Nicholas Nickleby Themes

Ralph Nickleby is motivated primarily by greed and selfishness. He cares much more about hoarding money and power than about other people. Because he prioritizes himself over others, he alienates family members like Nicholas and Kate who initially sought his help and counsel. As a result of that selfishness, Ralph spends most of the novel miserable and alone. Though Ralph believes that all he wants is money and power, getting money and power does not…

Squeers physically abuses students with impunity. He knows the students can’t retaliate because he is physically stronger than they are and knows that students’ parents or guardians will not step in to protect them, both because many of the students have been essentially abandoned by their parents or guardians and because Squeers controls all communication into and out of the school. Squeers’s abuse is especially prominent in his relationship with Smike. Squeers uses the…

After Nicholas Sr. dies, Nicholas, Kate, and Mrs. Nickleby have nothing but each other. While they have no money and few material goods, they are bound together by loyalty. Nicholas makes life decisions only after considering what will be best for his family. That includes his initial decision to go and work at Dotheboys Hall, which he believes will ultimately help his family. And, when Nicholas returns to London after his stint as…

When Nicholas arrives at Dotheboys Hall and witnesses the rampant abuse that occurs at the school, he curses his uncle Ralph for making him complicit in the evil occurring there. Even though Nicholas doesn’t commit the abuse himself, his proximity to it—and his position as an employee of the school—weighs on his conscience. That feeling of guilt, borne of a sense of complicity, drives Nicholas to flee from Dotheboys Hall with Smike.

Similarly, at…