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Chapter 54
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
When Kate and Nicholas bring Madeline back to the Nicklebys’ house, Mrs. Nickleby is reluctant to accept her. She also doesn’t understand why Kate and Nicholas interfered with the wedding. Kate and Nicholas try to explain the situation and why it was of utmost importance to stop the wedding, but Mrs. Nickleby continues to think it would have been better if they stayed out of the situation. Still, she lets Madeline stay in their home. After going through so much upheaval, Madeline is struck by a devastating illness that threatens both her “reason” and her life. Kate becomes Madeline’s caretaker and tries to nurse her back to health.
This passage is one of the examples when Mrs. Nickleby’s obliviousness isn’t meant to be humorous but instead impacts the primary stakes of the novel. In this case, both Kate and Nicholas have put themselves at considerable risk to extricate Madeline from a bad situation and ensure that fraud wasn’t allowed to pass by undetected when Arthur married Madeline. Mrs. Nickleby doesn’t seem to understand the importance or difficulty of what Kate and Nicholas have achieved and threatens to undo their efforts with her lack of awareness. Ultimately, though, Kate and Nicholas convince her that they are in the right.
Themes
Frank makes frequent visits to the house. Mrs. Nickleby eventually informs Nicholas that she is sure, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Frank has fallen desperately in love with Kate. Nicholas is shocked and also relieved. He had no clue Frank might be interested in Kate, as his jealousy had convinced him that Frank had feelings for Madeline. But Nicholas tells Mrs. Nickleby that she must discourage—or, at least, must refrain from encouraging—Frank’s feelings. Nicholas says that Kate has no dowry. If Frank falls for Kate and proposes to marry her, the Cheeryble Brothers might suspect the Nicklebys of taking advantage of Frank to try and exploit the Cheeryble family. Mrs. Nickleby agrees and says she won’t encourage Frank’s feelings.
This passage shows how much jealousy has distorted Nicholas’s sense of reality, as he thought Frank was in love with Madeline when he has actually been in love with Kate the whole time. Kate and Nicholas’s reasoning about why Kate must not encourage Frank’s feelings reinforces the role of money, wealth, and socioeconomic status in the novel. In this case, though Kate and Nicholas are both upstanding and honest people, their lack of money—a result of their father’s debts—means that they occupy a lower status than people like Frank and the Cheeryble brothers, which, in their eyes, makes them unfit for marriage to those of a higher status.
Themes
Around that same time, Smike becomes worrisomely ill. He becomes emaciated and looks exhausted. He can barely walk without help and bears the signs of “rapid consumption.” A doctor says that he won’t survive if he stays in London and that he should be taken to the country. Devonshire, where Nicholas was born and raised, is the most favorable place to go. But, the doctor warns, Smike is so far gone that he might not return alive. Nicholas and Smike leave for Devonshire together. As they set off, Smike asks about Kate. Nicholas tells him that she’s waving to them and assures Smike that he and Kate will meet again. Smike prays that that is true. His prayer sounds like it comes from someone with a broken heart.
Consumption is the name that was once used for tuberculosis, which has been a widespread public health issue for centuries, especially before a vaccine was developed. For example, at the turn of the 20th century, tuberculosis (or consumption) was the leading cause of death in the United States. Consumption in the early to mid-1800s, when the novel takes place, was therefore life-threatening, and Smike is in a decidedly dire situation. A vaccine wasn’t developed until 1906.
Themes
