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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nicholas Nickleby, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Greed and Selfishness
Power and Abuse
Altruism and Humility
Family and Loyalty
Injustice, Complicity, and Moral Integrity
Summary
Analysis
The rest of Kate’s week is unbearable, as Miss Knag and the other women waste no opportunity to antagonize her. Kate counts down the days until Saturday, when her weekend will begin. When Kate leaves work on Saturday, she finds her mother (Mrs. Nickleby) speaking with her uncle Ralph. Ralph wants Kate to come the next day to a business dinner he is hosting to help him entertain his guests. Kate says that she’s afraid that Ralph will find her awkward but says that she’ll accept his invitation. Mrs. Nickleby wishes she still had jewelry that Kate could wear and bemoans the fact that Nicholas Sr. lost all of it to creditors.
Kate’s experience at the dress shop mirrors Nicholas’s experience at Dotheboys Hall. In both cases, Kate and Nicholas went into the situation attempting to make the best of it, but both were met with unmitigated and unearned hostility. It remains to be seen if Ralph’s invitation to dinner comes from the seemingly genuine affection he has for Kate or whether he has other motives for inviting her.
Themes
When Kate arrives at the party, she’s surprised by the lavish furnishings and the conspicuous wealth on display. The guests of the party are all men. Kate notices the contempt with which they treat her uncle Ralph, and she thinks the way they treat her is an extension of that contempt. They talk to her coarsely, ogle her, and talk about who might win her affection. After dinner, one of the men, Mulberry Hawk, bets the others that Kate wouldn’t be able to look him in the eyes and say that she isn’t wondering why one of the men hasn’t slept with her yet. Kate is appalled. She pulls Ralph aside and pleads with him to put an end to the bet. Ralph tells her that it’s all in good fun, but she thinks that he also seems uncomfortable.
Kate’s assessment of the party paints Ralph in a different light. While Ralph has previously seemed wealthy and powerful, the party reveals that he holds a relatively low status in his particular socioeconomic sphere. Ralph also shows his lack of moral integrity in this passage. Though he recognizes Mulberry’s conduct as inappropriate, and though he seems to genuinely like his niece Kate, he is unwilling and perhaps afraid to speak to Mulberry to put an end to his behavior.
Themes
Kate leaves the room and goes upstairs to read. She begins to regain some of her composure while she becomes lost in the book. She hears the sounds of revelry coming from downstairs. When she looks up, she sees Mulberry sitting close to her. He begins talking to her, and Kate asks him to leave. He says he won’t. When she gets up to leave, Mulberry grabs her. Kate struggles, and Mulberry tries to force her back onto the couch before he loses his balance and falls. Ralph comes up the stairs and asks what’s happening.
Mulberry’s inappropriate behavior escalates, as he physically accosts Kate. That escalation shows the consequences of Ralph’s inaction. In that sense, the novel shows the impacts of silence and complicity. Instead of putting a stop to Mulberry’s inappropriate behavior, Ralph’s silence allowed it to continue and to become worse.
Themes
Kate says that it’s exactly what it looks like. Mulberry accosted her, and she tried to get free. Ralph tells Mulberry to leave. Mulberry snarls at Ralph and asks if Kate is at the party for Lord Frederick. Mulberry then claims that Ralph invited Kate to try and get Frederick’s attention and, as a result, enlist Frederick as one of his clients. Ralph doesn’t deny it, but, he says, Frederick would never treat Kate the way that Mulberry treated her. Mulberry then leaves.
While Ralph finally stands up for Kate and tells Mulberry to leave, Ralph also reveals his moral vacuity. He invited Kate to the party not because he wanted her there for the sake of her company but because he sought to use her to try and get an in with an especially alluring client. That shows that, unlike Nicholas, Ralph is not moved by feelings of loyalty toward his family. Instead, he is willing to lie to and exploit his family if it brings him closer to getting what he wants.
Themes
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Kate asks Ralph why he subjected her to that kind of treatment. Ralph says he didn’t know something like this would happen. Kate says she wants to leave, and Ralph says that she must stop crying, lest the other guests see her and know that something is wrong. Ralph says that what happened must stay between the two of them. When Kate has stopped crying, Ralph walks her to a carriage. As Kate gets into the carriage, Ralph thinks that she is the spitting image of her father (Nicholas Sr.), and Ralph feels like he has seen a ghost.
Ralph’s vision of Nicholas Sr. when he looks at Kate represents the pang of Ralph’s conscience. At this point, he knows that he has done wrong and seems to know that by exploiting Kate he has betrayed the legacy of his brother. It remains to be seen, though, whether the pangs of conscience will impel Ralph to consider reforming or whether Ralph will continue down the same path.
Themes
