THE PORTRAYAL OF OLDER ADULT CHARACTERS IN DICKENS'S NOVELS

NOVEL FOUR

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP (1840/41)

PART ONE: Introduction, Context and Profiling the Narrator and Grandfather Trent (1)

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

The Old Curiosity  Shop was published in serialized form between April 1840 and November 1841, with the single-book format available that same year. It is said that Queen Victoria found it "very interesting and clearly written" (2). The backstory to its publication need not concern us unduly at this stage, but what does, is Dickens's decision to publish his own weekly periodical of "short stories, sketches, and satirical commentary on life organized around an elderly cripple, Master Humpries" (3). The Narrator of the story survives only three chapters, and according to experts, this enables him to be freed up to comment on social issues. Elizabeth Brennan says, "It rendered the later identification of the backwards-looking narrator with the energetic and eccentric Single Gentleman implausible"(4). It was, at best, confusing and, at worse, ridiculous.

The readers of New York, apparently it is said, without any evidence, stormed the wharf where the ship docked carrying the final instalment of the story. The weekly serialization, however, struggled to gain traction with readers, and Dickens's friends urged him to publish it in book form. Sales increased, thus pleasing both Dickens and the publishers. 

The key themes of the book are based on four central characters, Little Nell, Christopher Nubbles (Kit), Richard Swivellor (Dick) and perhaps the most grotesque of all older adult portrayals Dickens penned, Daniel Quilp. Alienation, creativity and materialism are at the core of The Old Curiosity Shop (5). It was a very Victorian good versus evil trope!

Was the Narrator of  Master Humpries Clock with the very telling Dickens' description one and the same as the Narrator of The Old Curiosity Shop who miraculously turned into the mysterious Single Gentleman lodger and younger brother of Grandfather Trent? Apologies for the spoiler. Of equal but different importance is the relationship between the characterization of 12/13-year-old Little Nell to the "elderly" Quilp and between her and her grandfather. Nell's innate goodness and innocence contrast with the gaunt, troubled, compulsive gambler ( who actually robs her) that is her grandfather! It is pretty easy to understand Dickens's difference between the countryside with the squaller and the "highly industrialized and overcrowded London"(6). What is far more complex and troubling is understanding the relationships, motives and characterization of his older adult characters in contrast with what could be argued is a tendency towards ephebophilia or hebephilia and Dickens's narcissism. One critical point is his general aversion to ageing and one's old Age. In this regard, the portrayals of Little Nell, Quilp and Grandfather Trent become instructive and fascinating. 

I found Grandfather Trent more disturbing than Daniel Quilp, and Dickens pulls no punches. A narcissistic, selfish and downright objectable man and grandfather. The story is chaotic. Like so many Victorian novels in serialized form, it is not short of padding, and as one modern-day reader has commented, "There were some passages where Dickens was just prattling on either to be clever or to write to the conditions of deadlines. And Dickens can sometimes be sloppy"(7)

Dickens's own assessment in March 1841 was that it was much better than anything he had written thus far "or may even do"(8). He can be excused, given that he would go on to author a canon of literature that would, centuries later, put him in the same bracket as Shakespeare. Remember, he was a young adult in his late twenties. The comment of Oscar Wilde is, of course, well known  - " one must have a heart of stone to read the death of Nell without laughing". Aldous Huxley claimed that Nell was a prime example of "vulgarity in literature" and that her suffering lacked context to be meaningful"(9)

 As we noted previously in this blog series, Dickens was juggling with Barnaby Rudge and Nicholas Nickleby and still remained traumatized by the sudden death of Mary Hogarth. He had already become incredibly famous and was building his fortune. I think it would, however, be fair to say that at the time, whilst the general public eventually gave it a favourable reading and engaged with its pathos, it reminded me of my first reading of it of a storyline from East Enders or for those of a certain age the T.V. series Dallas! With my subsequent familiarity with the life and works of Dickens, I understand why it became one of the most successful throughout Dickens's writing career and is aided and abetted by film and T.V. adaptations today.

DICKENS'S ANNUS HORRIBILLIS PLUS ( 1838-9)

Dickens experienced several challenges during his life, and 1839 was no exception. The sudden death of Mary Hogarth in May 1837 remained the backdrop. Writing of Little Nell, of Daniel Quilp and grandfather Trent, he was dealing with family issues related to his father's debt and conning money from publishers Chapman and Hall, plus his flogging Charles Dickens autograph forcing him to banish him to the South West. Dickens's brother Alfred looked like he was becoming a chip off the old block, and he created Master Humpries Clock and house hunting out of Doughty Street. To cap it all, Catherine (Kate) Dickens had given birth to Mary the previous year and was now pregnant with her third. Those of us of a certain age will vividly recall Beatlemania; in 1838, Bozmania was dealing with unauthorized adaptions of Oliver Twist.  

Our personal experiences and how we perceive them during our life course, especially those of our childhood and young adulthood, manifest through our behaviour and sense of self. Dickens used his literary and theatrical skills to exorcise his demons. The writing of The Old Curiosity Shop is evidence of Dickens's view of childhood, prepubescence girls, good and evil, life and death, and, I  would argue, Age and ageing. Taking a year or two during the run-up and publication of the OCS is to place the book in the context of Bozmania, workaholicism and family and business dealings. It is, therefore, a story of excessive, and some might argue insincere pathos. 

 On my first reading of the novel, I was captivated by the various storylines and plots, the memorable characters, especially Nell's resilience and her wicked and manipulative grandfather. The supportive role of Kit Nubbles and Dick Swivellor and their loyalty to her are in significant contrast to the scheming of two central characters who are "elderly" and perhaps provide evidence of Dickens's emerging gerontophobia, ageism and indeed, again, anti-semitism. 

Unlike my previous approach to discussing age and ageing in Dickens's first three novels, I will take a different approach here. Rather than draw on all the older characters, I will only focus on Grandfather Trent. [In Part Two, Daniel Quilp takes centre stage but references the portrayals of supportive and older minor characters will be briefly explored]

By the way, I did not cry over the death of  Little Nell! 

                      Daniel Quilp

                              Grandfather Trent

THE COMPULSIVE GAMBLER: WHAT TO MAKE OF HIM?

"A little old man with long hair..though much altered by age" (10) with a haggard face, wandering manner and anxious countenance with a sad life course history (11). What are we to make of this guardian of Nell and proprietor of an old curiosity shop? He is primarily depicted as "crushed and bourne down less by the weight of years than the hand of sorrows" (12). His gambling addiction was occasioned by a fear that his granddaughter would live in poverty or destitution. Trent ( Dickens does not give him a first name) approaches the merciless and exploitative loan shark, Daniel Quilp.

