MovieChat Forums > Nicholas Nickleby (2003) Discussion > One Thing That Bothered ME ...

One Thing That Bothered ME ...

posted 15 years ago by HarlowMGM
4 replies | jump to latest

Snitching the title of somebody's else thread one thing that bothered me was In the film our virtuous Nicholas apparently never looks back and on those poor ill-treated boys at the boarding school and tries to shut it down or get those kids out of there. I realized (A) it's only a two-hour film and (B) Nicholas was in no financial position to help them for most of the film but it would have been nice in the end when he apparently inherits his uncle's home that he would have mentioned he was going to do something for their welfare. After all, Smike was not the only mistreated child at the place even if he bore the brunt of it. .

[–] mmattagirl 15 years ago

In reality, the publication of the novel Nicholas NIckelby was a prime force behind the regulation and government over sight of such schools. Apparently there were many such schools in Yorkshire (I don't know why it would have been Yorkshire particularly) and some of the head masters were prosecuted and the schools closed down once it all came out into the open.

George... don't do that!

[–] Blue_Moonlight 15 years ago

I was thinking that too.

While I am very glad that he thrashed Squeers and saved Smike, he at the same time betrayed his family and all the other boys.

Of course he should have done everything in his power to save Smike from the caning, but he also should have considered that him taking that job was to help his family. Of course he couldn't take every boy with him either financially or legally (especially those who weren't orphans and had parents/guardians paying for them) but I'm sure he would have done more good by remaining at the school and showing the boys some compassion than by leaving them all behind. If we had actually seen Squeers fire him it would have been more understandable.

I was also bothered by the line he tells Tilda when Fanny "faints", how he wishes to be rid of the place and forget all about it. I kept thinking, wouldn't you want to report the treatment those unfortunate boys are suffering through instead of just forgetting it a la "out of sight out of mind"??

[–] furienna 11 years ago

You make some good points. But I guess Nicholas despised the place so much, that he couldn't bear staying there any longer, not even to support his mother and sister or to help the other boys. He just focused on getting Smike, who was treated the worst, out of there. But at least, like you said, he thrashed Squeers and saved Smike. And we can also hope, I guess maybe even assume, that Nicholas later on helped turning bad schools like that into better places, even though it wasn't specifically said so in this movie. And acording to the poster above you, the novel made a difference in real life.

Intelligence and purity.

[–] sueb1863 9 years ago

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to point out that the school does break up at the end of the novel (chapter 64), at about the same time Nicholas marries Madeline. The movie just didn't have time to show it, although they might have at least mentioned it. It is shown in the 1980 Royal Shakespeare Company stage play version of the book.