Rose Maylie is admirable Dickensian womanhood in all its glory. She is good for propaganda, but terrible for story. Being a person of sterling worth, incorruptible by human complexity and inconsistency, she is correspondingly uninteresting, particularly in contrast with Nancy. In fiction, as in life, angels tend to be less memorable than colorful characters. Nevertheless, Rose is well suited to her role as intermediary between the world of crooks and con artists and her own. Anyone less compassionate might not have gone to bat for Oliver when everything seemed against him. A less humble and humane person than Rose would probably have avoided Nancy’s approach with indignation, shutting off the decisive engagement between the opposing parties.
