Nicholas Nickleby: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

[[Charles Dickens]]' third novel, originally written in serial form, is about a young upper-middle-class man forced to support his mother and sister after his father's death and financial ruin. Grudgingly assisted by his uncle, Ralph Nickleby, the title character Nicholas finds work as a teaching assistant at Dotheboys Hall, possibly the most famous [[Boarding School of Horrors]] in the history of literature, and struggles with the moral dilemma of keeping his livelihood vs. standing up to injustice. Meanwhile, his sister Kate, working as a milliner and lady's companion, faces her own challenges in the form of demanding employers, jealous co-workers and unwanted male attention. Like many other Dickens novels, this story centers on the social conflicts of the time, especially child abuse and harsh working conditions, and relies on satire to get the point across; Wackford Squeers, the headmaster, seems too outrageous to be true until one remembers that Dickens based him on a real life Yorkshire schoolmaster named William Shaw.

 

* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: Arthur Gride to Madeline Bray, since he's old, ugly, greedy and lecherous; Sir Mulberry Hawk to Kate, since he's a cad. Fanny Squeers to Nicholas, because she's ugly and the daughter of Wackford Squeers, who abuses the children in his care.

* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: Mrs. Nickleby, who can't keep on the same subject for more than two or three sentences.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Nicholas Nickleby]]

[[Category:Literature]]