72 pages • 2 hours read
Charles DickensThe Old Curiosity Shop
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1840A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaLiterary Devices
Melodrama
A melodrama is a literary text, often a work of fiction, that grounds its events in heightened emotion. The goal of a melodrama is to evoke a strong response from the reader. Melodramas typically do not explore their characters in depth, but rather assign them stereotypical or “stock” traits in simplistic good-versus-evil conflicts. The Old Curiosity Shop has strong elements of melodrama, especially in scenes like Nell’s grandfather’s confession in London, Nell’s fainting in the manufacturing town when she reunites with the schoolmaster, and (most notably) Nell’s death at the novel’s conclusion.
Melodramas also tend to put their characters through extreme loss or hardship that they must overcome before reaching a happy ending—or, at least, the happiest ending available to them. Nell and her grandfather’s life contains tremendous hardship, including and especially on their pilgrimage. Kit faces many hardships of his own in London, and he is able to secure the happiest ending of all: He is freed from his incarceration, finds Nell at last, and goes on to marry, have children, and live a long life.
The melodrama of The Old Curiosity Shop reflects its debt to the sentimental novels of the 18th century. Literature of this sort accomplishes its effects by scenes of intense feeling and narrative breaks for moral contemplation. One major goal of sentimental fiction is to inspire pity that will motivate the reader to act, and this tactic hinges on the idea that all people possess a natural, innate benevolence. However, there is a significant question of ethics here—namely, that one can pity someone without actually being moved to act on their behalf. These same critics further argue that sentimental fiction often fails to interrogate the systemic causes of misfortune, much in the same way the single gentleman’s narration identifies the problem of children having to grow up too soon without looking towards possible causes or solutions.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing occurs when the early events of a novel hint at the conclusion. These hints can take the form of images, symbols, or lines of dialogue. A significant example of foreshadowing in The Old Curiosity Shop is when Mr. Quilp returns home to find his wife, mother-in-law, Sampson Brass, Tom Scott, and a few men from the wharf discussing the possibility that Quilp has died. As he was last seen at the wharf, the group assumes Quilp drowned in the Thames, as he will in the concluding chapters of the novel. A more indirect form is Nell’s keen interest in the graves of the “good people” buried at different churchyards throughout the novel; later she herself becomes one of those “good” people.
Setting
This device refers to both the location where and the time when a story takes place. Nell and her grandfather left London in June, and Nell died in the winter, so the main story takes place over the span of approximately six months. That said, the specific year in which the events of the novel unfold is hard to determine, as many of the direct indicators seem to contradict one another. Regarding Mr. Quilp’s death and the manner of his burial, England banned the practice of burying suicides at crossroads with the Burial of Suicide Act of 1823. Mrs. Jarley’s waxwork commemorates famous historical figures and includes Lord Byron and Hannah More. Byron died in 1824, while More would live until 1833. Sampson and Sally Brass are described as “Her Majesty’s attorneys,” indicating Queen Victoria, whose reign began in 1837. However, the justice at Kit’s trial charges him with acting against the King’s peace, implying that the reigning monarch is still King William IV, who ruled from 1830-1837. These anachronisms pull the story out of time, allowing it to exist in a unique set of circumstances and thus accomplish two important things: establish a relationship between different time periods by blurring the boundaries of each era, and make it easier for a reader to relate to a time period that is not their own.
Intertextuality
Every literary text exists in reference to others, and they all influenced one another as well. The most deliberate and direct intertextual moment in The Old Curiosity Shop occurs when Nell recalls the copy of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress that she kept at home. Reading Bunyan’s book brought Nell comfort during the hardships she faced in London, and she takes comfort again in remembering its story as she travels. Given that characters and critics alike call her journey a “pilgrimage,” it makes sense that she identifies so strongly with this other story. However, the journey which Bunyan’s protagonist, Christian, undertakes also bears narrative similarities to Nell’s. Both start their journey carrying heavy burdens (Christian’s sins and Nell’s familial responsibilities), both endure long treks out of the city and into the countryside, and both meet a range of other characters who help or hinder their progress. An especially strong similarity is between Christian’s progress through the Valley of Humiliation, where a fiend taunts him with reminders of his sins, and the end of Nell’s stay with Mrs. Jarley, where she desperately protects her grandfather after he relapses into his gambling addiction. Christian slays the fiend; Nell convinces her grandfather that they need to leave immediately.
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