C. Dickens – Nicholas Nickleby: Analyses

Nicholas Nickleby is a realistic novel written by C. Dickens (1838-39) and it speaks about the living conditions and the teaching methods in the appalling educational institutions of the Victorian Age for the poorer sections of society.

Children's characterization is built on pathos and concerns their attitude in the classroom. The third person omniscient intrusive narrator emphasizes the children's poverty and miserable condition by describing how they behave, There was none of the noise and clamour of a schoolroom, none of its boisterous play or hearty mirth.

Besides the novelist makes a comparison between the children and Mr. Squeers’ son, who is joyful and strong, in order to make the reader understand the sense of superiority that he feels. The use of the exaggeration, used by the novelist to describe Mr. Squeers and his educational method, is used to ridicule Mr. Squeers’ arrogance and sense of superiority.

His characterization is also made up by the way he teached: he is shown as a ridiculous figure when he sat himself up as a teacher who did not know the correct spelling of words and had a very weak knowledge of Latin.