Consequently, he finds himself deep in debt, homeless, and lost in the curiosity shop, forced to wander from village to village. One needs to acknowledge that he continues to gamble, steals Nell's money and robs the kindly Mrs Jarley, the proprietor of the travelling waxworks show, who has taken a shine to Nell and employs her. In many ways, Trent is portrayed as a harmless, vulnerable and fragile old man doing his best to protect his much-loved young, innocent, prepubescent grandchild.  Hawes's commentary, following her death, is that he becomes a "stricken figure, who has lost his wits and who daily sits by her grave, where he is found one spring day 'lying dead upon the stone' (13). Contrast this with the book's opening pages in that the Narrator is uncomfortable and suspicious of the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter. My background in social work and, especially, child protection led me to question the motives behind Trent's behaviour towards Nell. Indeed, her reaction to him would raise safeguarding alarms today. That said, most commentators consider that whilst Trent was certainly neglectful, he was motivated by the overriding need to protect Nell from Quilp, that the relationship was, at the end of the day, one of love, devotion and care, which was reciprocated by Nell. The actual narrative Dickens penned reflects a depiction of a kind, compassionate, wise, and experienced grandfather with a high level of resilience and willingness to sacrifice his own well-being. When rereading the novel, I was struck by the fact that Trent reflects Dickens's ambivalence about old Age. On the one hand, familial love, reflection, nurturing and selflessness, yet on the other, highlighting the Victorian neglect and abuse of older people. 

Grandfather Trent's portrayal demonstrates social neglect, marginalization and abandonment. Perhaps I should set aside the social work texts and re-enforce Dickens as a social reformer. If he sought to spotlight older people's mistreatment, Trent should possibly be considered an Oliver Twist grown old! Later in life, Dickens feared his ageing, but did he in his late twenties and early thirties? If the ambivalence is correct, his picture of Samuel Pickwick in his later years living in "Camelot", cared for and supported, represents the ideal old Age. Trent, however, is robbed of such an ending. He had a young carer who died as a result of the burden and responsibility she had taken on, not as a result of her grandfather's social and economic needs, even dementia and mental frailty, but the abandonment of him by the lack of Victorian society's compassion.    

The death of both Little Nell and her grandfather certainly captured the sentimentality of Victorian and American readers. As Professor James Kincaid points out, it is in complete contrast to that of later generations of readers. Kincaid argues that "alone among Dickens's novels, it is so emphatically centred on the dominant emotion of pathos, the most horrifying and deceptive appeals" (14). Readers were invited to weep, thus keeping Nell as the central figure ("Nellyism"). Whilst we will focus on Quilp later, Kincaid is absolutely right to assert that "Nell is made possible by Quilp and by Dick Swivellor, and the pathos is guaranteed by the humour" (15). I would also add Grandfather Trent! 

                              Notice the "age" of Little Nell- said to be 12/13years, but this

                                        illustration, more like 9 or 10 years

Professor Kincaid makes an interesting observation that there is an "unconscious logic" towards death. I quote it at length, which is  "comic in the sense that it is so strongly dedicated to youth and so violently opposed to Age: if youth and its attendant values can no longer win in the world, then they will turn greater victory in death, thereby defying the aged, who want to adopt their corruption. The grave becomes almost sanctified...the glorification of the grave is matched by repulsion from it.....The perverse comedy of Nell cannot ultimately be sustained because the grave cannot be sanctified for the young. The old die too'. (16) 

Kincaid's discussion of Dickens's own ambivalence about death and dying can be considered in the context of his sense of humour; he was, after all, a comic writer and Kincaid's propositions that comedy and ambivalence is "a relentless underground attack on the old" and Dickens uses humour to evidence it. "At the funeral of Nell, the Narrator makes this attack explicit by arguing that the old horrors are more dead than Nell: old men were there, whose eyes were dim and senses failing grandmothers, who might have died ten years ago, and still be old - the deaf, the blind, the lame, the palsied, the living dead in many shapes and forms, to see the closing of that early grave. What was the death it would shut in, to that which still could crawl and creep above it!" (17). In the words of Dick Swivellor ( Dickens), "... these old people there's no trusting 'em Fred. There's an old aunt of mine down in Dorsetshire who was going to die when I was eight years old and hasn't kept her word yet. They're so aggravating, so unprincipled, so spitful- unless Fred, you can't calculate upon 'em, and even then, they deceive you just as often as not" (18). The joke, as Kincain so astutely observes, is a serious one. It also begs the question not only about Dickens's own ambivalence towards death but also about old Age. 

The Narrator describes the curiosity shop in terms of "old murky rooms, junk, dust and decay" as an environment in which Nell lived and cared for her grandfather. Professor Jewusiak comments we imagine an "ugly age which is stigmatized through images of decay." (19). The Narrator ( Humphry) is fictional and subsequently portrayed as the 'irascible single gentleman', the estranged younger brother of Grandfather Trent (20). Jewusiak argues that the difference between Humphry and the Single Gentleman represents " the transformative potential of old age" (21).  It is one of physical and mental decline, deterioration, and cognitive impairment. There is no disparity between the Narrator and the Single Gentleman in that decline, decay, and old Age can facilitate new perspectives. (22) Trent writes the professor " has this catalyzing effect on the imagination of the characters in the Old Curiosity Shop, and Dickens's plot motivation "falls on the feeble Trent" (23). The burden falls on a thirteen-year-old young carer. 

Dickens was at pains to maintain the centrality of Nell in the story. Indeed, he feared that even the tiny, wretched, half-starved servant girl, The Marchioness, also referred to as Sophronia Sphynx (servant of Sally and Sampson Brass ), whose childhood was arguably more abusive than Nells. She is married off to Dick Swiveller, a friend of Frederick Trent Nell's 21-year-old brother, whilst Nell is killed off to protect the pathos and imagery and proxy for Mary Hogarth, the younger sister of Dickens's wife. The death of Nell, which Oscar Wilde found amusing, allows the older characters, including perhaps Dickens's own, to escape their mortality. 

We explored in previous blogs that the Old Age, especially males in the late Georgian and Victorian eras, was about wealth, social standing, status and independence. They feared mental ill health and physical frailty would steal these attributes and, hence, their own masculinity and power.  Old Age, as a dependency, sickness, poverty, workhouses, and irrelevancy and abandonment, perhaps a second childhood. Grandfather Trent's portrayal is not one of masculinity but re-enforced the social role of females ( in Dickens's mind), even a 13-year-old!  The feminization of Victorian old men, as Teresa Mangum asserts, is to make them "rendered absurd." (24)

The transformation related to Trent is a 'nasty one', asserts Jenny Hartley, who emphasizes that what surprised her when researching Dickens's old male characters is " how they can change; how much and how often they can transform themselves or be transformed or reveal themselves to be other than what we thought." (25) In referencing both Master Humprey and Grandfather Trent Jenny acknowledges about Trent " He's frail, pathetic, affectionate, but transforms into a terrifying figure who creeps into Nell's bedroom and gropes under her pillow to steal her money to feed his gambling habit." (26) He underwent a series of transformations throughout his life course but also within his later years culminated in what we might call a 'Greyfriars Bobby' vigil.

