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Chapter 21
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
Nicholas pays his last week of rent. He sets out on the road, walking with Smike. They aim to find employment outside of London. Newman walks with them for close to a mile until Nicholas finally convinces him to turn back. Nicholas promises to write him and keep him apprised of what happens to them. Once Newman departs, Nicholas tells Smike that they’ll go to Portsmouth, which is on the sea. If they can’t find employment there, then they’ll look for jobs on a ship. Smike insists on carrying their things because he wants to be of service to Nicholas. Nicholas asks Smike what he remembers of his life before going to Dotheboys Hall. Smike says he remembers the shadowy man who brought him to the school and the house where he lived before that. It was an old house, and he lived in the attic alone, even as a child.
Smike only has faint memories of his life before Dotheboys Hall. His description of that life, though, foreshadows events that will happen later in the novel regarding the house he describes and the shadowy man who brought him to the school. The fact that Nicholas is accompanied by Smike and that Newman initially walks with them shows again how easily Nicholas seems to make friends and how loyal those new friends are to him. Smike further displays his loyalty to Nicholas by insisting on carrying both of their things. Nicholas also shows that he has a plan for employment for both him and Smike.
Themes
Nicholas and Smike spend a night in a town called Godalming before setting out on the road again. The next day, they stop at a roadside inn 12 miles away from Portsmouth. At the inn, Nicholas asks the innkeeper what they might be able to have for dinner, but none of the items on the menu are inexpensive enough for Nicholas to afford. The innkeeper suggests they speak with another guest named Vincent Crummles, who has just ordered a dinner that will be more than he can eat alone. Nicholas is hesitant, but the innkeeper reassures him that Mr. Crummles won’t take it as an imposition.
Nicholas’s difficulty at the inn ordering food shows how dire Nicholas’s circumstances are. That makes the cost of Nicholas’s actions and his moral integrity abundantly clear. He could not, in an economic sense, afford to leave Dotheboys Hall or spurn his Uncle Ralph. With that in mind, this section makes clear that in the face of economic pressures and the threat of poverty, Nicholas insists on following his conscience.
Themes
Nicholas and Smike go to sit with Mr. Crummles. Nearby, Mr. Crummles’s sons theatrically fight with fake swords. Mr. Crummles explains that he’s the manager of a traveling theater troupe, and they’ll be opening a show in Portsmouth in the next few days. He remarks on Smike’s face and says that he would make a striking actor. Mr. Crummles then asks Nicholas why he’s going to Portsmouth, and Nicholas says they’re looking for jobs on a ship. Mr. Crummles says that no one worth their salt would hire Nicholas. Sailors have to be reared as sailors, and Nicholas was clearly raised as a gentleman.
Mr. Crummles’s comments to Nicholas about his prospective career as a sailor make it clear again that while Nicholas may have good intentions, he is not especially worldly and may, in some ways, be naïve. That reinforces the idea that the novel is a coming-of-age story, charting Nicholas’s path from idealistic but perhaps naïve youth to adulthood. The novel will then explore whether Nicholas’s idealism survives his transition into adulthood.
Themes
Nicholas is distraught. But Mr. Crummles says he can think of an alternate profession: the stage. Nicholas is shocked. He says that he’s not an actor. Mr. Crummles says that there is plenty of drama in Nicholas’s face and comedy in his walk. Besides, there is plenty of other work to do as well, including making signs to advertise the shows, and Smike would have a job too. He says that the work would pay one pound per week. Nicholas considers the alternative, which is dire poverty. Plus, if he did manage to find a job on a ship, his mother or sister might die while he was abroad, and what would he do then? After briefly deliberating, Nicholas enthusiastically accepts Mr. Crummles’s offer.
Nicholas again thinks of his family before making important life decisions, highlighting his tendency to put his family’s needs before his own. Mr. Crummles’s friendliness toward Nicholas and Smike also strikes a sharp contrast to the way that people like Ralph and Squeers have treated Nicholas and Smike. With that contrast in mind, the novel contends that there are people who genuinely care about others, including strangers who they have no connection to.
Themes
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