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Chapter 20
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
After what happened with Mulberry, Kate doesn’t go to work for three days. When she returns, Miss Knag continues to disparage her, and she is ostracized by the other women who work at the dressmaker’s. Madame Mantalini calls Kate upstairs so Kate can help set up the showroom. Kate notices something is amiss with Madame Mantalini and asks her what’s wrong. Madame Mantalini says she is worried but doesn’t say about what. Mr. Mantalini comes to speak to her. Kate overhears Madame Mantalini telling Mr. Mantalini that his latest extravagance will ruin them. Mr. Mantalini reassures her that they can just borrow more money from Ralph.
Mr. Mantalini reveals that he has been able to live his extravagant lifestyle by going into debt to Ralph. That also makes it clear how Ralph secured a job for Kate at Madame Mantalini’s dress shop. When people are in debt to Ralph, he wields power over them, which he then uses to get what he wants. That approach again differs starkly from the model represented by characters like Nicholas and Newman, who rely on friendship and loyalty, instead of threats and extortion, to get things done.
Themes
Two men then enter the dress shop. At first, Kate thinks they might be trying to rob the store. One of the men hands a card to Kate and tells her to pass it along to Mr. Mantalini. When Madame Mantalini arrives, they hand her a letter, which says that they are legally authorized to seize her inventory due to outstanding debts. Mr. Mantalini appears, and Madame Mantalini says that it’s all his fault. Mr. Mantalini rushes upstairs. Kate and Madame Mantalini follow and find him with his shirt collar undone as he sharpens a kitchen knife with his razor strop. Madame Mantalini says she didn’t mean what she said before and that they’re both equally to blame for the debt. Mr. Mantalini asks for poison and begs someone to “blow his brains out.” Eventually, he breaks down in tears.
Mr. Mantalini’s debts catch up to him. The creditors’ seizure of Madame Mantalini’s inventory echoes the initial catalyst of the novel, when Nicholas Sr. loses the family’s money, and creditors threaten to arrive at any moment to take the family’s furniture. Dickens points out how the irresponsible actions of a single person—be it Mr. Mantalini or Nicholas Sr.—can impact countless others. Mr. Mantalini threatens to kill himself as a result, which causes Madame Mantalini to take partial responsibility for what appears to be the result solely of Mr. Mantalini’s actions.
Themes
Madame Mantalini tells the women who work for her that they will be laid off until further notice. Three days later, Kate learns that Madame Mantalini has declared bankruptcy. Miss Knag will take over running the shop, and Kate won’t be rehired. When Kate tells Mrs. Nickleby what has happened, Mrs. Nickleby tells her that she saw an ad in the paper for an older woman looking for a companion (or a kind of servant). Mrs. Nickleby thinks Kate would be well-suited for the position.
Kate is fired from the dress shop once Miss Knag comes into power, reinforcing the novel’s arguments about how people in power often unjustly wield their authority. Though Kate has done nothing wrong and is forthright, honest, and hardworking, Miss Knag fires her because she feels threatened by Kate.
Themes
Kate and Mrs. Nickleby go to the home of the woman looking for a companion (or servant), whose name is Mrs. Wititterly. Mrs. Wititterly interviews Kate and then brings in her husband, Mr. Wititterly, to talk to Kate. The couple seems wealthy, and Mr. Wititterly informs Kate and Mrs. Nickleby that Mrs. Wititterly’s soul is “too big for its body.” She says that doctors frequently examine her and that is their official diagnosis. As a result, her companion will have to have a surfeit of sympathy and compassion to match Mrs. Wititterly. Mrs. Wititterly decides that she likes Kate and checks her references. Within a week, Kate learns that she has been offered the position. She moves into the Wititterlys’ home.
Mr. Wititterly’s comment that Mrs. Wititterly’s “soul is too big for its body” seems to suggest that Mrs. Wititterly feels so much compassion for others that it is occasionally overwhelming. It remains to be seen whether that is a euphemism for a kind of anxiety or whether it is, like other cases in the novel, an example of people loudly proclaiming their own virtue, while in reality, they use those claims of virtue to obscure the true, selfish motivations for their actions.
Themes
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