Nicholas Congratulates Arthur Gride on His Wedding Morning
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby
August 1839
Etching
Source: Hammerton, page 167
Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The plate's title lends a further degree of irony to the climactic moment since Nicholas and death providentially rescue Madeline Bray from Gride's clutches as once again Nicholas frustrates his uncle's designs. The melodramatic nature of the scene in chapter 54, "The Crisis of the Project, and its Result," so obvious in the rhetoric of Nicholas as he cows the misers, is also reflected in the physical disposition and poses of the characters in Phiz's plate. Thus, text and illustration work together to underscore a memorable moment in the main plot. While the indignant youth (centre) attempts to comfort Madeline Bray (her limp hand signifying her unconsciousness) with his left hand, he denounces the two malignant plotters (Ralph Nickleby and Arthur Gride, left) as "Wretches" with his right hand.
The sequence began with the arrival of the aged groom and his best man to collect their prize. Madeline's father, conflicted about granting his permission for the marriage, had retired with his daughter when Nicholas and Kate unexpectedly arrived, just before a thump on the floor above them announced Bray's collapse. Bray has died, presumably of the stress engendered by the insupportable situation. The precise moment that Phiz has realized is when, having carried Madeline insensible downstairs to be ministered to by his sister (identified by her bonnet in the illustration) and tearful servant (right), Nicholas notes that Gride's hold over Bray is at an end:
"That the bond, due today at twelve, is now waste paper. That your contemplated fraud shall be discovered yet. That your schemes are known to man, and overthrown by Heaven. Wretches, that he defies you both to do your worst!" [Part 17, August 1839].
Reference
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book, 1910.
Last modified 9 May 2009