Boy Lazy Showroom
Boy Lazy Showroom
Nicholas Nickleby ; or, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is a comic novel by Charles Dickens. Originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839, it was Dickens' third novel.
The lengthy novel centres around the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies. His Uncle Ralph, who thinks Nicholas will never amount to anything, plays the role of an antagonist.
Background
Nickleby is Dickens' third published novel. He returned to his favourite publishers and to the format that was so successful with The Pickwick Papers . The story first appeared in monthly parts, after which it was issued in one volume. The style is episodic and humorous. Dickens began writing 'Nickleby' while still working on Oliver Twist and while the mood is indeed lighter, his depiction of the Yorkshire school run by Wackford Squeers is as moving and influential as had been the workhouse and criminal underclass in Twist .
'Nickleby' marks a new development in a further sense as it is the first of Dickens' romances. When it was published the book was an immediate and complete success, and established Dickens's lasting reputation.
Major themes
Like many of Dickens' works, the novel has a contemporary setting. Much of the action takes place in London, with several chapters taking place in Dickens' birthplace of Portsmouth, as well as settings in Yorkshire and Devon.
The tone of the work is that of ironic social satire, with Dickens taking aim at what he perceives to be social injustices. Many memorable characters are introduced, including Nicholas' malevolent uncle Ralph, and the villainous Wackford Squeers, who operates an extremely abusive all-boys boarding school at which Nicholas temporarily serves as a tutor.
Major characters
As in most of Dickens’ works, there is a sprawling number of characters in the book. The major characters in Nicholas Nickleby include:
- Nicholas Nickleby The hero of the novel. His father has died and left Nicholas and his family penniless. Nicholas is not a typical hero: he can be violent, naïve, and emotional. But he devotes himself primarily to his friends and family and fiercely defies those who wrong the ones he loves.
- Ralph Nickleby The book’s major antagonist, Nicholas’s uncle. He seems to care about nothing but money and takes an immediate dislike to the idealistic Nicholas. But, as gruff as he is, he harbours something of a soft spot for Kate. Ralph’s anger at Nicholas’s beating of Wackford Squeers leads to a vow to destroy the younger man, but the only man Ralph ends up destroying is himself. When it is revealed that Smike was his son, and that the boy died hating him, he takes his own life.
- Kate Nickleby Nicholas's younger sister. Kate is a fairly passive character, typical of Dickensian women, but she shares some of her brother’s fortitude and strong will. She does not blanch at hard labour to earn her keep and defends herself against the lecherous Sir Mulberry Hawk. She finds well-deserved happiness with Frank Cheeryble.
- Mrs. Nickleby Nicholas and Kate’s mother, who provides much of the novel’s comic relief. The muddleheaded Mrs. Nickleby does not see the true evil her children encounter until it is directly pointed out to her. She is stubborn, prone to long digressions on irrelevant or unimportant topics and unrealistic fantasies, and displays an often vague grasp of what is going on around her.
- Smike A poor drudge living in Squeers’ "care". Smike is a pathetic figure, perpetually ill and a cripple, who has been in Squeers’ care since he was very young. Nicholas gives him the courage to run away, but when that fails Nicholas saves him again and he latches himself on to his protector. He falls in love with Kate, but his heart is broken when she falls in love with Frank Cheeryble. After Smike dies of "a dread disease " (tuberculosis), it is revealed that he is Ralph Nickleby’s son.
- Newman Noggs : Ralph’s clerk, who becomes Nicholas’s closest friend. He was once a businessman of high standing but went bankrupt. He is an alcoholic, and his general good nature and insight into human nature is hidden under a veneer of irrational tics and erratic behavior.
- Miss La Creevy : The Nicklebys' landlady. A plump, kindly woman in her fifties, she is a miniature-portrait painter. She is the first friend the Nicklebys make in London, and one of the truest. She is rewarded for her good-heartedness when she falls in love with Tim Linkinwater.
