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Personification
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Mere Attachment:
Dickens begins Chapter 1 of Nicholas Nickleby with a description of Mr. and Mrs. Nickleby's relationship. In this description, Dickens utilizes both oxymoron and satire to juxtapose the couple's loving marriage with the conventional, fiscally-driven marriages commonplace at the time:
There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire, one Mr. Godfrey Nickleby: a worthy gentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment, who in her turn had taken him for the same reason. Thus two people who cannot afford to play cards for money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love.
The narrator refers to Mr. and Mrs. Nickleby's marriage for love as an arrangement borne from "mere attachment," sublimating love to money by understating and diminishing the importance of the former. This is paradoxical because it appears contradictory to refer to love as "mere" anything, especially when many a person's greatest aspiration in life is to fall in love. Dickens utilizes paradox here to satirize materialistic views of marriage (and materialism generally).
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Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—Aristocratic:
In Chapter 15, Dickens includes an excerpt wherein his characters make paradoxical statements about the British aristocracy. These statements are intended by Dickens as a vessel for satire, as seen in the passage below:
'There's something in his appearance quite—dear, dear, what's that word again?'
'What word?' inquired Mr. Lillyvick.
'Why—dear me, how stupid I am,' replied Miss Petowker, hesitating. 'What do you call it, when Lords break off doorknockers and beat policemen, and play at coaches with other people's money, and all that sort of thing?'
'Aristocratic?' suggested the collector.
'Ah! aristocratic,' replied Miss Petowker; 'something very aristocratic about him, isn't there?'
One tends to associate the word "aristocracy" with dignity, power, or refinement. It appears odd, at first, to call a Lord who "break[s] off doorknockers and beat[s] policemen" and gambles others' money away "aristocratic." Dickens is, in fact, using this unexpected word choice to satirize and comment on the exploitative, undignified behavior of many people in power. Aristocrats do not earn their titles and power, but rather inherit them. As such, they often use their wealth and resources to support irresponsible behavior, so habituated to these privileges as a given that they are willing to "play at coaches with other people's money" without a second thought.
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Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Ghostly Parliament:
Toward the beginning of Chapter 16, Dickens includes a description of Parliament's workspace. Upon encountering this place, Nicholas is left with an unexpectedly negative first impression. One might assume that the offices of Parliament are dignified and energetic, populated by powerful people intent on getting important work done. Dickens utilizes imagery and satire to reveal the opposite.
In damp weather the place is rendered close by the steams of moist acts of parliament and frowsy petitions; general postmen grow faint as they enter its infected limits, and shabby figures in quest of franks, flit restlessly to and fro like the troubled ghosts of Complete Letter-writers departed.
In this space, acts of parliament are "moist" and "steam[ing]," interspersed with "frowsy petitions." The limits of the building are "infected"; postmen "grow faint" as they enter. The sensory imagery used in this passage suggests a building full of decay and death—perhaps a hospital or morgue—not the vibrant, self-important Parliament office one might expect. Dickens uses this imagery to satirize government, depicting its offices as defunct, decaying, and out-of-touch. Those who enter become ghosts, forced to wander through its halls and face the possibility of "infection." This may be a critique of the inefficacy or lack of imagination that Dickens finds endemic to the British government.
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Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Crummles Theater Company:
In Chapter 22, Nicholas and Smike receive their first introduction to Mr. Vincent Crummles of the Crummles Theater Company. Mr. Crummles and his entire company are an object of satire in Nicholas Nickleby, a vessel through which Dickens undertakes to critique theater:
‘Mr Vincent Crummles,’ said the landlord with an air of great deference. ‘This is the young gentleman.’
Mr Vincent Crummles received Nicholas with an inclination of the head, something between the courtesy of a Roman emperor and the nod of a pot companion; and bade the landlord shut the door and begone.
In the above passage, the narrator characterizes Mr. Crummles as a man who, regardless of his own ridiculousness, possesses a great deal of self-importance. Dickens evidently intends his character as a commentary on the whole of the theater industry—full of, according to his own analysis, an increasing number of low-talent individuals who believe their own hype.
Dickens is not unique for satirizing the theater; on the contrary, the dramatic arts have long been a fixture for critique in the literary community. Conservative and progressive writers alike situate the theater as a source of moral decline and ridiculousness, with conservatives outraged at controversy and progressives outraged at the lack of sufficient controversy.
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