Nicholas Nickleby · Chapter
Containing some romantic passages between Mrs. Nickleby and the gentleman in the small-clothes next door. explained
Mrs.
What happens
Mrs. Nickleby, after her conversation with Nicholas, begins to adorn herself more attractively, drawing the attention of the elderly gentleman next door. He makes bizarre and flirtatious overtures from over the garden wall, tossing vegetables and speaking in riddles. Kate is alarmed and urges her mother to flee, but Mrs. Nickleby is flattered and reluctant to retreat, reminiscing about her own youthful suitors.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Appearance vs. Reality
Mrs. Nickleby justifies her flirtatious behavior as a Christian duty to vindicate the neighbor, while actually indulging her vanity.
Love and Marriage
The chapter parodies romantic pursuit through the elderly neighbor's ludicrous advances and Mrs. Nickleby's nostalgic tales of her own suitors.
Characters to notice
- Mrs. Nickleby
Begins to dress more attractively after her talk with Nicholas, and is flattered by the attentions of the elderly neighbor, despite Kate's alarm.
- Kate Nickleby
Terrified by the neighbor's strange behavior, she urges her mother to come inside and is perplexed by Mrs. Nickleby's complacency.
- Nicholas Nickleby
Mentioned as having vilified the neighbor; his absence leaves Mrs. Nickleby free to indulge the neighbor's advances.
Key passages
“Even her black dress assumed something of a deadly-lively air from the jaunty style in which it was worn; and, eked out as its lingering attractions were; by a prudent disposal, here and there, of certain juvenile ornaments of little or no value, which had, for that reason alone, escaped the general wreck and been permitted to slumber peacefully in odd corners of old drawers and boxes where daylight seldom shone, her mourning garments assumed quite a new character.”
Mrs. Nickleby's mourning clothes took on a flirtatious look as she wore them with a lively air, adding cheap trinkets she had saved from her younger days.
Highlights her shift from mourning to coquettishness.
“From being the outward tokens of respect and sorrow for the dead, they became converted into signals of very slaughterous and killing designs upon the living.”
Her mourning attire no longer symbolized grief for her late husband but instead signaled her romantic intentions toward the living.
Ironically underscores her transformation.