a Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby ch.61. "I. have lost
the best, the most zealous, and the most attentive
creature in my life - putting you, my dear Nicholas, and
Kate, and your poor papa, and that well-behaved nurse who
ran away with the linen and the twelve small forks, out
of the question, of course."
b Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby ch.41. De scène neemt
heel hoofstuk 41 in beslag onder de titel containing
some romantic passages between Mrs.Nickleby and the
gentleman in the small-clothes next door"
a Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby ch.49.
b A.Naef-Hinderling, The Search for the Culprit, p.18.
En zijn moeder? Volgen wij Naef-Hindeling.
Elizabeth Dickens, Dickens's mother, is described by the novelist in the
unforgettable Mrs.Nickleby. Mrs.Nickleby is a superbly drawn character who could serve
as an illustration for modern textbooks on the psychology of the self. She is not a
wicked woman, but she is pathetically in need of adoration, admiration and love. It is
exactly this burning desire that makes it hard for people to love her, and her children
have long grown accustomed to smiling at her, not taking her seriously, letting their
thought wander when she embarks upon one of her long monologues. The halfwitted
Smike is the only one who sits and listens to her for hours "wondering what it was all
about" and when he dies, Mrs.Nickleby is really distressed, for she has lost "the best, the
most zealous, and most attentive creature, that has ever been a companion to me in my
life".(a) She is furthermore, admired by no-one but the deranged "gentleman in small
clothes", who throws vegetable marrows and cucumbers over the garden wall as tokens
of his love.fb) Only mad people, Dickens seems to say, will listen to her, and only
insane ones will fall in love with her. But she is not even granted this conquest, for,
when the said gentleman forces his way into the Nickleby Household by way of the
chimney, he suddenly turns his attention to Miss la Creevy and heaps abuse upon poor
Mrs.Nickleby. Mrs.Nickleby still manages to escape from a sense of dejection and
depression by declaring: '"I shall never forgive myself, Kate, never! That gentleman has
lost his senses. And I am the unhappy cause.' 'You the cause!" said Kate, greatly
astonished. "'I. my love,' replied Mrs.Nickleby, with a desperate calmness."(a)
There is much contempt in the treatment of Mrs.Nickleby by the author as well as by Kate
and Nicholas.(b)
Naef-Hinderling gaat vervolgens in op de dialoog, of is het een monoloog, van
Mrs.Nickleby tot haar dochter in begin van hoofdstuk 41. Daarin vergelijkt zij babies en
gebraden varkentjes, waarbij de laatste er beter uitzien en geen familieuitbreiding met zich
meebrengen. Zelfs het eten van een varkentje wordt verbonden met nare gedachten: een
dronken man valt door een kelderluik in een leeg huis en werd pas gevonden door de nieuwe
bewoner. De zomerse dag eindigt onplezierig. Deze interpretatie wordt versterkt door een
passage uit Dickens; beschrijving van zijn jeugd in Dullborough Town.
...in my very young days I was taken to so many lyings-in that I wonder I ever escaped
becoming an professional martyr to them in after-life. I suppose I had a very
sympathetic nurse, with a large circle of married acquaintance. However that was, as I
continued my walk through Dullborough, I found many houses to be solely associated
in my mind with this particular interest. At one little greengrocer's shop, down certain
