Nicholas Nickleby


Nicholas Nickleby, or The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, is the third novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839. The character of Nickleby is a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies.

Background

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family saw Dickens return to his favourite publishers and to the format that proved so successful with The Pickwick Papers. The story first appeared in monthly parts, after which it was issued in one volume. Dickens began writing Nickleby while still working on Oliver Twist.

Plot

Following the death of his father, Nicholas Nickleby, his mother, and sister Kate are left destitute and seek help from their wealthy, cold-hearted uncle Ralph Nickleby in London. Ralph despises Nicholas and secures him a teaching position at Dotheboys Hall, a Yorkshire boarding school run by the cruel Wackford Squeers, who abuses and starves his pupils. Nicholas befriends Smike, a mistreated servant boy, but flees after violently defending Smike from Squeers. The pair escape to London, aided by the sympathetic John Browdie.
Meanwhile, Ralph forces Kate and her mother into squalid lodgings and manipulates Kate into working for a milliner, where she endures humiliation. Ralph further exploits Kate by parading her before his dissolute associates, including Sir Mulberry Hawk, who harasses her. When Kate resists, Ralph threatens to withdraw support.
In London, Nicholas, aided by Ralph’s clerk Newman Noggs, confronts his uncle over false accusations from Squeers’ daughter Fanny. Ralph disowns them, prompting Nicholas to leave with Smike. They join Vincent Crummles’ theatrical troupe, achieving temporary success. Meanwhile, Kate, fired after a workplace rivalry, becomes a companion to socialite Mrs. Wittiterly but faces further harassment from Hawk. Noggs alerts Nicholas, who returns to protect Kate.
Nicholas thwarts Hawk’s advances, leading to a carriage accident that injures Hawk. Ralph loses money owed by Verisopht, intensifying his vendetta. Nicholas secures employment with the benevolent Cheeryble brothers, who house the family. Smike, now ill, is targeted by Squeers and Ralph, who conspire to kidnap him, but Smike is rescued by Browdie.
Nicholas falls for Madeline Bray, a penniless artist unknowingly ensnared in Ralph’s scheme. Ralph and miser Arthur Gride plot to force Madeline into marrying Gride to claim her inheritance. Nicholas intervenes, and Madeline’s father dies repentant, nullifying the marriage.
Smike, revealed to be Ralph’s estranged son through the confession of Ralph’s former clerk Brooker, succumbs to tuberculosis. Grief-stricken and confronted by his role in Smike’s suffering, Ralph commits suicide. Squeers is arrested and transported to Australia, while Dotheboys Hall is abandoned.
The Nicklebys, now prosperous, return to Devonshire. Nicholas marries Madeline; Kate weds the Cheerybles’ nephew Frank. The family mourns Smike but finds contentment, supported by allies like Noggs and Miss La Creevy. Ralph’s fortune is forfeited, and justice prevails for the exploited.

Major characters

As in most of Dickens's works, there is a sprawling number of characters in the book. The major characters in Nicholas Nickleby include:

The Nickleby family

  • Nicholas Nickleby: The hero of the novel. His father has died and left Nicholas and his family penniless. Nicholas is honest and steadfast, but his youth and inexperience of the world can lead him to be violent, naïve, and emotional. In his preface to the novel, Dickens writes, "There is only one other point, on which I would desire to offer a remark. If Nicholas be not always found to be blameless or agreeable, he is not always intended to appear so. He is a young man of an impetuous temper and of little or no experience; and I saw no reason why such a hero should be lifted out of nature." He devotes himself primarily to his friends and family and fiercely defies those who wrong the ones he loves.
  • Ralph Nickleby: The book's principal antagonist, Nicholas's uncle. He seems to care about nothing but money and takes an immediate dislike to the idealistic Nicholas; however, he does harbour something of a soft spot for Kate. Ralph's anger at Nicholas's beating of Wackford Squeers leads to a serious rift with his nephew, and after Nicholas interferes with his machinations several more times, Ralph schemes to deliberately hurt and humiliate Nicholas; 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. He dies without a will, and his family refuses to take his property, so his hard-earned fortune is taken by the Crown and lost.
  • Catherine "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. Catherine Nickleby: Nicholas and Kate's mother, who provides much of the novel's comic relief. The muddleheaded Mrs. Nickleby often does not see the true evil her children encounter until it is directly pointed out to her, and her obtuseness occasionally worsens her children's predicaments. 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.

