By the stubborn survival of benevolent traits in Nancy, Dickens underscores his belief that human nature is basically good. In spite of her awful circumstances, she cannot take part in injuring Oliver, but neither will she turn against the amoral criminals who have placed their faith in her. The struggle to reconcile these conflicting demands has been torturing the girl. She has had her eyes opened to the vileness of her environment but feels inescapably caught in it.
The secret meeting on London Bridge is liberally peppered with the seasoning of melodrama: It takes place in the middle of a dark, misty night, down near the edge of the black waters. The participants are trailed and overheard by a crafty spy. Nancy has been bedeviled by premonitions of evil, accompanied by fantasies of death, coffins, and bloody shrouds. After the grim interview, the unfortunate girl receives a personal token from a person she could never hope to be, then she sinks down on the cruel stones.
On this occasion, Dickens uses a sign by which Brownlow is able to identify Monks as someone with whom he has had past dealings. The details of Monks's appearance described by Nancy may seem improbable unless you recall the moment in Chapter 39 when Nancy, unobserved, peered at Monks, "keen and searching, and full of purpose." Dickens never deceives his readers: he scatters an abundance of significant clues about that all gradually fit into an unbroken pattern. This dexterous technique can only be fully appreciated if the novel is closely studied a second time after the first reading.
A crisis has been reached in the contest between Fagin and Sikes. The pivotal decision is made by Fagin when he resolves to take steps to murder his hated colleague. The lines of conflict that constitute the plot are now beginning to come together rapidly. Monks's hatred for his brother Oliver has become tangled with the antagonism between Sikes and Fagin. And remember, Fagin is involved in both struggles.
