Dickens' Creation of a Picture of Nineteenth Century School in Nicholas Nickleby

Dickens' Creation of a Picture of Nineteenth Century School in Nicholas Nickleby

This essay demonstrates how Charles Dickens, the author of the novel

'Nicholas Nickleby' creates an image of the 19th century school

Dotheby's Hall School for Boys. Also I will be discussing the

conditions of the school, the description of the boys and the

protagonists (Mr. Squeers, Smike and Nicholas.) In the 19th century

the rich students were treated pleasantly because they had the money

to pay the school however the poor students were treated harshly.

Also, in the 19th century there was no social service so the teachers

could do as they wished to the students.

When Dickens was writing this novel, conditions in schools would have

been terrible because in the 19th century there would still have been

corporal punishment. The divide between rich and poor people as the

poor people could not afford to pay so the teachers would make them

work but the rich were treated superior because they had the money to

pay for the school. In the novel, Dickens shows how one man can change

everything about Dothebys Hall School for Boys and help the

disadvantaged children in need.

However, the surroundings of the school are described to be dirty and

old, for example when Dickens describes the desks in the classrooms to

be 'old and rickety' this portrays that the school is poorly kept and

unbearable to see. This also illustrates that the classrooms are kept

insufficiently and hygienically. The children are sleeping in bad

conditions for example 'as they lay closely packed together, covered

from warmth's sake. This demonstrates poor conditions in the school. I

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life'. This discusses that Nicholas is tired of seeing corporal

punishment and wants to make a stop to it NOW. Dickens uses physical

violence in the novel for example 'administering a cut with the cane'.

This examines that Mr. Squeers can hit the children and no one can say

anything to him. The children have no parents and no one really cares

about them, so they are in the inferior social class.

In conclusion, I think Dickens creates good picture of the school by

using such strong vocabulary. I think that Dickens wrote this novel

because at that time corporal punishment was aloud in schools and

Dickens thought it was wrong so he wanted to write a novel to show how

bad it was then with bad teachers and poor students and if there was

no corporal punishment I n those days he would of made Mr. Squeers a

good person.