Content Warning: This section references child abuse and suicide.

Like most of Dickens’s novels, Nicholas Nickleby is concerned with the ways in which society is unjust; it is also characteristic of Dickens’s work in that its characters ultimately receive what they deserve, whether punishment or reward. The novel resolves this apparent paradox by suggesting that kindness and generosity spark similar goodwill in others, creating a network of individuals committed to justice. By contrast, cruelty and selfishness are isolating, leaving one alone to face the consequences of one’s actions.

Dickens depicts injustice and corruption as pervasive in the English economy and government. Businessmen like Ralph make their money through a variety of underhanded tactics that include predatory lending and gaming the market. Thanks to their political connections, they rarely face consequences for such behavior; the debate surrounding the muffin company demonstrates that the government is happy to throw its weight behind corrupt economic endeavors. It seems likely that the politicians involved hope to profit themselves, but the episode also serves them in another way. The matter itself is trivial, but it is a useful distraction, something lawmakers can point to as a success that proves their worthiness to govern.