- Wackford Squeers : A cruel, one-eyed, Yorkshire schoolmaster. He runs "Dotheboys Hall", a place where unwanted children can be sent away. He mistreats the boys horribly, whipping them regularly. He gets his comeuppance at the hands of Nicholas when he is beaten in retaliation for the whipping of Smike. He travels to London after he recovers and partakes in more bad business, fulfilling his grudge against Nicholas by becoming a close partner in Ralph’s schemes to fake Smike’s parentage and later to hide the will of Madeline Bray. He is arrested during the last of these tasks and sentenced to transportation to Australia.
- Mr. Snawley An oil merchant who puts his two stepsons in Squeers' "care". He pretends to be Smike’s father to help Squeers get back at Nicholas but cracks under the pressure and eventually confesses to the police. He is arrested.
- Mrs. Squeers Squeers' formidable wife. If possible, she is even more cruel and less affectionate than her husband to the boys in their care.
- Fanny Squeers The Squeers’ daughter. She is 23 and is beginning to feel the pressure to find a man to settle down with. She falls in love with Nicholas until he bluntly rebuffs her affections, at which point she begins to hate him. Tilda Price (later Browdie) is her best friend, but the relationship is strained by Fanny’s pride and spitefulness. She is full of bluster and is under severe delusions about her own beauty and station.
- Young Wackford Squeers The Squeers' loutish, piggy son. He is mainly preoccupied with filling his belly as often as he can and bullying his father’s boys, to his father’s great joy.
- John Browdie A bluff Yorkshireman, Tilda’s fiancé, later her husband. Although he and Nicholas get off on the wrong foot, they become good friends when John helps Nicholas escape from Yorkshire. He later rescues Smike from Squeers again, proving himself a good and intelligent man. He is not, however, well-schooled in manners and has a rough and boisterous air.
- Matilda Price (Browdie) Fanny’s best friend and Browdie’s fiancée; she goes by the name of Tilda. A pretty girl of 18, she puts up with Fanny’s pettiness because of their childhood friendship, but later breaks with her. She is rather coquettish, but settles down happily with John Browdie.
- Mr. and Mrs. Mantalini Milliners, Kate’s employers. Mr. Mantalini (real name Alfred Muntle) is a handsome man, with a fine moustache but foul mouth, who lives off his wife. He is not above stealing from his wife and threatens to dramatically kill himself when he does not get his way. Mrs. Mantalini is much older than her husband and equally prone to dramatics. She eventually gets wise and leaves him, but not until he has ruined her with extravagant spending and she is forced to sell the business to Miss Knag. Mr. Mantalini is seen again at the end of the book living in much reduced circumstances, romantically tied to a washerwoman, but still up to his old tricks.
- Miss Knag Mrs. Mantalini’s right-hand woman and leader of the showroom forces. Miss Knag is a lady of considerable years, but is under the impression that she is a raving beauty. When Kate begins her employment with the Mantalinis, Miss Knag is quite kind to her, but when her age is insulted by a disgruntled customer who prefers Kate, she blames Kate and begins to treat her quite shabbily. She takes over the business when the Mantalinis go bankrupt, but fires Kate. A spinster, she lives with her brother Mortimer, a failed novelist.
- The Kenwigs Family Newman Nogg’s neighbours. Mr. and Mrs. Kenwigs are dependent on the latter’s wealthy uncle Mr. Lillyvick, and everything they do is designed to please him so he will not write their children (including their baby, named Lillyvick) out of his will. Their daughter Morleena, is an awkward child of 7.
- Mr. Lillyvick Mrs. Kenwig’s uncle, a collector of the water rate, a position which gives him great importance among his poor relatives. He falls in love with Miss Petowker, and marries her to the Kenwigs' great distress. But when she elopes with another man, he comes back to his family a sadder but wiser man.
- Henrietta Petowker of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. A minor actress with a prestigious company, though a major star with the somewhat less stellar Crummles troop. Mrs. Crummles' protégée. She marries Mr. Lillyvick after meeting him at the Kenwig’s wedding anniversary, but leaves him very quickly.
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Sir Mulberry Hawk
is a lecherous nobleman and money-lender, who has taken Lord Verisopht under his wing. One of the most truly evil characters in the novel, he forces himself upon Kate and behaves in a thoroughly abhorrent manner. He is beaten by Nicholas, and
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