Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens Essay -- Nicholas Nickleby Charle

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens Chapter 13 effectively encourages the reader to resent Squeers and see him as the villain, whereas Nicholas is portrayed as the hero and Smike and the other bays are lavished with sympathetic feelings. The chapter starts with a depressing description of the boys sleeping conditions, Dickens uses words like: feeble, ragged, and dull, to describe it, this powerful description makes the reader feel-strengthening hatred toward Squeers. Squeers is the headmaster at the boarding school "Dotheboys Hall"where Nicholas was sent to work by his uncle after his father's death. His father had only a small amount of money so he left it to his brother, and trusted him to look after his family, consisting of Nicholas's mother and Sister Kate. Nicholas's uncle is a hard remorseless man and sends Nicholas and his sister to work to earn their keep. The family are moved into a small dirty flat and given little money to live on. During Nicholas's time at Dotheboys Hall, he meets one of the boys "Smike" and befriends him. Smike has no parents to speak of so he is kept on as a servant to the family. Nearing the end of the chapter Nicholas inspires Smike to run away, unfortunately he is caught, resulting in the chapters climax. Squeers is about to beat Smike but then Nicholas steps in and following a fight, they make off together. Throughout the chapter Dickens enhances the reader's negative feelings towards Squeers. Dickens use of verbs to describe Squeers's actions ads, a greater depth to his character, using words like retorted, bounced and feasted. These words show the rage in Squeers's character, and the way he goes about daily life, they give the reader a sense of his disrespect... ...can be hard going to read Dickens's work, his highly expressive and intricate style of writing, can become incredibly engaging to the reader, as it does to me. You become almost used to it after a while .This stile gives the reader a sense of emotional involvement with the characters in the book. It makes the reader more in touch with the characters moods and personalities, giving the book a better dramatic influence on the reader. A favourite quotation: "`Which no doubt you would have been devilish sorry to do,' said Squeers in a taunting fashion." This line sums up Squeers's character as, the conniving villain that he undoubtedly is, but when said out loud in the proper style, this quotation can start a passion to read more writing in this style and explore the character from whose lips those word were said, rejoined, retorted, demanded, or even sneered.