The Marriage of Nancy and Sikes: Portraying the Fallen Woman on the Victorian Stage

Of all the fallen women on the Victorian stage, Nancy in adaptations of Dickens’ Oliver Twist is the lowest. Specifically deemed a ‘prostitute’ by the author, she is also the abused mistress of a thuggish burglar who murders her. In the innumerable dramatisations of the novel, Nancy might seem appealing as an opportunity for character acting, but presents a hurdle to actresses chary of risking their hard-won reputations. How could such a debased woman be made palatable to the admirers of respectable leading ladies? So an offstage marriage ceremony took place in which she became ‘Nancy Sykes’ (the name usually misspelt). This essay will examine how the interpretation of Nancy and her profession were ameliorated and bowdlerised to suit changes in social attitudes and how these alterations were accommodated in playwriting, staging, and publicity. It will place her within the dramatic conventions of melodrama's fallen woman, demonstrating where she fits on the scale of the courtesan and the ‘woman with a past’.