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Chapter 63
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
Nicholas wants to share his good fortunes with his friend John. On several occasions, he sits down with Madeline to try and write a letter but finds himself unable to complete it. He decides to travel to Yorkshire to see John. He goes with Kate to schedule the coach ride. After Nicholas schedules the ride for the following day, he and Kate get turned around on the London streets. They hear a couple fighting, and Kate tells Nicholas that it’s the Mantalinis. They listen and hear Madame Mantalini cursing Mr. Mantalini. She has recently bailed him out of jail, but he seems to have gone back to his old ways. Mr. Mantalini assures Madame Mantalini that he’ll change. Nicholas interrupts the fight by asking for directions. The Mantalinis recognize Kate but continue fighting. Madame Mantalini throws a laundry basket at Mr. Mantalini’s head. Nicholas and Kate then leave.
The novel begins to wrap up its storylines. In this case, it ends Madame Mantalini and Mr. Mantalini’s storyline by showing that Madame Mantalini did not split from Mr. Mantalini for good and continues to be plagued by his manipulations and bad decisions. The novel leaves their relationship on that note, not to suggest that Mr. Mantalini is incapable of reform, but to show the damage that people who only think of themselves can cause, as Madame Mantalini seems to have had to sacrifice her life completely to answer and cover for her husband’s debts and misdeeds.
Themes
The next day, Nicholas travels to Yorkshire. During the trip, Nicholas remembers the first time he made the journey. When he arrives, he tells John and Matilda all of the developments that have happened since they last saw each other. John and Matilda eagerly listen to Nicholas’s stories. John then tells Nicholas that several parents took their sons out of Dotheboys Hall when they heard about Squeers’s legal troubles. John worries that there might be a full-scale rebellion and goes to the school to see what is happening.
John’s concerns about Dotheboys Hall further explicate the novel’s ideas about loyalty, generosity, mercy, and justice. In this case, it might be expected that John and Nicholas would wash their hands of anything to do with Squeers because Squeers relentlessly persecuted them and Smike. However, the novel instead contends that one should extend grace even to one’s enemies, as John goes to try and make sure everything is okay at Dotheboys Hall.
Themes
At the school, John finds several boys ready to rebel. John encourages them to run away but tells them to refrain from attacking Mrs. Squeers and Fanny. After the boys leave, Fanny says that she and her family don’t plan on having John and Matilda lord over them just because Squeers is in prison. John says that he hopes that they can all become friends again as they once were in the past. Later, rumors accuse John and Matilda of helping the boys who ran away by providing them with both food and money. John denies the rumors but does so with a grin that makes people think they’re true. Eventually, Dotheboys Hall shuts down.
John redoubles his commitment to extending grace to all people, even those who might have been his enemies, when he tells Fanny that he would like to be friends with her again. John’s comments build on the novel’s idea that redemption and reform are always possible, and it’s never too late to change. In this case, even though Fanny was complicit in her father’s wrongdoing, John holds out hope that she might see the error of her ways and change as a result.
Themes
