Tear Jerker / Nicholas Nickleby

Poor Smike...

• The first chapter ending with the Nickleby family ruined after Nicholas's father invested poorly with him dying of a broken heart and intense guilt afterwards is nothing sort of a sobering Downer Beginning.
• Nicholas and his family separating after Nicholas was assigned as assistant teacher for Dotheboys Hall. It’s clear that they don’t want to be separated from each other, showing how much they love each other.
• The way the boys are treated at Dotheboys Hall is disheartening. They are starved and abused physically and emotionally on a regular basis, and by the time Nicholas came, they are so dispirited and broken that they consider their abuse a daily routine. Even during some of the “lessons” (more like excuses to send the boys of to do chores), there was no cheering or laughter in the classrooms (the only source of cheer and laughter was Wackford Squeers Jr., who was stepping on the toes of other schoolboys), only deathly and morose silence. Even worse is after Dotheboys Hall breaks up, there were still some who didn’t want to leave Dotheboys Hall. As harsh and unforgiving the place is, those boys consider it the only home they knew. Nicholas even says before Smike runs away, that the world's coarsest, hardest toil were happiness compared to Dotheboys Hall.
  • Nicholas’s situation at Dotheboys Hall as well. Seeing the true nature of Dotheboys Hall, as well as the way Squeers and the rest of his family treat the schoolboys as well as Smike, left him in a depressed and despairing state of mind by the end of his first day as assistant teacher. The only source of comfort he has is making friends with Smike, sharing with his misery here. His quote as he is rebuffing Fanny's affections, sums up his feelings toward his situation.
    "...unless it be the one object dear to my heart as life itself, of one day being able to turn my back upon this accursed place, never to set foot in it again, or think of it—even think of it—but with loathing and disgust."
    • This, of course, caused his situation at Dotheboy's Hall to become even worse. Aside from bad food, dirty lodging, and being forced to witness more cruelty, his friend Smike, upon Squeers learning of Smike being treated with kindness by Nicholas, treats him much worse than before, beating him constantly, out of petty jealousy of Nicholas' influence on Smike.
      Smike: (sobbing) They are more hard on me than ever.
• Smike's death. The 2001 version has this exchange before he dies that makes it even sadder:
  Smike: Always... remember... you... made me... happy.
  Nicholas: And you me.
  • And the 2001 version also ends with a picture of his tombstone, that says "Smike Nickleby [...] He lived and was happy".
• The 1980 version also had the death of Smike as a major Tear Jerker. This scene made a Call-Back to the Romeo and Juliet sequence, with Smike and Nicholas reprising the Shakespeare dialogue. The fact that Kate was written in (she does not appear in this part of the original novel), makes it even sadder, considering that Smike reaches out to her with I Want My Beloved to Be Happy invocation: "Nothing can be ill if she be well". And when he finally dies, Nicholas tells Kate what Smike's last words were - that he loved her. The sight of Kate's breakdown could drive anyone to tears.
• Lord Frederick Verisopht's death. He redeems himself in the process, but the lead in is a haunting description of how the knowledge of his impending death has made him realize just how much he has wasted his life and how little he appreciated the world while he had the chance.
• Ralph Nickleby's death could also count as this (particularly in the 1980 stage production). Yes, he was a total and utter bastard, but his breakdown upon learning that Smike (who he had been deliberately tormenting in order to hurt Nicholas) was his son and the fact that he is Driven to Suicide over his actions (as well as various hints throughout the story that he may not have been a fundamentally awful human being) can have this effect.
  • In the 2002 film, as Nicholas reveals to Ralph that Smike is his son, his tone sounds almost surprisingly sympathetic when he tells him that Smike has died as his best friend and is buried by his father.
    Nicholas: That boy, whose loving cheerfulness and sweetness of heart could have been the life saving comfort you need, as all your fortune falls away, that boy now sleeps in the ground... by my father.
• The 2002 film has a scene where Nicholas reaches for a book next to Smike, and Smike jumps away as if he expects to be beaten.

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