Nicholas Nickleby

Ralph Nickleby is the primary antagonist of Nicholas Nickleby. He is Nicholas’s uncle but is isolated by his wealth. In the conflict of Greed Versus Love, Ralph consistently chooses greed: He has never cared for his brother or his brother’s children and is annoyed that his brother’s death brings his in-laws to London. Ralph’s business success relies on dehumanizing others. He has no compassion for the lives he ruins through his money-lending business. He is primarily concerned with his own influence and power, and judges men like Newman Noggs who have fallen on hard times. Ralph does have a soft spot for his niece, but even Kate’s presence can’t change Ralph’s coldness.

Ralph’s particular resentment of his nephew, Nicholas, is a projection of his own unhappiness and only deepens as Nicholas thwarts Ralph in various endeavors—helping Mr. Squeers kidnap Smike, negotiating Arthur Gride’s inappropriate marriage to Madeline Bray, etc. Ralph is fully broken when he discovers that Smike is the son Ralph long believed to be dead. This revelation, along with Smike’s death, turns Ralph against himself. Ralph dies by suicide, demonstrating the depth of his loneliness and resentment. Through Ralph, Dickens warns his reader to beware of all-consuming greed.

Kate, Nicholas’s sister, is a secondary protagonist. Like her brother, she is committed to high moral standards; as a Victorian woman, Kate particularly demonstrates her virtuousness through her modesty and sexual propriety in the face of male harassment. Kate is also devoted to her family. Though not raised to work—a middle-class woman of her status would typically be a homemaker—she embraces employment with as much integrity as she can muster when the family’s finances demand it. She even tries to do well by her uncle, Ralph.

Though Kate remains stalwart throughout her personal and professional ordeals—her beauty sparks envy in women as much as lust in men—she ultimately has to be saved by her brother. After this, she flourishes in the family cottage, where she has a home of her own to nurture. Kate falls in love with Frank Cheeryble but feels that she must abstain from a relationship with him for the sake of her reputation with the generous Cheerybles. Frank, however, fights for their relationship, and the couple marries and lives happily ever after. Like Nicholas, Kate is a role model who embodies the novel’s message that virtuous behavior brings good things to the both world and the individual.

Mrs. Nickleby is Nicholas and Kate’s mother. Widowed and in financial ruin, Mrs. Nickleby is ashamed of her family’s new standing in the world and easily influenced by powerful men. She is tricked into believing that Sir Mulberry would make a good match for her daughter, proving that her deference to men borders on dangerous. She even contemplates Ralph’s accusation that Nicholas, her own son, is a bad man. Ultimately, Mrs. Nickleby returns to her maternal role when Nicholas provides a home for her in the cottage. Without the pressures of economic distress, Mrs. Nickleby finds a new equilibrium and hopes for more happiness in the future. Mrs. Nickleby is an important character because she informs how Nicholas and Kate negotiate the complicated world around them.

Mr. Squeers is a secondary antagonist in the novel whose repulsive appearance parallels his inner character. The boarding school that Mr. Squeers runs, Dotheboys Hall, is cheap and therefore attracts people who mostly want to get rid of their boys. This emboldens him to act with impunity; he barely feeds or clothes the boys, keeps their letters and gifts, provides little education, and houses them in decrepit conditions. Mr. Squeers is a doting husband and father, but the way in which he spoils his family merely highlights his abuse of his pupils (in fact, they maintain their lifestyle by spending as little as possible on the boys). Mr. Squeers exerts particularly obsessive control over Smike, making it his mission to kidnap Smike even after he runs away twice. Mr. Squeers doesn’t care about Smike, and another could easily replace Smike as a servant. Mr. Squeers is simply petty; he resents the thought of anyone evading his control.

When Nicholas beats Mr. Squeers as punishment for his abuse of Smike, Mr. Squeers partners with Ralph to ruin Nicholas. However, Mr. Squeers has too many secrets, and though he is manipulative, he is not smart. He is caught stealing Madeline Bray’s will and imprisoned, bringing the downfall of his school and his family. Mr. Squeers is a typical Dickensian antagonist—vile on the outside and inside, greedy and power-hungry, but fallible because of his own ineptitude.

Smike, Nicholas and Kate’s long-lost cousin, epitomizes what happens when society neglects and abuses its most vulnerable members: children. After a lifetime of abuse and servitude at Dotheboys Hall, he has no memories of a mother or any loving figure, which greatly impacts his psyche. Smike finally finds a friend and ally in Nicholas, who changes his life. Nicholas is the first person to extend kindness to Smike, and Smike repays him with devotion even as he remains reliant on the Nickleby family for help.

Mr. Squeers’s attempted kidnapping exacerbates Smike’s physical and emotional weakness. He is doomed to die, a tragic victim of societal neglect. However, his passing is bittersweet, as he dies in the countryside with Nicholas by his side and is buried under Nicholas’s favorite tree. In death, Smike gets the life that he always deserved and is honored and mourned.

Newman Noggs is a secondary character indentured to Ralph Nickleby after falling on hard times and turning to a money lender for help. Ralph employs him, but this comes at a moral price: Newman Noggs’s job is to maintain Ralph’s large but corrupt business. Knowing how immoral Ralph is, Newman is eager to help Nicholas Nickleby, proving himself to be a good man at his core. He sneaks help to Nicholas and Smike and reports on Ralph’s business when it threatens to negatively impact Nicholas or the people closest to him. Newman Noggs is a secret ally in bringing down Ralph.

Charles Cheeryble is a role model for good business coupled with good morality. Though he is successful, his success does not rely on oppressing or exploiting others. He does not take his success as a sign of superiority. Instead, Charles seeks to share his wealth. He is abundantly generous, always remembering what it was like to be impoverished and to have to work his way to the top. Charles has a vested interest in other people simply because he is kind, not because he expects anything in return. That he employs Nicholas without truly knowing him demonstrates both Charles’s magnanimity and his wisdom—specifically, his ability to sense goodness in others. However, Charles is also willing to offer help and advice to those who may not “deserve” it, including Ralph.

The introduction of Charles to the narrative changes Nicholas and Kate’s prospects. He arranges a cottage for them to rent, which becomes a symbol of hospitality and happiness. He also helps catch Mr. Squeers and is instrumental in exposing the truth about Smike, making him an important figure narratively as well as thematically.

Madeline Bray is a young and beautiful woman whose commitment to her ailing and impoverished father demonstrates her virtue but also victimizes her. Her father, though loving, is weak-willed and somewhat self-centered, expecting Madeline to serve him. Madeline receives financial help from the Cheeryble brothers due to a long-standing connection with her dead mother. However, Madeline is further victimized by her patriarchal society when Ralph negotiates a marriage between her and the elderly Arthur Gride. Nicholas, who loves her from afar, saves Madeline from this fate, and she develops a close relationship with Kate while under her care in the cottage, foreshadowing the sisterly bond that Nicholas and Madeline’s marriage formalizes.