This essay examines the role of women in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, arguing that female characters function both symbolically and narratively to define moral order in the novel. The paper traces how Dickens constructs a binary between "good" women — nurturing, self-sacrificing figures like Oliver's mother Agnes and the genteel Rose — and "corrupt" women like Mrs. Mann, whose failures of nurture reflect broader social decay. The essay pays particular attention to Nancy, whose moral ambiguity complicates this binary, and argues that Dickens simultaneously affirms and questions middle-class Victorian assumptions about femininity, domesticity, and women's innate nature.
The women of Oliver Twist play an important function in the novel, both symbolically and in terms of plot. The novel begins with the title character being brought into the world by a woman in poverty, after which he is consigned to a workhouse. Later, through a series of strange circumstances, he is discovered to be of noble birth. Nancy, a "whore with a heart of gold," sacrifices herself so that Oliver can move on to a better life. Women in the novel are primarily seen as nurturers, and that nurturing function enables Oliver to survive. When nurturing is perverted — as in the case of prostitution or the scheming Mrs. Mann — Dickens uses this as evidence of the corruption of larger society. Similarly, when male figures like Fagin attempt to take on nurturing roles, this underlines the degree to which what is natural in society has become perverted, gross, and corrupt.
Early in the novel, young Oliver is condemned by the unmarried status of his mother, Agnes, who dies in childbirth: "The surgeon leaned over the body, and raised the left hand. 'The old story,' he said, shaking his head: 'no wedding ring, I see. Ah! Good night!'" (Chapter 1). Although it is later discovered that Oliver's mother loved his father, the absence of legitimate paternity results in the child being consigned to the workhouse for the duration of his early existence. His mother's disgraced, unwed state and her poverty — as well as Oliver's lack of a father — define him for much of the novel.
The lack of a mother results in Oliver being placed in the hands of Mrs. Mann, a woman who, rather than placing children first — as the novel implies she should, both by duty and by virtue of her gender — places her own needs first: "The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children; and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them" (Chapter 2). Adults in general focus upon their own need for food, money, and luxury while denying basic necessities to children, but the fact that a woman denies Oliver these things is presented as particularly noxious.
Oliver, however, retains an angelic vision of his mother and his willingness to defend her against the taunts of another boy is presented as evidence of his moral superiority. "Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me... I think I know what it must be to die of that!" says Oliver, responding to allegations that his mother was "bad" — and it is virtually the one moment in the novel in which Oliver shows any real initiative (Chapter 6).
When Oliver runs away to the city, he finds himself under the "care" of the criminal Fagin, who operates as a fence and runs a pickpocket ring. Fagin styles himself as an almost maternal figure, presiding over his boys: "The merry old gentleman, placing a snuff-box in one pocket of his trousers, a note-case in the other, and a watch in his waistcoat pocket, with a guard-chain round his neck, and sticking a mock diamond pin in his shirt: buttoned his coat tight round him, and putting his spectacle-case and handkerchief in his pockets, trotted up and down the room with a stick, in imitation of the manner in which old gentlemen walk about the streets any hour in the day" (Chapter 9). There is a sexual suggestion in the way Fagin "trains" the young pickpockets, and his cloying manner reinforces the perversion of the parental role. Oliver's innocence makes him vulnerable to Fagin's influence: he has no real understanding that he has been drawn into an illegal operation.
Oliver is equally unable to perceive the true nature of the prostitutes and pickpockets around him: "a couple of young ladies called to see the young gentlemen; one of whom was named Bet, and the other Nancy. They wore a good deal of hair, not very neatly turned up behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings. They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of colour in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty. Being remarkably free and agreeable in their manners, Oliver thought them very nice girls indeed. As there is no doubt they were" (Chapter 9). The girls appear "pretty" because they wear rouge and other feminine accoutrements as part of their trade — markers Oliver cannot recognize as signs of disrespectability.
"Nancy's self-sacrifice complicates her fallen status"
"Rose embodies Dickens's domestic feminine ideal"
"Nancy disrupts the novel's moral binary of women"
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