Nicholas Nickleby

by

Charles Dickens

Nicholas Nickleby: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Nicholas wakes up late the next morning, and Squeers tells him he doesn’t have time to wash. Mrs. Squeers looks for a spoon to use to give the students brimstone (a kind of sulfur) and treacle (molasses). It’s a kind of cure-all remedy that the Squeerses use in part to prevent illness in the students but also because the concoction is so foul that it makes the boys lose their appetites. That way, the Squeerses don’t have to feed them as much. Squeers and Nicholas go to the schoolhouse, which is in disrepair. The students are not in much better shape. They are skinny, and their eyes are full of despair. Their faces look like those of old men. Squeers informs the boys he’s just returned from London, and two or three boys let out feigned cheers that are barely louder than sighs.
The use of brimstone and treacle to treat the students succinctly encapsulates the kind of double-speak utilized by so many characters in the novel to hide their selfish motivations behind the veneer of altruism and good intentions. Though the brimstone and treacle is considered a kind of medicine, and therefore beneficial to the students, the Squeerses are motivated to administer that medication so they can pay less money for food. The impacts of the Squeerses’ self-interested approach to caring for the children are evident in the students’ despair-ridden faces. 
Themes
Greed and Selfishness Theme Icon
Power and Abuse Theme Icon
Altruism and Humility Theme Icon
Squeers reads letters from the parents of the boys and confiscates any money contained in those letters. He calls a boy to the front of the class whose parents failed to pay the full amount. He scolds the boy for his warts and then beats him with a cane until his (Squeers’s) arm is tired. The Squeers also take the clothing of the new arrivals to give to their son. Squeers informs Nicholas that they teach through experience. For example, to teach the word horse, they’ll first teach the definition of the word and then send a boy to clean the stable.
Squeers forces the students to do labor, like cleaning the stables, without pay. He also steals from them. Squeers does all this with impunity, making it clear that there is little to no oversight of the school, as Squeers is able to break the law and exploit and abuse children with no fear that he will be caught or face consequences.
Themes
Greed and Selfishness Theme Icon
Power and Abuse Theme Icon
Injustice, Complicity, and Moral Integrity Theme Icon
Nicholas is dispirited by what he sees, and he hates the idea that he’s an accomplice to it. But he redoubles his resolution to make the best of the situation, lest Ralph abandon his mother and sister. He’s worried that, since his uncle Ralph deceived him, that he might do something similar to Kate and send her to a horrible boarding school. Eventually, though, Nicholas thinks that Ralph has some special dislike for him, which will hopefully mean that Kate won’t be subjected to the same kind of mistreatment. Nicholas writes a letter to his mother, Mrs. Nickleby, informing her that he arrived at the school. He tries to make the letter sound as cheerful as he can.
Nicholas recognizes that witnessing immorality and injustice and doing nothing to stop it makes him complicit in that injustice. However, he is being extorted by Ralph, which limits the possible actions that he could take to try and stop the injustice he sees. Amid these difficulties, Nicholas tries to put a positive face on his new position in a letter to his mother, showing again how his loyalty to his family is at the core of Nicholas’s decisions. 
Themes
Greed and Selfishness Theme Icon
Power and Abuse Theme Icon
Family and Loyalty Theme Icon
Injustice, Complicity, and Moral Integrity Theme Icon
After lessons, Nicholas sits by the fire in the oven. Smike approaches timidly. When Nicholas notices him, Smike recoils as if he is expecting a blow. Nicholas tries to reassure Smike that he’s not going to hit him. Smike then recalls the boy who died at the school. He says that as the boy lay in bed dying, he envisioned the faces of his friends and family all around him. Smike wonders who he would envision if he were dying. He doesn’t remember home or anyone there. He feels utterly alone. 
The description of Smike in this passage shows the impacts of Squeers’s abuse. That abuse has not only physically harmed Smike but has left him emotionally isolated, depressed, and in despair. He is isolated, in part, because he expects people to harm him and therefore avoids them. Nicholas’s kindness serves as a rejoinder to the prolonged abuse that Smike has endured.
Themes
Power and Abuse Theme Icon
Family and Loyalty Theme Icon
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