Nicholas suffers in situations as bleak as Oliver's various plights. But Dickens's tone is lighter here. The schoolboys' suffering is all the more painful to watch through the eyes of a sympathetic master than even from the point of view of one of the children. Those who find some Dickens villains overblown may be surprised to learn that the one-eyed Yorkshire schoolmaster's sadism was drawn from life.
Dickens abounds in terrifying villains to be sure, but their is also often a benefactor. Here it is good old Noggs who dogs Uncle Ralph's every utterance and bark with comic repetition. Another appears later in the person of a theater impresario. I cannot avoid a spoiler in examining what I find the most interesting fate in this story: evil uncle Ralph's suicide. Is he evil in this last act? The last shot in the film has children twirling round the rosie in the background as the newlyweds stand in the fore over the grave.
Dickens abounds in terrifying villains to be sure, but their is also often a benefactor. Here it is good old Noggs who dogs Uncle Ralph's every utterance and bark with comic repetition. Another appears later in the person of a theater impresario. I cannot avoid a spoiler in examining what I find the most interesting fate in this story: evil uncle Ralph's suicide. Is he evil in this last act? The last shot in the film has children twirling round the rosie in the background as the newlyweds stand in the fore over the grave.
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