Oliver Twist Lesson Plan

Dickens writes: “Of all bad deeds that, under cover of the darkness, had been committed with wide London's bounds since night hung over it, that was the worst. Of all the horrors that rose with an ill scent upon the morning air, that was the foulest and most cruel” (302). What particulars made Sikes' murder of Nancy “the foulest and most cruel?”

Nancy is killed as she embodies innocence. She dies in the middle of a prayer, “raising herself” in a holy manner, as if already ascending to heaven. She pulls out Rose Maylie's white handkerchief – notable not only because its whiteness symbolizes purity and innocence, but also because it belonged to Rose, whose actions and...