Bill Sikes is presented as a villain in Chapter 47 when Bill kills Nancy and in the BBC adaptation of the book. In the chapter Bill Sikes kills Nancy ruthlessly after learning that she has told the police about his pick pocketing scheme. The author, Charles Dickens, presents Bill Sikes as “a robber”, “a housebreaker” and “a murderer”. These terms reflect on Bill Sikes’s villainy in the book as these terms are associated with bad crime and criminals.
In the chapter when Bill Sikes learns of Nancy’s deeds he storms off to meet her however, he completely ignores Fagin’s shouts telling Bill Sikes to be “not to savage” however Bill completely ignores this and goes on to kill Nancy. As Bill Sikes is killing Nancy in the book he listens to her pleading and her cries for mercy as she begs for her life. She surrenders to Bill Sikes with the symbol of the white tissue and starts to pray and cry however, Bill Sikes completely ignores them and shows no mercy and kills her with three blows to the head.
It takes Bill Sikes three blows because rather than the two in the film because he is far more composed and he has come into the house with the intention to kill so he does it with no extra force or effort however in the film adaptation it takes Bill Sikes only two blows because he is far more furious and he came in why the intention to inflict pain so he kills her in two hits on the head. In the film adaptation Bill Sikes is portrayed to be less villainous as he shows regret at the end however his silence makes him more of a villain as people know what’s coming just the way Nancy knew.
As Bill Sikes entered the room with Nancy after he heard what Artful Dodger had he locked the door first and grabbed Nancy by the head. Nancy started to beg for her life and she started to cry however Bill Sikes was not hesitant in picking up the baton and killing her. During this whole time he was silent and all you could hear was Nancy’s begging and screaming. After the murder Bill Sikes says his first words which are “Get up”. These words are said in a remorseless and gruff tone as to show no sympathy for her.
After a few moments when there has been no movement from Nancy Bill Sikes starts to feel worried. Fear starts to creep in to his voice as his intonation changes and he realises that Nancy is dead. He feels upset and this can be seen by his facial reactions in the film adaptation and then the non-diegetic sympathetic music starts to play. Bill Sikes is presented as a villain in both the novel and the film adaptation however in the film he is regretting what he has done to Nancy which makes him less of a villain as there is a sense of guilt and remorse.