                          At Rest [ Nell Dead] by George Cattermole.Part 39. 

                          Madelene Emerald Thiele. Word Press.com
 

  

            

               The Grave of Little Nell /  George Cattermole. Victoria and Albert

                           The Old Man among the tombs. Cattermole Woodcut. 1840-41

What, therefore, do we learn about Dickens's transformation in how he regarded Age and Ageing as illustrated in this particular portrayal? The narrative of my experiment with an A.I. platform is engaging. To avoid any copywriter hurdles, I quote: "He (CD) began to embrace and even appreciate the ageing process. A significant factor that contributed to this shift was Dicken's personal experiences and introspection. As he aged, he gained a deeper understanding of life's complexities and the wisdom that comes with time. This newfound wisdom allowed him to see the value of each stage of life, including the later years" (27). What does a reasonably intelligent journalist and novelist in his late twenties and a celebrity know of ageing and old age? We need to view Dickens and his portrayal of Grandfather Trent through the prism of a young adult. It would be unfair to do otherwise. 

Did Dickens's acute sense of observation and empathy play a crucial role in shaping his view of ageing and old age about Trent and other older characters in this novel? In his childhood, youth and early adulthood, he interacted with different social classes across the generations, thus exposing him to diverse perspectives, challenges and joys associated with ageing. Without a doubt, he was able to use these experiences to create memorable personalities and characters and their relationship with economic and societal conditions, more comprehensive social issues, and their interfaces. His older characters, in general, and Grandfather Trent, in particular, evidence this. His insight into the process of growing old needs to be more nuanced, but what 20-plus-year-old has this degree of refinement and subtlety? Commentators do not unreasonably consider that Dickens's view of ageing changed as he grew older "to personal growth, empathy towards others' experiences, and his creative exploration of life's intricacies". The assertion that  "he came to appreciate the wisdom and value that comes with ageing, ultimately embracing the process with open arms"(28) is highly questionable.

The typical lengthy Victorian novel leans toward sentimentality and romanticism, and thus, we become sympathetic to the character of Grandfather Trent. Professor Karen Chase points out that there was generally, in the 19th Century, a "literary narrative of old age just as there are narratives about old age."(29)  Her analysis places Dickens in the camp of "the harshness of irony to the softness of sentimentality" which was his hallmark in the writing of both old age and about old age. In both the illustrations in The Old Curiosity Shop and after it, he uses Grandfather Trent to identify the social vulnerability of older adults and through Nell that 'youth will comfort or provide for age'. Nell being a proxy for the traumatic loss of Mary Hogarth, I refer back to a central point: youth, beauty and goodness set against broken, senile, selfish and  'lying dead upon a stone. Chase writes, "No one weeps for old grandfather Trent though they do for Nell. But it is the prostrate figure of the old man, dead but still bent in devotion, that enacts the most powerful work of mourning. The scene lingers in Dickens..."(30). 

The fleeing from London protects Nell and grandfather Trent from Quilp, and others can be seen on the one hand as Nell rescuing him, yet on the other, it is Trent who pushes her to exhaustion and ultimately death. If Quilp is seen as a classic gothic villain, Trent is seen as a Victorian take on The Pilgrim's Progress, of which Dickens was familiar and hence was Little Nell, with her well-thumbed copy (31). Trent is indeed a complex and multifaceted character, and Dickens uses his portrayal as themes of redemption, family bonds and the corrupting influence of obsession. He was a proud and enigmatic old man but, in addition, arguably portrayed as well-meaning to the welfare of his granddaughter alongside Kit Nubbles and the Marchioness exhibiting moments of general compassion, marking the beginnings of his transformation and redemption. He was keen to provide her with financial and material security but, as a result, was obsessive and greedy (32) 

If Grandfather Trent was, at best, neglectful of Nell's well-being and safety, he was also manipulative and abusive, and at worse, coming close to the character of Daniel Quilp. Does this portrayal evidence in any way a tendency of Dickens to gerontophobia or ageism in the context of Victorian attitudes to old age and ageing? A single character does not in and of itself tell us one way or the other. What is relevant is our quest to see whether Dickens was simply reflecting the 19th Century's pathologizing of old age and the values and culture of its time. How far was Dickens's character and personality shaped throughout his life, and how did his attitude and older adult creations result from the interface between the two? We need to analyze his overall portrayals significantly. Is there a pattern or predisposition on his part towards negative and/or ageist assumptions and presumptions?

                              ooo-OOO-ooo

What does the character and portrayal of Daniel Quilp, one of Dickens's most grotesque older adults, tell us? This will be the focus in Part Two.  

References:

1. Taken from The Dickens Collection: The Old Curiosity Shop (TOCS) 17-18 Vol 1+2. G.E Fabbri Ltd. London (2004) (Vol 1 p9/Vol 2 p9

2. Quoted in Wikimedia Commons.Queen Victoria's Journals. Princess 13. Copies.RA VIC/MAIN/QV J (W). 5.03.1841 (Retrieved  24.05.2013)

3. BRENNAN.E.  Edited with an Introduction. Charles Dickens: OCS with original illustrations. Oxford World Classics. OUP 1998 (p vii). Introduction.

4. Ibid (p xxvii)

5. ELLIS. J.W. A Critical Analysis of Charles Dickens; TOCS Cardinal Scholar. Ball State University Libraries. Doctoral Disseratations . 3300. ( 2002-2015)

6. The Pine-Scented Chronicles. Book Review //378: The Old Curiosity Shop. (2022)

7. HOULE.Z. A Review of Charles Dickens TOCS. A Victorian-Era Curisoity. Blog 19.04.2020.zacharyhoul@rogers.com

8. SCHLICK. P. Oxford Readers Companion to Dickens. OUP 1999. (p.433)

9. Ibid

10.PHILIP.A, GADD. L. The Dickens Directory. Crescent Books (New York). (1989) p295

11. HOWES. D. Whose Who in Dickens. Routledge. ( London & New York) 2002 edition. p95

12. Ibid p95

13. Ibid p95

14.  KINCAID J. Laughter and Pathos: Dickens and the Rhetoric of Laughter:  Introduction. Chapter 4 The Old Curiosity Shop The Victorian Web book (10.03.2010) 

15. Ibid

16. Ibid

17. Ibid

18. Ibid

19. JEWUSIAK. J.  Ageing, Duration, and the English Novel. Chapter 2 " No Plots for Old Men". Cambridge University Press (2013)

20. Ibid  p196

21. Ibid  p 197

22. Ibid p197

23. Ibid  p197

24. MANGUM. T. 'Little Women: The Ageing Female Character in 19th Century British Children's Literature Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations. Ed. Katherine Woodward. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (1999) p 59-87. References by JEWUSIAK J (p76) 

25. HARTLEY J. The text of a Presentation to The Dickens Fellowship " Dickens and the Old Men. Fagin, Chuffley and the Aged P" (October 2022)

