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Chapter 27
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 meeting Mulberry at the play, Kate cries through the night and is still distressed the next day. Meanwhile, her mother (Mrs. Nickleby) writes Kate a letter voicing her approval for choosing Mulberry as a suitor. She writes that Mulberry is exactly the type of man she would have chosen herself for a son-in-law. When Kate receives the letter, she becomes even more upset. Kate reads a book to Mrs. Wititterly, who tells Kate that she extended an invitation to the fine gentlemen she met the night before to visit. Kate asks if she’s expecting them that day. Just as Kate asks the question, she hears knocking at the door.
Kate’s tears show the impact of Mulberry’s harassment and stalking. The fact that Mulberry’s scheme worked and he secured an invitation to Mrs. Wititterly’s home is even more disheartening news for Kate. Notably, Kate becomes isolated at this point. It’s unclear who she can trust and turn to for help when both her mother and Mrs. Wititterly have been convinced to unwittingly go along with Mulberry’s nefarious plan.
Themes
Literary Devices
Frederick, Mulberry, Pluck, and Pyke are at the Wititterlys’ door. Kate attempts to excuse herself, but Mrs. Wititterly calls her back. During the visit, Mulberry fixes all of his attention on Kate, which makes Mrs. Wititterly jealous. She begins to wonder if Mulberry is as charming as she initially supposed. Mulberry is convinced that he will be able to seduce Kate, which, he believes, will raise his reputation among the licentious group of people he calls his friends.
Mulberry reveals his own motivations. In essence, he wants to “seduce” Kate to bolster his status among his licentious group of friends. That motivation shows the extent of Mulberry’s immorality and lack of consideration for others, as he terrorizes Kate and causes her extensive harm to try and sustain his fragile ego.
Themes
For a fortnight, Frederick, Mulberry, Pluck, and Pyke visit the Wititterly house each day. Every time they come, Kate is subjected to Mulberry’s crudeness and coarseness. Kate cannot bear it. Mrs. Wititterly seems to grow increasingly jealous of the attention Kate gets. When the men are gone, Mrs. Wititterly takes out her frustration on Kate by treating her poorly. To Kate, the situation seems impossible, and she has no time to herself for relief. After that fortnight, Mrs. Wititterly confronts Kate. She says she’s upset by how forward Kate is around the men who visit. Kate can’t believe what she’s hearing. She tells Mrs. Wititterly that she doesn’t understand how a woman can watch how those men act and think that Kate is somehow to blame. She says that Mrs. Wititterly’s accusations are unfounded.
Mrs. Wititterly’s reaction to Mulberry’s harassment of Kate comes from her feeling of being slighted by Mulberry because he pays attention to Kate. Mr. Wititterly’s assertion that Mrs. Wititterly’s soul is “too big for its body” then seems to mean that she is sensitive in a way that can cause her to unrightfully lash out at others, not that she is overly compassionate to other people. Notably, Mrs. Wititterly blames Kate for Mulberry’s offenses, suggesting that Mrs. Wititterly doesn’t confront Mulberry directly either because she doesn’t recognize what is happening and is oblivious, like Mrs. Nickleby, or because she knows what is happening but is morally cowardly, like Ralph.
Themes
Mrs. Wititterly becomes more and more agitated as Kate responds to her. Eventually, Mrs. Wititterly falls onto the couch and begins screaming. Mr. Wititterly comes out and asks Kate what she has done to his wife. He says that it’s her soul rearing up again. After that outburst, Kate doesn’t know where to turn. Her mother and the Wititterlys are convinced by the men’s charade. Only Ralph knows that Mulberry, Frederick, Pluck, and Pyke are reprehensible, so Kate goes to see him.
Kate, like Nicholas, stands up for herself when she is being unjustly and unrightfully persecuted. Notably, she stands up for herself against her employer, which puts her livelihood at risk, showing that she, like Nicholas, has the kind of moral integrity that supersedes material considerations.
Themes
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Kate rushes into Ralph’s office. She says shame on him for acquainting her with Mulberry and Frederick, subjecting her to their advances at his party, and failing to prevent them from continuing to see her. Ralph responds that Kate has a temper and must have some of her brother Nicholas in her. Kate says she hopes she does. She implores Ralph, as one of her only friends in the world, to intervene to stop the men from antagonizing and demeaning her. She says perhaps Ralph could speak to them. Ralph says he can’t risk offending people he’s in business with.
Kate also stands up to Ralph for his complicity in Mulberry’s harassment of her. Kate’s willingness to stand up to people in power puts Ralph’s unwillingness to stand up to Mulberry and Frederick in even starker relief. Ralph has much less to lose than Kate, but he is also much less willing to act, both because he is driven by his self-interest rather than concern for others and because he is cowardly and afraid of upsetting business associates.
Themes
Kate is appalled. She says she won’t tarnish Ralph’s reputation by quitting her job early, but as soon as her contract allows her to leave, she will. And after that, she’ll hide herself from Ralph and Mulberry, Frederick, Pluck, and Pyke. She’ll do any work she has to, even grueling manual labor, to be free from all of them. She leaves Ralph’s office. As she leaves, she runs into Newman, who commends her for confronting Ralph. Though Ralph declined to act on Kate’s behalf, once she leaves, he feels rage toward Mulberry, Frederick, Pluck, and Pyke. He says to himself that they’ll pay for what they’ve done. Meanwhile, in a different room, Newman punches the air over and over, imagining that he is beating Ralph to within an inch of his life.
Kate displays the same kind of unbending integrity as Nicholas. Even though she knows that standing up for what she believes is right will lead her down a materially difficult path, she refuses to stand by and tolerate harassment and injustice. Ralph, on the other hand, refuses to fully grapple with his complicity. Though he recognizes Mulberry, Frederick, Pluck, and Pyke’s actions as wrong, he doesn’t contend with how he paved the way for them to commit those wrongs in the first place or how his inaction enabled them to continue terrorizing Kate.
Themes
