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Chapter 24
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
Mr. Crummles tells Nicholas that he has a surprise for him. They’ll soon be receiving a magnificent actress from London who will perform with them. Nicholas is surprised when it turns out he knows the person. It’s Miss Henrietta Petowker, who Nicholas met at the Kenwigses’ anniversary party. Henrietta is also family friends with the Crummleses. When Henrietta arrives, she greets Nicholas like a long-lost friend. When talking with the Crummleses, she whispers to Nicholas that she no longer sees much of the Kenwigses. She also tells the Crummleses that she met Nicholas (who she calls Mr. Johnson) at the finest society gatherings in London.
This passage highlights again Nicholas’s penchant for making friends. Though he hardly knows Henrietta, she treats him like a long-lost friend presumably because of the impression he made on her at the Kenwigses’ party. At that party, Nicholas saved the Kenwigses’ child from being burned. Henrietta’s reaction to Nicholas here shows the admiration that Nicholas has earned for his heroic actions, suggesting that virtue can bring with it its own rewards.
Themes
That night, Nicholas and Henrietta act opposite one another for a brief scene. Nicholas thinks Henrietta is a striking actress, and he can’t help but realize that enormous applause for her comes from one booth in particular, which Henrietta frequently stares at. After the play, Nicholas meets the person who had been clapping for Henrietta. It’s Mr. Lillyvick, Mrs. Kenwigs’s uncle who collects water rates. He explains that he and Henrietta are actually in town to be married in secret.
While Nicholas’s time in Mr. Crummles’s theater company may seem like a digression from the central plot of the novel (which centers on the conflict between Nicholas and Ralph), it allows Dickens the opportunity to explore what it means for an actor to inhabit a role, suggesting parallels between acting and writing, as a writer must also embody different characters.
Themes
To keep the impending marriage a secret, Henrietta told her family she was going to visit friends, and Mr. Lillyvick said he would be traveling out of town. They’ll get married at the Crummleses’ house. He says they needed to do it in secret lest his family get jealous. Since he’s a bachelor who is almost 60 years old, his family has been counting down the days until they would inherit his money. They’ll no longer be able to count on that money once he marries Henrietta.
Mr. Lillyvick’s decision to marry Henrietta raises questions of familial loyalty, especially considering that Mr. Lillyvick is Mrs. Kenwigs’s uncle, just as Ralph is Kate and Nicholas’s uncle. The novel asks, does Mr. Lillyvick owe something to his extended family, or should he be intent on securing his own happiness, even if it potentially angers his family?
Themes
On the day of the marriage, Henrietta has doubts. Her bridesmaids, who are actors from the theater company, reassure her that she’s making the right choice, and she decides to go through with the wedding. At the wedding, Mr. Crummles plays the part of Henrietta’s father and sobs while walking her down the aisle. After the wedding, Mr. Folair makes a joke comparing getting married to hanging oneself with a noose. Mr. Lillyvick can’t believe what he’s heard and seems ready to fight Mr. Folair. Eventually, Mr. Folair apologizes, and the matter is settled.
Henrietta’s doubts about her marriage foreshadow events that will occur later in the novel. Mr. Crummles displays his theatrical and occasionally over-the-top nature, as he so fully commits to his role as Henrietta’s father that he begins to cry. Mr. Folair, who is the troupe’s leading comedic actor, reveals his tendency to put his foot in his mouth by making jokes that offend others.
Themes
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Since there’s no performance that night, Mr. Crummles wants to keep the party going. Nicholas, though, excuses himself to return to his lodgings because he’s still preparing to play Romeo the following night. He’s also worried about Smike, who has been unable to learn his lines to perform as the apothecary in the play. At their home, Smike suggests that perhaps if Nicholas reads each line to him out loud in small bits, he (Smike) might be able to memorize his lines. The method works, and the following night, both Nicholas and Smike are well-received by the audience.
Nicholas shows how devoted he is to Smike, as he sits with Smike for hours to help him learn his lines. The novel again suggests that virtue will often be met with approbation and brings with it its own rewards, as both Smike and Nicholas receive enthusiastic applause from the audience. That theme—that virtue will lead to good things in life—recurs throughout the novel.
Themes
