NN, Chp. 51-55

[Xan]

Ralph is the Swiss army knife in this story. He is used in different ways. He's Nicholas's nemesis, he's an enabler, he's the central hub through which all the villains pass, he's the author's critic of social hypocrisy. He is the usurer no one likes but so many need; he provides a necessary function for society that society uses then denies.

Ralph is the corrupter, corrupting good wherever he can find it. This is why he hates Nicholas, he sees the good in him but has yet to break him, and if he can't break him, then Nicholas's existence threatens everything Ralph believes in and stands for. That's my take on Ralph. All the other villains are one-dimensional.

[Kim]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Chapter 54

Listening to Ralph make a fool of Gride --"Come it's Time to make you happy" -- and thinking back, I wonder if one role Ralph serves is to lay bare to the reader all the things wrong wi..."

I was thinking earlier of how Ralph is connected with all the villains, it reminds me of a game (sort of) people used to play when we were kids, it was Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. I have no idea how Kevin Bacon got picked for this, but supposedly we are all linked to Kevin Bacon, something like that anyway.

[Xan]

Love the name of that game. Anybody ever tell Kevin Bacon?

PS: Enjoyed the movie Tremors, and Bacon in it.

[Kim]

Here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Deg...

[Xan]

Didn't Malcolm Gladwell write a book about this concept? Looks like the game came first. I love it. Let's play!!

[Alissa]

I like Xan's list of villains and Peter's idea that Ralph is a spider, drawing people into his web of evil. I agree, this novel has quite a cast of diverse villains. High class and low class. Young and old. Smart and dumb. Evil knows no bounds in this novel.

We're getting close to the end. I think it's safe to say that Ralph won't reform. He has no desire to do so. I wonder what's going to happen to him, if he'll die, shrink away, or even go to jail, since Nicholas implied that Ralph's evil is coming to an end and bad fortunes await. Will Brooker have something to do with Ralph's downfall? I'm also curious how Dickens will settle the feud between Ralph and Nicholas, because it's getting pretty heated.

[Alissa]

Chapter 54--I love how Nicholas and Kate came together to confront the bad guys and save Madeline. I wasn't expecting Kate to show up, but thought it a nice twist. I love their solidarity and how both were firm and heroic.

I think Nicholas and Kate have grown in the course of the story. In the beginning, they were vulnerable, alone, and inexperienced, but now they stand together and are more sure of themselves.

I also like how Nicholas handled the situation in the Cheerybles' absence. First, he went to Madeline, then Gride, then finally, Kate. Madeline had no female friends or support to speak of, so bringing in the smart, kind-hearted Kate, who is roughly her age, was a great idea. Kate has plenty of experience rebuffing evil men.

Of course, Nicholas lucked out yet again when Bray conveniently died on the spot. It's nice to have higher powers on your side, isn't it? I'm not sure what would happened had Bray not died. Madeline would have been torn, I'm sure, because she cares about her dad.

[Xan]

Tristram wrote: "Is Nicholas’s pride well-founded, or has he no right to interfere with his sister’s possible suitor? And if he is right, will he apply this principle to his own case, too? "

You could say Nicholas is putting his pride ahead of his sister's happiness, which he is, but the real problem with Nicholas isn't pride or hypocrisy, it's his thinking he knows what's best for everyone, including people he doesn't know well. He doesn't bother asking Kate her wishes and he ignores Madeline's. In short he's full of himself and can be quite the hard head and hothead. What am I supposed to think of this hero?

I missed the part where Madeline might be coming into a large inheritance. Please, please, let's not have another inheritance falling out of the sky so everyone can live happily ever after. Inheritances were really on the mind of Victorians, weren't they?

[Julie]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "I missed the part where Madeline might be coming into a large inheritance. Please, please, let's not have another inheritance falling out of the sky so everyone can live happily ever after. "

Afraid you're out of luck. The inheritance is in Chapter 47--Ralph keeps insisting there must be some ulterior motive for Gride to marry:

‘There’s something more,’ said Ralph.

‘No, no, indeed,’ cried Arthur Gride.

‘Yes, yes, indeed. I tell you yes,’ said Ralph.

‘Oh!’ returned old Arthur feigning to be suddenly enlightened. ‘You mean something more, as concerns myself and my intention. Ay, surely, surely. Shall I mention that?’

‘I think you had better,’ rejoined Ralph, drily.