26. Ibid. Hartley J

27. ChatON-AI chat Bot. narrative. ( 5.08.2023) 

28. Ibid (5.08.23)

29. CHASE. K. The Victorians and Age. Oxford University Press. p135

30. Ibid  p 273

31. INGHAM. P.  The Language of Dickens. Chapter 8. In PAROISSIEN. D. (Ed). A Companion to Charles Dickens.  Wiley-Blackwell (2011)

32. Ibid  ChatON -A.I. (28.11.23) [This is my paraphrase from a ChatOn-AI narrative asking for a summary of the character Grandfather Trent.  The report acknowledges the complex relationship between him and Little Nell, concluding that " Dickens masterfully weaves a range of themes into the narrative, creating a character who evolves and engages the readers in thought-provoking ways"]

 

 

            

                      

                 

 

                                    

 

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION: The Myth and the Reality. A Social Worker's Perspective

The Context

I have spent over 45 years in and around social care and social work. Over that time, experienced and endured countless re-structurings and re-imaginings of policy and practice developments alongside that of Health Services. Perhaps the most bizarre was that of Andrew Landsbury, Secretary of State ( 2010-12) who rightly, in the view of David Brindle, tried to "introduce enormous, and ultimately unworkable, NHS structured change." (1) For me it all started back in the 80's with a shift from direct service provision to a market based mixture of providers which favoured the private sector, underpinned by a New Right philosophy of an enabling state. Through the White Paper, Caring for People: Community Care in the Next Decade and Beyond" (DH 1989). it was for many of us driven by the erroneous belief that the public sector was costly and ineffective and required the wonderful world of capitalism to fix Social Care. What exactly was being fixed, remains for me, the key question. 

It is argued by many that Social Care remains to be "fixed". Since the mixed market of provision so dreamed of in the '80s, has failed to produce the objectives of Community Care (and here, we are in the realm of "beyond"!). Austerity and Pandemics notwithstanding, one significant debate that actually was around in the late '60s is to structurally merge Health and Social Care. At that time I recall debates about returning Heath provisions to Local Authorities, interestingly, from whenced it came! David Brindle reminds us that 'we have gone through person-centred care, systems integration, choice and control, free personal care, funding options and Dilnot'. I'd say, worn and faded deck chairs, patched up and moved around the deck....you get my drift. Brindle writes far better than I , "We have 20 years of disappointment over social care and a roll call of health ( and social care) Secretaries, who often by their own admission, have not left much of a mark." Regardless, there remains the consistent policy intention to increase the integration of health and social care, but what on earth does it mean? 

Nothing changes. Social Care and Social Work in terms of understanding what they are, remains rooted in Poor Law thinking.  How we think about its interrelationship with communities, social justice, poverty, social class, equality, Human Rights, financial security, housing, employment, leisure, transport.... I could go on. Protecting the role of Community Development and its workers has been  sacrificed on the altar of right-wing political ideology!  That said, the constant over the years has been the rhetoric of integrated health and social care which will "fix the problem", whilst at the same time, ignoring the wider socio-economic context in which Care exists, and that of Social and Community Work. The mantra of Integration makes sense and we need more of it - really? I ask what's the evidence that structural and system integration, as defined by present policy and practice, actually creates effective "partnership(s) of organisations coming together to plan and deliver joined-up health and social care services, to improve the lives of people who live and working their area"? (2)

SO WHAT IS INTEGRATED CARE?

Sarah Scobie asks what we mean by it, how has it changed, and does it work? (3) It is a good starting point. Both health and care services are broad in their scope, even purpose, governed and funded separately from and by different legal entities. In addition, individuals are means tested for care services and have to meet the pernicious rationing eligibility criteria imposed by commissioners. Sometimes called 'collaborative working '  it necessitates social workers, in particular, to work in new ways. Integrated Care also requires multi disciplinary working across the participating agencies, which in turn requires cooperation throughout the whole system. Yet we still have little consensus as to what it all means from political leaders, national and local, practitioners and their managers, let alone service users. Does it actually matter for Joe Public, providing what they require, on their terms is available, accessible and relevant? The challenge for me, is that it matters a lot for and to, everybody else! 

Again Sarah Scobie unpacks the levels of integration and hence offers a useful framework for us to measure and evidence effective and efficient collaborative working.(4)

• Organisational: this is about co-ordinating structures and governance, mergers or contractual or cooperative arrangements
• Administrative and Financial: back office support, accounting, data sharing and information systems
• Service Integration: via multi disciplinary teams and simple systems for referral and assessment
• Clinical Integration: becoming a "single and coherent process"

It is all very sensible and to be welcomed, but we need a reality check. Emeritus Professor, John Harris and independent consultant Vicky White identify factors that threaten or undermine collaborative working which, I argue, is relevant when examing Integrated Care. I recognise however that there will be some who would equally argue that collaborative working and Integrated Care are different. I disagree. Turning to threatening and undermining barriers Harris and White are instructive (5)

• Structural: Fragmented responsibilities between the agencies and practitioners. Does Integrated Care deal with this in practice? 
• Procedural and Finacial: differences in planning and budget cycles. Integrated planning and merged budgets are dependent on what resources are, in reality, released from the participating agencies where decisions about resource allocation are taken within and by the agency. In other words, the cake being cut is determined by Councils and Trust Boards etc, and thus "unified" budgets are in reality, a slice.
• Defensiveness: in response to perceived threats to professional status, autonomy, and legitimacy. For me, this, and those factors below are too frequently ignored when considering and evaluating Integration. Muti agency bodies are brought together to strategically plan, agree on priorities and carve up the slice is not an algorithm or some AI process which leads us to
• Professional and Power Differences: differences in ideologies, values and professional interests, conflicting priorities, meeting different targets and performance management systems, data collection and factors that threaten to undermine collaborative working, fostering blame and antagonism rather than goodwill.

I believe that these factors taken as a whole need to be considered when exploring Integrated Health and Social Care policy and practice. For me the jury is not out, it hasn't even been brought together. How do those directly engaged in making strategic, priority and spending decisions experience integration? How do managers and front-line care professionals experience integration? What level of engagement and participation is there with patients, social care users and their families and the community? 

For professional social workers and the Profession generally, there are concerns about identity, values and ethics. Harris and White give a prime example referencing "the conflicting beliefs and values underpinning the medical and social models of disability." (6) 

SO HOUSTON, DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM?

