of that, would you? Come, come; say you wouldn't.'        'Well, then,' rejoined Mr. Sikes, 'I wouldn't. Why, damme, now, the girl's whining again!'

I feel for her, expending herself for ingrates and wretches like this; that's another reason.

she expends herself for oliver (number three). we all root for oliver, the poor, falsely accused, down-and-out, innocent orphan. nancy's endeavors on his behalf -- taking blows, risks, and... well, we'll get there -- for this boy move us to like her. she obviously feels about him like we do, so we identify with her.

identification is reason four I feel for nancy (and maybe you do, too). she is relatable. she pities the men in prison, about to die. she cares about oliver (however much she may hate it): standing between him and violence, warning him of danger, hoping he escapes. unlike the others -- whose brutality is disgusting, and in no way sympathetic -- she has feelings.

        'Oh, lady, lady!' she said, clasping her hands passionately before her face, 'if there was more like you, there would be fewer like me, -- there would -- there would!'

nancy has been led into a life of sin (everyone feels for a victim -- five). "I thieved for you when I was half as old as this!" she says in chapter 17 (about oliver, to fagin); "it is my living, and the cold, wet streets are my home; and you're the wretch that drove me to them long ago; and that'll keep me there, day and night, day and night, till I die!" she isn't content as a criminal, either; she'd rather be living a pure life, out of the gutter. if she were hardened, we might be careless of her fate. it is her despair that makes me feel sorry for her (reason six).

        'Lady,' cried the girl, sinking on her knees, 'dear, sweet, angel lady, you are the first that ever blessed me with such words as these, and if I had heard them years ago, they might have turned me from a life of sin and sorrow; but it is too late -- it is too late!'

those are slightly muddled, overlapping reasons. I hope the point is clear enough: nancy isn't a villainous character. if these reasons don't ring true, we still -- even inexplicably -- root for this young woman to come out on top, despite her past and even her present.

   her despair (take the last quote) brings up another question: why is she so hopeless? why doesn't she just take rose maylie up on her offer to escape?
   I've often wondered what it is that makes women return to abusive relationships. nancy's position is perhaps different from other womens' today; but her answer is no less heart-wringing.

        'When ladies as young, and good, and beautiful as you are,' replied the girl steadily, 'give away your hearts, love will carry you all lengths -- even such as you, who have home, friends, other admirers, everything to fill them. When such as I, who have no certain roof but the coffin-lid, and no friend in sickness or death but the hospital nurse, set our rotten hearts on any man, and let him fill the place that has been a blank all our wretched lives, who can hope to cure us? Pity us, lady -- pity us for having only one feeling of the woman left, and for having that turned, by a heavy judgment, from a comfort and a pride, into a new means of violence and suffering.'

oh, nancy... we do pity you.