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Ralph
Smike is Nicholas’s closest friend. Near the end of the novel, it’s revealed that Smike is Ralph’s son, which also makes him Nicholas and Kate’s cousin and Mrs. Nickleby’s nephew. After leaving Dotheboys Hall, Smike eventually ends up living with the Nickleby family, all of whom adore Smike. The novel portrays him as someone with a heart of gold. He becomes steadfastly loyal and devoted to Nicholas after Nicholas treats him with kindness. Smike’s reaction to Nicholas differs sharply from his reaction to Squeers, who routinely beats Smike when he is still at Dotheboys Hall. Smike and Nicholas’s relationship underlines the novel’s exploration of how kindness breeds loyalty while selfish behavior, like that of Squeers, alienates people and turns them into enemies. Squeers’s abuse of Smike also helps the novel explore power structures. In particular, Squeers believes that the power he holds over Smike gives him the right to abuse Smike and force him to work without pay. After Nicholas treats Smike with kindness, Smike tells Nicholas that he wants to serve him. In that way, he grants Nicholas a similar kind of power that Squeers held over him. In contrast to Squeers, though, Nicholas responds to Smike by treating him as an equal, and the two forge an indomitable bond as a result. The novel also suggests that Squeers’s persistent abuse of Smike damages Smike’s intellectual capacity. Smike falls ill and dies before learning that Ralph is his father.
Smike Quotes in Nicholas Nickleby
The Nicholas Nickleby quotes below are all either spoken by Smike or refer to Smike. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
'May I—may I go with you?' asked Smike, timidly. 'I will be your faithful hard-working servant, I will, indeed. I want no clothes,' added the poor creature, drawing his rags together; 'these will do very well. I only want to be near you.'
'And you shall,' cried Nicholas. 'And the world shall deal by you as it does by me, till one or both of us shall quit it for a better. Come!'
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20
Quotes
'The word which separates us,' said Nicholas, grasping him heartily by the shoulder, 'shall never be said by me, for you are my only comfort and stay. I would not lose you now, Smike, for all the world could give. The thought of you has upheld me through all I have endured today, and shall, through fifty times such trouble. Give me your hand. My heart is linked to yours. We will journey from this place together, before the week is out. What, if I am steeped in poverty? You lighten it, and we will be poor together.'
Chapter 22
Quotes
It was a harder day's journey than yesterday's, for there were long and weary hills to climb; and in journeys, as in life, it is a great deal easier to go down hill than up. However, they kept on, with unabated perseverance, and the hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance will not gain the summit of at last.
Chapter 35
Quotes
'When I talk of home,' pursued Nicholas, 'I talk of mine—which is yours of course. If it were defined by any particular four walls and a roof, God knows I should be sufficiently puzzled to say whereabouts it lay; but that is not what I mean. When I speak of home, I speak of the place where—in default of a better—those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should call it by the same good name notwithstanding. And now, for what is my present home, which, however alarming your expectations may be, will neither terrify you by its extent nor its magnificence!'
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Smike Quotes in Nicholas Nickleby
The Nicholas Nickleby quotes below are all either spoken by Smike or refer to Smike. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
'May I—may I go with you?' asked Smike, timidly. 'I will be your faithful hard-working servant, I will, indeed. I want no clothes,' added the poor creature, drawing his rags together; 'these will do very well. I only want to be near you.'
'And you shall,' cried Nicholas. 'And the world shall deal by you as it does by me, till one or both of us shall quit it for a better. Come!'
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20
Quotes
'The word which separates us,' said Nicholas, grasping him heartily by the shoulder, 'shall never be said by me, for you are my only comfort and stay. I would not lose you now, Smike, for all the world could give. The thought of you has upheld me through all I have endured today, and shall, through fifty times such trouble. Give me your hand. My heart is linked to yours. We will journey from this place together, before the week is out. What, if I am steeped in poverty? You lighten it, and we will be poor together.'
Chapter 22
Quotes
It was a harder day's journey than yesterday's, for there were long and weary hills to climb; and in journeys, as in life, it is a great deal easier to go down hill than up. However, they kept on, with unabated perseverance, and the hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance will not gain the summit of at last.
Chapter 35
Quotes
'When I talk of home,' pursued Nicholas, 'I talk of mine—which is yours of course. If it were defined by any particular four walls and a roof, God knows I should be sufficiently puzzled to say whereabouts it lay; but that is not what I mean. When I speak of home, I speak of the place where—in default of a better—those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should call it by the same good name notwithstanding. And now, for what is my present home, which, however alarming your expectations may be, will neither terrify you by its extent nor its magnificence!'
