# Ralph Makes One Last Appointment—and Keeps It explained — Nicholas Nickleby > Chapter companion for Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. ## What happens Ralph Nickleby, haunted by guilt and despair after learning that Smike was his son and that he has died loving Nicholas, returns home through a dark and stormy night. He is tormented by visions of a suicide's grave and his own ruin. In his attic, he contemplates suicide, receives a message from the Cheeryble brothers, and closes himself off, never to be seen alive again. ## Themes in this chapter ### Social Injustice and Corruption Ralph's moral corruption and the squalid burial ground for paupers illustrate the social injustices and decay of the era. ### Family and Loyalty The revelation that Smike is Ralph's son and the contrast between Ralph's rejection and Nicholas's loyalty drive the chapter's emotional core. ### Resilience and Moral Integrity Nicholas's steadfast care for Smike stands in stark opposition to Ralph's moral collapse, highlighting resilience and integrity. ## Character check-ins ### Ralph Nickleby Ralph is consumed by remorse and madness after discovering Smike is his son and that he has died in Nicholas's care. He returns home, contemplates suicide, and locks himself in the attic. ### Smike Smike is revealed to be Ralph's son, now dead. His love for Nicholas and his deathbed scene torment Ralph. ### Nicholas Nickleby Nicholas is the object of Ralph's hatred for having rescued and loved Smike, and for triumphing over Ralph's schemes. ### Newman Noggs Newman is implied as part of the network of those who have turned against Ralph. ### Charles Cheeryble The Cheeryble brothers send a message to Ralph inquiring about detaining a man, showing their continued involvement. ### Ned Cheeryble Ned Cheeryble, along with his brother, sends a midnight inquiry to Ralph. ## Key lines > Creeping from the house, and slinking off like a thief; groping with his hands, when first he got into the street, as if he were a blind man; and looking often over his shoulder while he hurried away, as though he were followed in imagination or reality by someone anxious to question or detain him; Ralph Nickleby left the city behind him, and took the road to his own home. Ralph Nickleby sneaks out of the house like a thief, feeling his way blindly and glancing back nervously, as if pursued, before heading home. _This opening establishes Ralph's guilt and paranoia after the night's revelations._ > His own child, his own child! He never doubted the tale; he felt it was true; knew it as well, now, as if he had been privy to it all along. His own child! And dead too. Dying beside Nicholas, loving him, and looking upon him as something like an angel. That was the worst! Ralph realizes with certainty that Smike was his son, now dead, and that the boy loved Nicholas, which torments him most. _This reveals Ralph's anguish and the source of his hatred for Nicholas._ > The dead boy’s love for Nicholas, and the attachment of Nicholas to him, was insupportable agony. The picture of his deathbed, with Nicholas at his side, tending and supporting him, and he breathing out his thanks, and expiring in his arms, when he would have had them mortal enemies and hating each other to the last, drove him frantic. The thought of Smike's love for Nicholas and Nicholas's care for him at the deathbed drives Ralph to madness, as he had wanted them to be enemies. _This highlights Ralph's obsessive hatred and the irony of Nicholas's kindness._ > He spoke no more; but, after a pause, softly groped his way out of the room, and up the echoing stairs—up to the top—to the front garret—where he closed the door behind him, and remained. Ralph silently climbs to the attic and shuts himself in, where he stays. _This foreshadows Ralph's suicide, as he isolates himself in the room where his son once slept._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicholas_nickleby_se/chapters/lxii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicholas_nickleby_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicholas_nickleby_se/chapters