Here's my top Twenty:

1. The continuance of health and social care disparities
2. The predominance of a medical model that pathologises and continues to shapes social care
3. The prevalence of Human Rights violation
4.  Failure to underpin person centred approaches, with a life course foundation and perspective 
5. Poor data collection and hence tracing the effectiveness of Integrated Care against policy outcomes
6. Social care is primarily seen and perceived as direct care tasks
7. Geographical boundary differences between providers
8. The patient and service users' experience, especially in relation to long term care provision
9. Different professional roles and identities and "social workers struggling to articulate their role " (7)
10. Different organisational and professional cultures
11. Power imbalances
12. Interpersonal relationships between participants
13. Lack of political will to see the challenges through a different lens than simply funding 
14. The continuance of institutional ageism, sexism, racism, ableism, and homophobia within professional practice and organisations
15. Marginalization of small Voluntary groups 
16. Concealment of inadequate funding
17. Confronting poor support, oversite and inadequate training and development of those working within Integrated Teams
18. Political ideologies and short terminism 
19. Failure to test the effectiveness of co-production, participation, "experts by experience" and service user involvement 
20.  The 'corruption of care' 

I can hear 'off stage' some readers saying that Integrated Care systems and structures were not designed to address these issues. If that is true, then what is the point of it? For me, the very purpose of Integrated Care is to improve health and care outcomes, address social inequalities, measure and evidence productivity and VFM, access to care, and support people to stay well and independent. It therefore cannot achieve this, if it ignores those factors that undermine its very purpose. 

WHERE ARE YOU OH SOCIAL WORKER?

The key here is that social work offers a relational, not transactional approach within the care system. I am not looking for a checklist assessment, or a signpost to god knows where. I want a social worker who re-enforces my service rights and my citizenship, that does not other or commodify me. I want to be regarded as an equal with the right to self-determination, mutual respect and trust, to help me navigate the health and social care system, who is also my advocate and be responsible to me ( whatever my circumstances) and not for me. 

I do not want a relationship with a succession of workers I do not know, and whilst to have a relationship with a Department or agency is possible in broad terms, it cannot of course become a 'therapeutic' one. The individual social worker builds trust and expertise in relationship building, which includes not just talking with me, but where I can share feelings and my concerns hopes and fears. Above all helps me be optimistic. The social worker is an expert with their feet firmly on the ground, do what they say they will and becomes a partner with me. I acknowledge that they have a responsibility to their agency and the wider community. (8)  It is no easy feat. The pernicious growth of managerialism, authoritarianism and the marketization of social care, over the past decades, continues to threaten and undermine the social work relationship. 

Here's another list, this one is about Social Work taken from SHARE: A New Model for Social Work ( 2018)(9) and the social worker:

• A positive, optimistic outlook
• Understanding the reality of oppression from other professionals ( and I'd add our own )
• A belief in the possibility of change
• Commitment to a relational approach
• Supporting people to feel a sense of belonging
• An awareness of the dynamic nature of hope
• An ability to imagine a different way of doing things 
• Skills in supporting people to develop goals and look to the future 

Mirrages, Myths and Emperors' New Clothes?

Collaboration and cooperation in Multi-disciplinary teams and organisations is hard enough for all professionals working within them, social workers particularly so. I have tried to explore Integrated Care Systems, which in essence, institutionalise joint working, but is seen  by its advocates as a good and necessary development. It is a mirage, which does little, if anything, to address the threats which are a real and present danger, not just to

socialwork, but to and for communities, individuals and the causes of social inclusion and justice. Perhaps it is not a mirage, but quicksand, a swamp. 

To place Social Work and Care in their wider context, have a look at the writings of Cormac Russell and John Knight (10), Alex Fox (11) and Peter Beresford (12) all of whom provide a totally different paradigm to that presently underpinning Integrated Care Systems. 

Social Work can potentially be both powerful and transformative, rooted in communities and neighbourhoods if released from the bureaucracy and the false rhetoric of Integrated Care Systems. It cries out to be released from present day 19th-century asylum-based narratives of social care reform. Is has to be freed to enable, rather than simply process and facilitate thus recapturing  the dynamic relationship between individuals, communities and the State, and by no means least, make a reality of the radical nature of participation and involvement. 

Dr Mervyn Eastman

References:

1. David Brindle. Changing Faces of Westminster "Who was not up to the Task"? Care Management Matters CMM (2023)
2. https;/www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/
3. Scobie S. "Integrated Care Explained" Nuffield Trust Explainer (2021)
4. Ibid
5. Harris J, Whitew J " Collaborative Working" Dictionary of Social Work and Care. Oxford (2013) pp 101-102
6. Ibid p 102
7. Bark H, Dixon J, Lang J. "The Professional Identity of Social Workers in MentalHealth Services. A Scoping Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2023)
8. Banks S. Ethics and Values in Social Work. Practical Social Work. (4th Ed) BASW (Mclean/ Palgrave) 1995
9. Maclean S, Finch J, & Tedam P. SHARE: A New Model for Social Work. Kerwin Maclean Associates (2018)
10. Russell C & Knight J. The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth and Power of Neighbourhoods. Berett-Koelher Publishers (2022)
11. Fox A. "A New Health and Care System: Escaping the Invisible Asylum". Policy Press. (2021)
12. Beresford P. "Participatory Ideology: From Exclusion to Involvement" Policy Press (2021)

  

 

 

  

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THE PORTRAYAL OF OLDER ADULTS IN CHARLES DICKENS'S THIRD NOVEL (1838-1839) 

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY

PART THREE: THE CAST OF CHARACTERS CONTINUED [2/2]

READERS familiar with Charles Dickens's life and works would quickly become aware that his opinion and attitude to the law was, let's say, contemptuous. Our exploration of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist and now Nicholas Nickleby he writes of prisons, judges, tricks and lawsuits. As a young man, he toyed with the idea of becoming a lawyer. He had little sympathy for adult criminals whom he considered exploited and abused children and approved of "hard labour in prisons and felt satisfaction and witnessing a determined thief, swindler or vagrant, sweating profusely at the treadmill or the crank"(1). He was however against public hanging. Like many Victorians, he abhors child abuse, but unlike those in power, he railed against the political collusion that accepted such abuses, whether in the implementation of the Poor Law or in educational establishments. His Dotheboys Hall narrative in Nicholas Nickleby is brutal and many commentators argue was his most effective, given that it directly brought about reforms and the abolition of such practices that sent unwanted children to such schools (2)

In his early novels, the focus was on individual children, but as Andrzej Diniejko points out he later exposed and laid bare the wider Victorian social policy context, the effects of industrialization and "a bitter diagnosis of the Condition of England" (3). Our interest however is in the perpetrators. Nancy, and the proxy Rose Maylie for Mary Hogarth (see below) were victims of older adults ( eg Fagin and Bumble) and Smike was the victim of Squeers and his own father, the contemptuous, cunning and unscrupulous money lender, Ralf Nickleby. The juxtaposition of the children, Oliver Twist, Rose Marley, Smike and, later as we shall see, Jo from Bleak House, Little Nell (The Old Curiosity Shop) and Little Dorrit and their ageing abusive perpetrators, is in my view telling. Furthermore, it is worth noting that we are looking at institutional, employment and domestic/family abuse. Children and young teenagers were modelled on the seventeen-year-old Mary Hogarth who died in Dickens's arms. Innocence and purity set against old, misanthropic, ugly, deformed, grotesque, scheming, repulsive and manipulative are just a few portrayals of older adults throughout Dickens's writings. His social commentary and the economic precariousness of the Victorian working, business and middling classes are a significant backdrop to 

his literary output. He did not ignore the relative wealth of what we would call the blue and white-collar professional classes. Oppression ranged from nature, such as fog, to buildings, such as workhouses, streets, and rookeries, through to industrialisation, railways, the law and the commodification of labour. So yes, Dickens was a powerful social critic even in his early writings ( today would be classed as an influencer), but he also throughout his life monetized his writing and his public-speaking and social critique. He penned vast numbers of cast characters, minor and major with multi-layered plots and storylines, but he was never arrogant. As Tony Schwab says about Dickens's vision in Nicholas Nickleby

" he sees morality and refined sentiment in any harsh condition and always envisions a future state of altruism" (4) -unless of course, they were unrepentant older adults! 