    Associates of Ralph Nickleby

  • Newman Noggs: Ralph's clerk, who becomes Nicholas's devoted friend. He was once a gentleman but lost his money and 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 behaviour.
  • Sir Mulberry Hawk: A lecherous nobleman who has taken Lord Verisopht under his wing. One of the most truly evil characters in the novel, he forces himself upon Kate and pursues her solely to humiliate her after she rejects him. He is beaten by Nicholas, and swears revenge, but is prevented in this by Lord Verisopht. He kills Verisopht in a duel and must flee to France, putting a stop to his plans of revenge. He lives abroad in luxury until he runs out of money, and eventually returns to England and dies in debtors' prison.
  • Lord Frederick Verisopht: Hawk's friend and dupe, a rich young nobleman. He owes both Ralph and Sir Mulberry vast sums of money. He becomes infatuated with Kate and is manipulated by Hawk into finding her whereabouts. After Nicholas confronts them in a coffeehouse, Lord Frederick realises the shame of his behaviour and threatens Hawk if he attempts retaliation for the injuries Nicholas caused him. This quarrel eventually leads to a physical fight, which results in a duel in which Lord Frederick is killed.
  • Mr Pluck and Mr Pyke: Hangers-on to Hawk and Verisopht. They are never seen apart and are quite indistinguishable from one another. Pluck and Pyke are intelligent, sly and dapper, perfect tools to do Hawk's dirty work for him.
  • Arthur Gride: An elderly associate of Ralph. A miser, he lives in a large, empty house extremely frugally, despite his vast wealth. He gains possession of the will of Madeline's grandfather, and attempts to cheat her out of her fortune by marrying her. He is cowardly, servile and greedy, with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. He alone among Ralph's conspirators escapes legal punishment, but he is eventually murdered by burglars, who have heard rumours of his vast wealth.
  • Peg Sliderskew: Gride's elderly housekeeper. Illiterate, very deaf, and becoming senile, she ends up playing a large part in the denouement when she steals a number of papers from Gride, including Madeline's grandfather's will.
  • Brooker: An old beggar. A mysterious figure who appears several times during the novel. We eventually find out that he was formerly Ralph's clerk. He was responsible for bringing Ralph's son to Dotheboys Hall. An ex-convict, he returns to extort money from Ralph with the information that his son is alive. When that fails, he goes to Noggs, and eventually brings his story to light. In the epilogue, it is mentioned that he dies repentant of his crimes.

    Yorkshire

  • Smike: A poor drudge living in Squeers's "care". About 18 years old, Smike is a pathetic figure, perpetually ill and dim-witted, who has been in Squeers's care since he was very young. Nicholas gives him the courage to run away, but when that fails Nicholas saves him and the two become travelling companions and close friends. He falls in love with Kate, but his heart is broken when she falls in love with Frank Cheeryble. After Smike dies peacefully of "a dread disease", it is revealed that he is Ralph Nickleby's son, and thus first cousin to Nicholas and to Kate.
  • Wackford Squeers: A cruel, one-eyed, Yorkshire "schoolmaster". He runs Dotheboys Hall, a boarding school for unwanted children. He mistreats the boys horribly, starving them and beating them regularly. When Nicholas attempts to prevent his flogging Smike, fisticuffs ensue, and Nicholas severely beats him. 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 obfuscate the will that would make Madeline Bray an heiress. He is arrested during the last of these tasks and sentenced to be transported to Australia.
  • Mrs Squeers: is even more cruel and less affectionate than her husband to the boys in their care. She dislikes Nicholas on sight and attempts to make his life at Dotheboys Hall as difficult as possible.
  • Fanny Squeers: The Squeers' daughter. She is 23, unattractive, ill-tempered, and eager to find a husband. She falls in love with Nicholas until he bluntly rebuffs her affections, which causes her to antagonise him passionately and openly. Tilda Price is her best friend but the relationship is strained by Fanny's pride and spitefulness. She is haughty, self-important and is deluded about her beauty and station.
  • Young Wackford Squeers: The Squeers' loutish son. His parents dote on him and he is very fat as a result of their spoiling him. He is preoccupied with filling his belly as often as he can and bullying his father's boys, to his father's great pride. When the boys revolt, they dip his head several times in a bowl of the disgusting brimstone and treacle "remedy" that they are regularly force-fed as a punishment.
  • John Browdie: A bluff Yorkshire corn merchant, with a loud, boisterous sense of humour. At the start of the novel he is engaged to Tilda Price and marries her about halfway through the book. Although he and Nicholas get off on the wrong foot, they become good friends when John helps Nicholas escape from Yorkshire. He later comes to London on his honeymoon and rescues Smike from Squeers' captivity, proving himself a resourceful and intelligent ally.
  • Matilda "Tilda" Price : Fanny's best friend and Browdie's fiancée. A pretty miller's daughter of 18, Tilda puts up with Fanny's pettiness because of their childhood friendship but later breaks off their friendship after she realises the extent of Fanny's selfishness. She is rather coquettish but settles down happily with John Browdie.
  • Phib : The Squeers' housemaid, who is forced to endure Mrs Squeers' foul temper and Fanny's scorn in order to keep her job. She flatters Fanny to keep her in good humour. She is described as hungry.