Homoerotic?

This question definitely came from looking at the story through 21st century eyes. It changed when Nicholas went back to London because it was never there to begin with. I have not only seen this movie, but I have also seen the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage version and I have read the original novel.

At Dotheboys Hall, Smike is the most abused of all the boys. No one shows him the least kindness. It is also obvious that Smike is mentally challenged, no doubt from the deprivations and abuse he has experienced all of his life. Anyone with an ounce of compassion would feel for him. Smike is drawn to Nicholas because Nicholas is the only one to have ever shown him kindness. And when Nicholas promises undying friendship, it is just that -- friendship. Nicholas is older, raised in a solid middle-class family, and comes to Dotheboys Hall with a sense of justice and morality that is absent in the Squeers family. Just because Nicholas shows friendship and protection to Smike does not mean that there is anything sexual there. In addition, through this attraction between Nicholas and Smike, Dickens was foreshadowing the fact that the two are cousins. They are drawn to each other because they are family.

While Nicholas and Smike are members of the Crummles Theatrical Troupe, at least in the novel and the RSC production, Nicholas falls in love with Miss Snevillici, one of the actresses. Back in London, Nicholas falls in love again with Madeline Bray and Smike falls in love with Kate Nickleby. Are you saying that they are homoerotically attached to each other and at the same time are pursuing different women?

In the 19th century novel, JANE EYRE, Jane, as a child, is sent to an awful girls school. Abused there, Jane finds friendship with another abused student, Helen. She visits Helen as the latter is dying of tuberculosis and even climbs in bed with her for one final conversation. A bed with blankets is obviously the warmest place in an unheated room, but 21st century eyes would call this a lesbian scene. Puh-lease. Seeing homoeroticism in examples such as these shows that we have not evolved from the 19th century; we have actually gone backwards. Sometimes a friendship is just that -- a friendship.

Spin

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Amazing how there are always people noticing homoerotic stuff in basically everything they watch! Apparently there is no friendship between males anymore on this days!!