Summary
Introduction
Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1838-1839. Charles Dickens, a prominent English writer and social critic, wrote during the Victorian era, a time marked by rapid industrialization and stark social inequalities. The novel falls within the social realism genre, blending humor with serious social commentary. It tells the story of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must navigate a series of trials and injustices after his father's death. In the novel, Dickens exposes the harsh conditions of Yorkshire boarding schools and critiques the mistreatment of the vulnerable in society, reflecting the author's reformist zeal and deep concern for social justice.
Plot Summary
Nicholas' father dies suddenly after losing the family's fortune through a poor investment. This unexpected loss leaves Nicholas, his mother, and his sister, Kate, at the mercy of their estranged uncle, Ralph. Ralph instantly dislikes Nicholas and finds him poorly paid employment as a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, a private boarding school in Yorkshire presided over by Mr. Squeers. Kate is sent to work as a seamstress for a dressmaker called Madame Mantalini. As Nicholas prepares to depart, he is contacted privately by Newman Noggs, Ralph's clerk, offering help should he ever need it.
When he arrives at Dotheboys, Nicholas soon realizes that the school is a scam, with pupils being abused and starved. He soon takes an older boy, Smike, under his wing. Smike acts as Mr. Squeers' personal servant and is treated particularly cruelly. Mr. Squeers' daughter, Fanny, takes a fancy to Nicholas, and her persistent, unwanted advances prove to be a further source of stress and tension.
After running away, Smike is dragged back to Dotheboys Hall. When Mr. Squeers begins to flog Smike, Nicholas intervenes to defend the boy. Furious, Squeers strikes Nicholas, and Nicholas snaps, snatching the cane away from the schoolmaster and beating him with it. With the help of a friend called John Browdie, Nicholas sets off back to London, accompanied by Smike, who follows him when he leaves Dotheboys.
Kate is humiliated and frightened when Ralph invites her as the only female guest to an all-male party designed to win funding from the aristocrat Frederick Verisopht. Sir Mulberry Hawk makes a pass at Kate. Ralph comes to her defense and displays a surprising tenderness for her but implicitly threatens to withdraw his financial support from her family if she tells anyone what has happened. She also loses her job when Madame Mantalini goes bankrupt but finds alternative employment as a companion to an older woman, Mrs. Witterly.
When Nicholas returns to London, he tries to clarify the situation with his uncle, but Ralph is uncompromising. He threatens to withdraw all funding if Nicholas stays in London and informs him that Squeers is seeking to have him arrested.
Traveling to Portsmouth, Nicholas and Smike meet Vincent Crummles, who leads a theater group. Crummles employs Nicholas on the spot to translate and adapt French tragedies for his rather unskilled company of actors. Nicholas and Smike enjoy their time with the theater group, but they hurry home after receiving an urgent letter from Noggs about Kate's troubling situation with Uncle Ralph and Sir Mulberry Hawk.
In London, Nicholas overhears Hawk drunkenly proposing a disrespectful toast to his sister. He angrily confronts the aristocrat, and they begin fighting. When Hawk vows vengeance, a regretful Verisopht promises to try to help and challenges Hawk to a duel. Verisopht gets killed, and Hawk flees to France, causing Ralph significant financial loss. Nicholas writes to Ralph, refusing further financial assistance. He then finds employment with the kind-hearted twin brothers Charles and...
(This entire section contains 976 words.)
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Ned Cheeryble.
Ralph is confronted by a former employee, Brooker, who attempts to blackmail him.
Smike is kidnapped by Squeers but rescued by Browdie, who is in London on his honeymoon. Browdie sends Smike back to Nicholas, who is enormously grateful and invites the Browdies over to a dinner party. The party is interrupted by Squeers and Ralph, who seek to reacquire Smike with fake papers. They are sent away, but the threat of legal action continues to loom over Smike, having a detrimental effect on his physical and mental health.
Nicholas falls in love with Madeline Bray, the daughter of one of Ralph's debtors. The Cheeryble brothers try to help Madeline and her father by commissioning her artwork. Ralph enters into a conspiracy with Arthur Gride, who wishes to marry Madeline as he has discovered that she will become a wealthy heiress upon marriage. Gride pressurizes Madeline's dying father, Walter Bray, to make her marry him. When Nicholas intervenes to try to stop the wedding, the guilt-ridden Bray dies suddenly, and Madeline no longer feels obliged to go through with the wedding. Heartbroken and traumatized, she is taken in by Nicholas and Kate.
Smike has contracted Tuberculosis. Nicholas takes him to Devonshire, where he dies peacefully, becoming briefly agitated when he claims to see the man who took him to Dotheboys at the window. Nicholas dismisses the episode as a hallucination. Thanks to Noggs' intervention, the will of Madeline Bray's grandfather is recovered and Squeers is arrested. The Cheerybles summon Ralph to their office and inform him that Squeers intends to confess everything and that Smike is dead.
Brooker informs Ralph that Smike was actually his son, born to a wealthy heiress he had secretly married in the hope of securing his fortune. Brooker had taken Smike to Dotheboys to spite his employer. Ralph commits suicide, and his fortune goes to the state, as Nicholas and his family decline to claim it.
After Squeers is sentenced to transportation to Australia, the pupils at Dotheboys Hall rebel against the family with help from Browdie. Nicholas marries Madeline and becomes a partner in the Cheerybles firm. Kate marries Frank Cheerbyle. The whole family moves back to Devonshire, where they live happily together and regularly visit Smike's grave.