Previous
Chapter 39
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
Smike runs away from Squeers and Mr. Snawley’s house so fast that he’s not sure exactly where he’s going. Eventually, though, he makes his way to Newman’s apartment. When he arrives, Newman lets out a shout of surprised joy. He tells Smike that he, Nicholas, and Kate have been searching around the clock for him. Smike is especially moved that Kate has been concerned about him. Smike then relays the story of what happened to Newman. Newman says he’ll go to the Nicklebys' cottage to inform them that Smike has returned, but Smike says he wants to go home immediately. Everyone is overjoyed when Smike returns. Initially, Nicholas believes that perhaps Ralph was involved in the kidnapping, but upon further reflection, he decides that perhaps Squeers alone is to blame.
While Squeers has acted alone, Smike has several people looking for him, and John has helped him escape. Through that contrast, the novel pits collective power (represented by the community of people who search for Smike and are concerned for his well-being) against the oppressive power of a single individual (represented by Squeers). Ultimately, the novel suggests that collective action is more powerful than the abusive brute force of a single actor. Smike’s excitement that Kate has been looking for him again suggests that he has romantic feelings for Kate.
Themes
The next day at work, Nicholas goes into Charles’s office to leave something on his desk. When Nicholas enters, he sees that Charles isn’t alone. A woman kneels at his feet. Charles beseeches her to rise. Nicholas is surprised to see that it’s the same woman who caught his attention when he went to the employment agency on the day he met Charles. Beside the woman sits her servant. Charles continues to ask the woman to rise to her feet and says they’re not alone. The woman faints. Ned comes rushing when Charles calls out in alarm, and Tim follows. Nicholas is ushered from the room, and they lock the door when he leaves. When Nicholas later asks Tim if the woman is okay, Tim responds evasively. When Nicholas tries to bring the subject up the next day, Tim becomes taciturn.
There is intrigue and secrecy surrounding the woman who Nicholas sees in Charles’s office, though Nicholas doesn’t know what the secrecy is about. The scene is portrayed with a degree of suspense. It poses the question of whether there might be something darker or untoward underlying the Cheeryble brothers’ apparently limitless generosity and benevolence. Or, perhaps the Cheeryble brothers’ relationship with the woman will serve to further highlight their generosity. The lack of an immediate answer to that question adds to the suspense.
Themes
The woman doesn’t return to the office. But, a few days later, her servant comes back late in the evening. She comes back each day at the same hour after that. Nicholas asks Newman to follow the woman’s servant to try and find out who the woman is. Newman follows her and comes back to Nicholas with news. He says that the woman is named Miss Cecilia Bobster, and he’s arranged for Nicholas to meet her in secret. He says he told Cecilia that Nicholas loves her “to distraction.”
Nicholas puts in place a plan, or scheme, of his own to try and figure out who the woman is and why she has been visiting the Cheeryble brothers. Nicholas’s scheme again highlights the idea that strategic thinking and planning can benefit people with good intentions just as much as those with bad intentions.
Themes
Newman hasn’t found any further information about Cecilia’s business dealings with the Cheeryble Brothers. But he has learned that Cecilia is an only child. Her mother died, and she now lives with her father, who is cruel and has a violent temper. Newman takes Nicholas to Cecilia’s house on the night they have arranged to meet in secret. Newman and Nicholas go down into the basement. Not long after, Nicholas hears a woman’s voice asking if he’s there. He says yes, and the woman ignites a light. She is accompanied by a servant.
Thanks to Newman’s work, Nicholas expects to finally get some information about the woman he first saw in the employment agency and then later in Charles’s office. Newman’s description of Cecilia makes it seem like she is in dire straits. The secretive meeting reinforces the sense of intrigue surrounding the woman, which compounds the suspense that Dickens has been building since Nicholas saw the woman in Charles’s office.
Themes
Get the entire Nicholas Nickleby LitChart as a printable PDF.
Just then, they hear a loud knocking at the door. Newman exclaims that Cecilia’s father has returned. The scene descends into confusion, and Cecilia says they’ve made a terrible mistake. Nicholas and Newman sneak out the gate just as the father goes in the side door. Once they leave, Newman says that it didn’t go well, but there is always next time. Nicholas thanks Newman for all of his work and says there’s only one issue: it’s the wrong person. And the wrong servant, too. Cecilia isn’t the person he was looking for. Nicholas says Newman must have followed the wrong person. When Nicholas returns home, he thinks the woman he is enamored of is as far away as ever.
Dickens ends the suspenseful chapter on an anticlimactic note that is meant to be read as comic when Nicholas reveals that Newman followed and got information about the wrong person. While Newman’s mistake is played in part for laughs, Nicholas’s dejection at missing an opportunity to meet the woman he has been thinking about makes it clear that Nicholas feels that something is missing in his life, and he hopes that meeting the woman will help alleviate that sense of emptiness.
Themes