As we explore the final older characters I am reminded, and therefore stress again, of Dickens's child and adolescent experiences. His sense of abandonment, poverty, rejection, prisons, his father's debts, homelessness, lack of education,  and of sibling jealousy and thus, his drive "to make something of himself" which is portrayed in this third novel. We need also to ponder his young adult workload, his obsessions, his fatherhood, his controlling behaviour and his business dealings. All these experiences impacted Dickens and his sense of self throughout his life course and arguably at the time he was writing Nicholas Nickleby he had an underdeveloped sense of self, which indeed Nicholas reflected. Dickens's older characters also lacked nuance. Viewed by some literary critics and a few Dickens scholars the characters generally were seen as one-dimensional and the older ones particularly as odious and stereotyped. Yet we conceded that the Cheerble twins, Tim Linkwater, and even Norman Noggs are seen as kindly, jolly, affectionate idolizing older adults. But they, alongside the likes of Brownlow and Pickwick are also stereotypes. Villans by and large are demonized. Children are sanctified. The demons were killed off, and the children were rescued, even if we regard death as a release.

 

Time to continue our portrayals. I have again used aged 50plus as my definition of an older adult (explained in previous blogs), and whilst Dickens very helpfully frequently evidence "old age/elderly" and even specific ages, there are others whom we can only say are of  an"uncertain age." Arguably I have taken liberties but my rationale for inclusion is explained in the narrative.

MR AND MRS CURDLE (of Uncertain Age): The question I asked myself was, what do I have in mind about this couple? Dickens does not give a specific age, but the description and portrayal indicate that Mrs Curdle is the patroness of the Crummles Company "dressed in a morning wrapper, with a little cap stuck upon her head"(5) She "was supposed by those who knew her best informed on such points, to possess quite the London taste in matters related to literature and the drama" (6) 

Mr Curdle had authored a 64-page pamphlet on the character of the Nurse's deceased husband in Romeo and Juliet. In addition "he wore a loose robe on his back, and his right forefinger on his forehead, after the portraits of Sterne.. to whom somebody said he bore a striking resemblance." (7) The illustration below may say far more than simply his mannerism, but does not evidence that Curdle was not at least in his middle years. Dr Jacqueline Banerjee reminds us that Dickens was attracted to the theatre and those performers who populated it. The rather pantomime nature of the Crummles was a commentary on society itself being a pantomime (8). One could get carried away with the notion that they and the Curdles were simply offering a "subversive purpose, providing a diversity of responses, producing fluidity, liberation and change" (9) They are pantomime characters and perhaps we should not dwell too much on their characterisation or age. The description of their dress and mannerisms remind us that Dickens himself was a dandy dresser and took particular attention to how he looked, but that said, pantomimes by their very nature ridicule and exaggerate the characters, especially through their costumes. At the end of the day, Dickens may simply be having a laugh, and padding the storyline/narrative as Victorian authors did when writing in serialised form. Old age, even today is ridiculed in Christmas pantos both in terms of costume and script. 

                                         Lawrence Sterne (novelist) painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds     

                           (1760) Dickens may be saying more about mannerisms than age

                                         

 

MR PUGSTYLES: Described as a "plump old gentleman in a violent heat" He heads a deputation to Mt Gregsbury MP concerning his behaviour. (see above). Note " plump and violent heat"

MISS BROWNDOCK: Difficult to call. She was however the focus of Mrs Nickleby's rambling remembrances and referenced "Why, your poor dear papa's cousin's sister-in-law -taken into partnership by a lady that kept a school in Hammersmith and made a fortune in no time at all". According to Nicholas's mother, she won £10,000 on the lottery ( £1,142,949 today), so rambling indeed! This says more about the portrayal of Mrs Nickleby which is discussed below.

DR LUMBEY: Again it is unclear as to determine whether he was an older adult, but the narrative description is worth examining. If we follow Chi Luu's analysis of Dickens and the linguistic art of the minor characters we ask what image do we have in mind? "He was a stout bluff looking gentleman, with no shirt collar to speak of, and a beard that had been growing since yesterday morning, for Dr Lumby was popular, and the neighbourhood was prolific." Erring on the side of caution let's again say he was of uncertain age, but caution too, as we discussed in Oliver Twist, our question is whether Dickens's portrayals are both negative and positive and descriptions, therefore, may not have been evidence of gerontopobia at all. Being of an 'uncertain age' in and of itself could be quite meaningless on its own terms. But we are not looking at it on its own terms but in the context of Victorian attitudes to ageing, the language used related to older people and Dickens's propensity to exaggerate, stereotype, idealize and romanticize young and old alike. We know the model related to children and possibly pre and post-pubescent girls, but we continue our search for a model(s) underpinning his portrayals for older adults. The reason for including those adult characters of uncertain age is to discover any clues or evidence of lifelong gerontopobia.

MR SHAWLEY: Here we have another interesting character in that again, we do not have stated his chronological age, but we do have the context and his involvement with Squeers and Ralf Nickleby which allows for some speculation for fitting within our definition of an older adult.  Firstly he is either the father-in-law or stepfather of two boys placed at Dotheboys Hall; he is a friend of Squeers and "a man of a similar kidney to Squeers and the future of the boys is well understood between them" (10). One of the best portrayals I came across was that of Rodney Dale and explains far better than I just how obnoxious he was, including the fraud he and Ralf Nickleby with Squeers attempted to perpetrate. I quote at length - "A sanctimonious, hypocritical rascal, who places his stepsons in the care of Squeers at Dotheboys Hall, with the tacit understanding that they have no vacations, and to 'rough it a little'. Acting as the tool of Ralf Nickleby, he afterwards claims Smike, his son, for the purpose of separating him from Nicholas and restoring him to the custody of Squeers; but his villainy is discovered and, to secure his own safety he divulges the whole scheme, naming Rolf Nickleby as his employer, and implicating Squeers as a confederate" (11) The illustration below would possibly indicate an older adult or of late middle age.