‘I didn’t like to trouble you with that, because I supposed your interest would cease with your own concern in the affair,’ said Arthur Gride. ‘That’s kind of you to ask. Oh dear, how very kind of you! Why, supposing I had a knowledge of some property—some little property—very little—to which this pretty chick was entitled; which nobody does or can know of at this time, but which her husband could sweep into his pouch, if he knew as much as I do, would that account for—’

‘For the whole proceeding,’ rejoined Ralph, abruptly.

I found this deeply confusing, because it made me think Gride was not actually interested in Madeline herself--or at least her body--but just her money. That seems to be what Ralph thinks. But in subsequent chapters Gride does go on about how attractive she is. So I guess it's a twofer for him.

[Xan]

Thanks Julie.

[Mary Lou]

Congratulations, Julie and Kim, on your newest family members!

[Tristram]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "I am, aren't I?"

Lots of us are, at least according to one of us ;-)

[Xan]

Julie wrote: "Why, supposing I had a knowledge of some property—some little property—very little—to which this pretty chick was entitled;"

The only thing I remember of this passage is the word "chick." I do not remember that word being used before in Victorian literature to describe a woman. As soon as I heard it, it was all I could think of.

[Tristram]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Perhaps that Dickens confuses vulnerability with beauty. Or perhaps he needs to be the savior, so the meek, if not also weak, are more attractive."

I'd rather say he confuses submissiveness and meekness with beauty. Not always - there is Kate - but very often: All in all, Madeline is quite a non-entity in terms of taking her own decisions in life. When the old man dies, she is "removed" from the house as though she were a piece of furniture, and conveniently she faints, of course.

[Xan]

Nicholas has fallen for a mannequin -- perfect.

[Tristram]

I'd see Squeers as the first one to be on the villains' list for the same reason Xan names: His victims are children, and they are many, and I am also sure that he knows exactly what he is doing for he is an out-and-out hypocrite. Then, I'd find it difficult to decide which one is more of a blackguard than the other. Maybe, I would not put Bray as high as Ralph and Gride because he is not actively driving on the wedding project even though his word is the final say in it. In point of the numbers of his victims, he is definitely the last one, and so the overall harm he has done in his life is probably less than in the case of the usurers and Sir Mulberry. He is just the more evil version of Mrs. Nickleby, in a way, who also wants her daughter to set her cap on a wealthy follower - but Bray's motives are more selfish and he has more sway over his child than Mrs. Nickleby.

As to Ralph, he is very cynical and only has contempt for the people around him, constantly thinking that even what seems noble and selfless about them springs from selfish motives. There must be a reason why he thinks this. His selfishness and greed lead him into terrible acts but his skeptical view on humanity is something that is not too alien to me.

[Tristram]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Nicholas has fallen for a mannequin -- perfect."

Most of Dickens's heroes do ...

[Julie]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Nicholas has fallen for a mannequin -- perfect."

Yes, that is pretty much perfect.

I wish Frank were not such a blank slate, because I'd like a little more for Kate. But I guess there are too many characters on the docket already.

[Kim]

Tristram wrote: "Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "Nicholas has fallen for a mannequin -- perfect."

Most of Dickens's heroes do ..."

Grump. Pass that on to Xan too.

[Kim]

"My daughter, Miss Madeline Bray, condescends to employ herself no longer in such labours as these."

Chapter 53

Charles Edmund Brock

Text Illustrated:

‘My business,’ said Nicholas respectfully, ‘is with a lady.’

‘With a gentleman’s daughter, sir,’ returned the sick man, ‘and the pettifogging spirit is the same. But perhaps you bring orders, eh? Have you any fresh orders for my daughter, sir?’

Nicholas understood the tone of triumph in which this interrogatory was put; but remembering the necessity of supporting his assumed character, produced a scrap of paper purporting to contain a list of some subjects for drawings which his employer desired to have executed; and with which he had prepared himself in case of any such contingency.

‘Oh!’ said Mr. Bray. ‘These are the orders, are they?’

‘Since you insist upon the term, sir, yes,’ replied Nicholas.

‘Then you may tell your master,’ said Bray, tossing the paper back again, with an exulting smile, ‘that my daughter, Miss Madeline Bray, condescends to employ herself no longer in such labours as these; that she is not at his beck and call, as he supposes her to be; that we don’t live upon his money, as he flatters himself we do; that he may give whatever he owes us, to the first beggar that passes his shop, or add it to his own profits next time he calculates them; and that he may go to the devil for me. That’s my acknowledgment of his orders, sir!’