Previous
Chapter 23
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 next morning, two of the actors, Mr. Folair and Mr. Lenville, visit Nicholas. They talk to him about the play he’s translating. Mr. Folair implores Nicholas to give him a part where he’s not acting with Ninetta and to write a dance scene into the play. He then explains what the scene might be. Nicholas is happy to take their suggestions. He works on the play for the rest of the day. At night, he goes to the theater, where the troupe wears costumes for the play they’ll put on that night. There’s a sizeable crowd in the audience as well. Nicholas watches the play and is especially impressed by Miss Snevellicci.
The work atmosphere at the theater is strikingly different from the work atmosphere at Dotheboys Hall or for Kate at Madame Mantalini’s dress shop. At Dotheboys Hall and the dress shop, the incursion of coworkers would necessarily raise suspicions that their motivations might be self-interested in a way that could harm others. In this case, though, Mr. Folair and Mr. Lenville want good parts for themselves in the play, but they don’t seem to be malicious or hostile toward Nicholas.
Themes
After the play, Mr. Crummles says that he is planning to put on the play Nicholas is translating for Miss Snevellicci’s “bespeak” night. A bespeak night is when a person’s family and patrons pay for the play in advance. He then tells Nicholas that they often visit patrons to try and secure funds and invites Nicholas to take part in the effort the following day with Miss Snevellicci. Nicholas initially declines, but Mrs. Crummles and Miss Snevellicci eventually persuade him to go.
Like so much of the novel, this passage explores how money operates and what it means to have and not to have money. In this case, Dickens shows how the arts are often dependent on donors, which makes artists in some ways indebted to their often wealthy patrons. Dickens shows that wealth and commerce touch every realm, and there doesn’t seem to be any sphere, including art, that escapes their influence and impact.
Themes
The next morning, Nicholas goes to Miss Snevellicci’s house to meet her. At the house, while Nicholas is waiting, he reads various reviews scattered through the house attesting to Miss Snevellicci’s brilliance. When Miss Snevellicci comes out, she says that her friend—who she has been taking care of during an illness—must have left them out and remarks on her friend’s carelessness. Nicholas and Miss Snevellicci then make the rounds at various patrons’ houses. At the first house, Nicholas explains the new play he’s translating. A man at that house asks if Nicholas has preserved the “unities.” Nicholas says he isn’t sure what that is, and the man explains that it’s a sense of completeness when the storylines dovetail together by the end of an artistic work. Nicholas assures the man he has, and the man eventually decides to help fund the show.
The patron’s insistence on the “unities” shows how the interests and influence of wealthy patrons can impact art (or at least lead artists to pay lip service to those interests). In this case, the discussion of the “unities” is also a commentary on the novel itself. Nicholas Nickleby is often described as a picaresque novel in the sense that it follows an episodic structure (though Nicholas as a protagonist is more forthrightly honest than the roguish heroes who often appear in the genre). Because the novel is episodic, it seems to diverge from the pressure to present a unified whole, though it remains to be seen whether the end of the novel will bring all of the stories together and provide the sense of completeness the patron references.
Themes
Nicholas and Miss Snevellicci spend much of the rest of the day visiting various potential patrons at their houses until Nicholas goes to continue working on the play he’s translating. Within a week, they stage the first performance of the play. In addition to translating the play, Nicholas has a role in it too. On opening night, the play is received well enough. On the second night, though, people burst into rapturous applause when Miss Snevellicci takes the stage. That applause is only matched by the audience’s reaction to Nicholas, who they adore. At the end of the play, Nicholas and Miss Snevellicci take their bows together to the sound of thunderous applause.
One of Nicholas’s defining characteristics as a protagonist is that he seems to excel in every situation he finds himself. He’s not only honest and virtuous, but he seems to have talent in a variety of different areas and is a charismatic presence regardless of the circumstances. The audience’s reaction to him in the play makes it clear that that charisma is widely appreciated by a large group of people, not just his friends and those close to him.
Themes
Get the entire Nicholas Nickleby LitChart as a printable PDF.