 

               "Mr Snawley Entarges on Parental Instinct"  (May 1838) Habot Browne

               The Victorian Webb. Source J.A Hammerton, The Dickens Picture Book p 164

                    Scanned image and text by Philip V Allinghan

MR TRIMMERS: Here we have a close and probably long-term friend of the Cheeryble brothers which is implied in their trust in Mr Trimmers's judgement and of Dicken's own narrative of him being "a good creature" and "kind soul". They all shared the same value base and charitable endeavours (12) and whilst no age is given I think we are on safe ground in assuming that such relationships, though not rare between generations, are common within the same. Furthermore, Dickens frequently refers to a number of older characters (eg Pickwick) as kindly or warm-hearted.  

MR WATKINS: Another minor character of uncertain age, but being the godfather of Kate Nickleby, allegedly, according to the unreliable Mrs Nickleby owed £50 to her husband. He jumped bail, absconded to America, and "sent the family a pair of snow shoes" He was an old friend of Nicholas's father who had put up the security for his debt. Again we are left with a very subjective opinion that his relationship with Mr Nickleby, being Kate's godfather and sufficiently trusted to pay him back, and having the means to travel to the United States implies at least he was middle-aged if not over 50 years. 

I have left two central portrayals to last. Readers familiar with the novel and its some 146 cast members, 13% of whom are older by my reckoning (with the health warning of supposition) they are all profoundly significant in terms of depiction. Taken as a whole we have collectively, shabby, sanctimonious, fat, drab, wrinkled, cunning, pompous, tyrannical,  and criminal on the one hand and benevolent, kind, furry, charitable and generous on the other. As for the likes of the Cheeryble twins' portrayal, one could argue they reflect an ageist narrative by today's understanding. This may seem unfair to Dickens given he was writing in the mid-1800s, using literary, dramatic and exaggerated narratives across all age groups, classes and circumstances. 

The older characters in Dickens's novels are portrayed the way they were for a whole range of reasons and we are exploring why in the context of both the 19th and 21st Centuries. We recognise today children adopt age stereotypes but did they during Dickens's childhood and boyhood. He undoubtedly had an understanding of the lived experience of those older people with whom he would have been in contact, be they family, acquaintances of his parents or those living around Mile End Road, Portsmouth, St Pancras, London and Chatham in Kent, plus his trauma years back in London of 1820-24. We also know he was an avid childhood reader and observer thus learning about how older people were portrayed and behaved. These influenced his sense of self and esteem and moulded him as all our childhoods do. Dickens transitioned from childhood, boyhood and into early adulthood with an awareness of class and status, rejection, poverty, and of family secrets. Age, it is said, is "a social construct and people have different notions of 'old age' depending on their own age" (13). Evidence today on children's attitudes towards older adults suggests they are "complex, and mostly negative" yet on the other hand children also have "strong affectionate feelings toward older people, describing them as wonderful, kind and rich" (14) 

Dickens took with him into his journalism, his Court Reporting and early creative writing his own notions of age and ageing. Both the personal and professional come together in these early novels, and certainly in Nicholas Nickleby whether he was conscious of it or not. It is not surprising therefore there is a rich and exaggerated portrayal of characterization and caricature, but in my view, they cannot be uncoupled. Pickwick and Fagin were, in many ways, a reflection of his imagined future self - one desired, but the other feared. He did not kill off Pickwick, he reformed Scrooge as we will note when exploring his first Christmas Book, and he as he so often did, used death by suicide for those whose crimes that were so heinous even by Victorian standards.

It is time finally to look at Mrs Nickleby and Ralf Nickleby et al as they are central to this discussion.

MRS CATHERINE NICKLEBY: It has generally been accepted that she was based on Dickens's own mother, Elizabeth. Herein lies Pandora's box of emotions from angst, resentment, pity, and anger through to affection and care. The challenge we face is to disentangle the Dickens/mother relationship and whether that relationship affected his view of old age. 

David Paroissien says of Mrs Nickleby that her "distinctive 'scatter gabble' " was not based on Elizabeth Dickens at all, who was recorded and remembered by those who knew her as having "had a good stock of common sense and a matter of fact manner." Others however remembered her as " incoherent in her speech and vain about her wasp waist" (15). Nursemaid Mary Weller supported Elizabeth describing her as "a dear good mother and a fine woman" teaching Dickens to read, learn a bit of Latin and "generally instilling in him a love of reading and a desire of knowledge."(16) The relationship between Charles and his mother up until the age of seven, appeared positive. The fracture and thus resentment and sense of abandonment came when she refused to allow him to leave the Blackening factory, and return to school and favoured the needs and preference of his sister Fanny over his. He never forgave her. Did this underpin his portrayal of the eccentric clown that is Mrs Nickleby? Did he, as a child perceive his mother as old?  The clue may be that Mrs E Dickens's experience of her husband's imprisonment changed her from the time Mary Weller knew her? Returning to the renowned Dickensian scholar Schlicke, he concedes that "the likeness between her and Mrs Nickleby is simply the exaggeration of some slight peculiarities."(17) 

In her later widowhood years, Dickens comments that she had "a strong objection to be considered in the least old! (18) Like mother like son. In his response to Elizabeth's final years when she was living with dementia, Charles showed nothing but care and support of and for her. Schlicke acknowledges resentment existed and that that resentment "doubtless influenced the creation of so many unsatisfactory mothers throughout Dickens's fiction."(19) Donald Hawes's commentary re-enforces that of Schickes' in that of Elizabeth she is a harsh caricature of some aspects of the real woman's character  - her ebullience, her little vanities and wordiness and her often ill grounded optimism".(20). Elizabeth was in her late 40's early 50's when her son was writing Nicholas Nickleby and thus not perhaps unreasonable that any modelling on his own mother would reflect a woman in her late middle age early old age. That said, Nicholas was about 19 years old which implies Dickens was not relating chronological age to her, but more personality and character. The discussion therefore on children's and young people's perceptions of old age comes into play. It was however of an ageing woman described as weak, opinionated, rambling, and the precursor to the character Flora Finching in David Copperfield. 

It is said that many readers of Dickens at the time recognised themselves in his characterizations, some took offence and it may be reasonable to assume Dickens used them as payback, in Transactional Analysis terms, he was "cashing in stamps"!(21) Regardless, one cannot ignore the absolute probability that in part he reflected his mother in Mrs Nickleby given our understanding of a child's view of old age and offering a provocation the possibility of unconscious bias regarding the association between old age and parental power and control. It is the perception of age and ageing that is important, rather than necessarily chronological age, and herein lies the point regarding all those "of uncertain age" portrayals throughout. We do not always know what was in this young writer's mind about old age as he penned these early novels, but our exploration and pondering make for a torturous, yet fascinating journey.

             Illustration by Phiz [Note Mrs Nickleby being assisted by her daughter Kate]

 

              

          Stock photos of Victorian Older Women. The importance of images influencing perceptions and attitudes?

MR RALF NICKLEBY (Jnr), GODFREY( his father) and NICHOLAS ( Snr): Again we need to revisit the issue of realism v's reality in Dickens's portrayals. In these early novels, he was learning his craft and can be forgiven for failing to "recreate in terms of art, the reality which moved him."(22) But that said, are we, asking as did George Santagana in 1922  believe that "individuals like Quilp, or Squeers or Serjeant Buzfuz exist?"(23). Does it even matter?

The descriptions of Dickens's characters bother many a literary critic and even within two years of his death, he was accused of failing "to apply realism, and creations so fantastic that one is at a loss to understand how he could, without hallucination, believe them to be like reality." The source goes on to include the Mantalinies and Arthur Gride as "monstrous failures" on account of their lack of "fluctuating spontaneity."(24) Given the importance of the older Nickleby tribe, as characterized by Dickens, we now focus our attention. 

Ralf Nickleby as far as we know was not based on a real person and therefore a creation of Dickens's imagination and pure fiction. He was portrayed as a " cunning and unscrupulous money lender with a cold restless eye, which tells of cunning that would announce itself in spite of him."(25)  Howes goes on to add "people trapped in his tenacles include the members of the Nickleby family, the Mantalini's, Squeers, Gride and the Brays."(26)

Unlike Squeers and Gride, however, we also have an aristocratic cast and social class specifically is of central concern throughout the novel as is the precariousness of social position, which as Schlike points out "resulted from the tension between the new wealth of the emerging middle classes  and the continuing political and social power of the  aristocracy." Furthermore "Noggs is a failed gentleman and Nicholas the son of a failed gentleman"  - whereas Ralf owes his status to the accumulation of wealth rather than gentility. (27) He, we are told " had the face of the old man was stern, had features and forbidding...The old man's eye was keen with twinklings of avarice and cunning" (28)

Ralf Nickleby's brother Godfrey, known as Nicholas the Elder speculated his little capital losing both his heart, went to bed and died.

The grandfather of Nicholas is portrayed as "a worthy gentleman, who taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough, or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment"(29). The father of Nicholas ( brother of Ralf) is described as of a "timid and retiring disposition. Embraced his wife and children - solemnly commended them to the one who never deserted his widow and her fatherless children, and smilingly gently on them - observes that he thought he could fall asleep."(30)

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS AND QUESTIONS

Is the association of class, wealth and cunning, duplicity, child abuse, bankruptcy and the various portrayals we have highlighted actually tell us whether Dickens had an issue, not just about family relationships, but old age? If these characters are taken individually, it appears not, but when viewed as a whole we can see the narratives are stereotypes of old age and ageing by today's definitions. Teresa Mangum writes that "Dickens carries the image of the rapacious old person to grotesque extremes- where even grandchildren are being prematurely aged by their obsession with family money." (31)

The Nickleby family relationships and household structures demonstrate how families can become fractured when the determinants of customary practice, economic status and demographic factors threaten to undermine traditional values of care, support and kinship. Ralf Nickleby benefited and exploited and broke those values. That is why for me, his portrayal as a son, uncle, and father is so powerful. Was this Dickens's intention aided and abetted by a cohort of older people?  Ralf Nickeby was a poisonous spider. For Dickens, there was only one consequence. He could have been killed off by a third party, or some supernatural intervention, or shipped off to Australia, but he opts for suicide "in a mood of frenzy, hatred and despair". Was this simply reflecting the 19th-century view that an older person's life course of wickedness, exploitation and the betrayal of the social contract mean a very torrid end? The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful account of the Misfortunes, Uprising, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the Nickleby Family says it all, in that it is a family saga ending with a poor nineteen-year-old eventually experiencing a happy, contented warm family life, whilst many of the older members and cast were alone, miserable or dead. (32)

John Varese writes "Ralf's fate at the end of a rope, in the very place where his dejected son Smike once rested, delivers the novel's final verdict on the guilt of those who refuse to see beyond their own financial gain and inflexibility."(33) But the final message is the contrast between the young Nickleby and the ageing Ralf. He dies intestate, the money could have gone to Nicholas and the family but is rejected because of how it was gained. Youth equals integrity and old age equals greed and cruelty. 

REFERENCES:

1. Christian R. "CD's Great Expectations: Dickens Attitude to the Law. A New Interpretation for Students. ( unsourced or dated)

2. Diniejko. A. " Charles Dickens as a Social Commentator and Critic."  The Victorian Web. (Feb 2012)

3. Ibid

4. Schwab.T. "Dickens's Vision in Nicholas Nickleby.1: What the Wayfare Sees'. The Victorian Web ( March 2020)

5. Philip A.J & Laurence Gadd. V.D "A Dickens Dictionary" Cresent Books 1989 ed p78

6. Hawes D ."Who's Who in Dickens"  Routledge. London and New York (2002) p53

7. Ibid ( Philip/Gadd) p78

8. Banerjee. J. "Self Preservation and Self Realization in Dickens's NN ( Victorian Web) Sept 2021

9. Eigner. E. " The Dickens Pantomime" Berkely. UCP (1989) Quoted in Banergee (ibid)

10. Ibid (Philip & Gadd. L (p 208)

11. Dale. Rodney " The Wordsworth Dickens Directory" Wordsworth Reference (20050 p 88

12 Ibid ( Philip and Gadd.L) p296

13. Robinson S and Howatson-Jones, quoting Levy and McDonald (2010) remind us that "age is a social construct and people have different notions of old age depending on their own age" Children's Views of Older People" Journal of Research in Childhood Education ( June 2014). Referencing Levy and McDonald. ( source unknown)

14. Seefeld et al. " Children's Attitude Towards the Elderly" (1977) [Source Unknown]

15. Paroissien D. "Chacter" Originals in Schlike P (Ed) Schlike P. (Ed) pOxford Readers Companion to Dickens. OUP (1999) p 82

16. Schlike. P (ed) Ibid p 170

17. Ibid p 171

18. Ibid p 171

19. Ibid. p 171

20. Ibid (Howes) p164

21. Transactional Analysis is a model related to personality. Best know regarding Parent: (Critical and Nurturing). Adult: (Rational and Objective) and Child: (Compliant or Free) Ego States

22. Paroissen (Ibid) p76

23. Ibid p 76

24. Lewis. G.H. " Bleak House" Critism and scholarship: the first 100 years. In Schilike (ibid) p 81

25. Hawes p 166-5

26. Ibid p 166-5

27 Schilike P. Ibid p415

28. Philp and Gadd Ibid p 208

29. Ibid p 207

30 Ibid p 207

[ THE PORTRAYAL OF OLDER ADULTS IN THE WRITINGS OF CHARLES DICKENS CONTINUES WITH THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP (PART ONE) TO FOLLOW ]