72 pages • 2 hours read
The Old Curiosity Shop
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BetaChapters 24-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 24 Summary
Once they are far enough away from the racing grounds, Nell and her grandfather stop to rest. Nell is tired but fortifies herself by remembering how helpless her grandfather would be without her. They walk on, happily listening to birdsongs, until they come upon another village. They see a schoolmaster outside, and he invites them to stay the night. Nell notices the walls of the schoolhouse are decorated with samples of student work—all in the same hand. The schoolmaster explains that the boy whose work it is usually visits each night but has been very sick lately. He goes to visit the boy, and Nell waits up for him to return. When he returns, the schoolmaster asks Nell to pray for his student, as his illness has worsened.
Chapter 25 Summary
The schoolmaster has already gone out when Nell wakes. He returns with news that his student’s condition is even worse now than it was the night before. He offers Nell the option of staying another night, considering how worn-out her grandfather looks. Nell accepts and does chores around the schoolroom and the house to show her thanks. The students—a dozen or so boys aged four to fourteen—arrive for school. The boys copy letters, do math, and read their books. As his thoughts are elsewhere, the schoolmaster dismisses the students early for the day. Not long after, the boys’ parents come to complain about the early release.
That night, an elderly woman comes with an invitation for the schoolmaster. He and Nell go immediately to the house in question, where another older woman says her grandson is dying and blames the schoolmaster. Nell follows the schoolmaster to the boy’s bedside, and they stay with him until he passes away.
Chapter 26 Summary
Nell and the schoolmaster return to his house. Nell goes to bed and cries; she contemplates those who die young and the ones they leave behind. She dreams that the young student is in heaven with angels. In the morning as she leaves, Nell tries to give the schoolmaster the little money she earned selling flowers at the races, but he insists she keep it.
Nell and her grandfather walk almost all day without coming across more than a handful of standalone cottages. At a crossroads, they come upon a caravan where a lady sits taking her tea. The woman saw Nell at the races and disapproved of her keeping company with the Punch and Judy show. This woman tells them the next town is almost eight miles away. She invites them to share her tea, and as her servant, George, cleans up, she invites Nell and her grandfather to ride with her in the caravan.
Chapter 27 Summary
The woman's name is Mrs. Jarley, and she owns a famous waxwork exhibition. Upon proof that Nell can read, Mrs. Jarley offers Nell a job, which she accepts on the condition that she will not be separated from her grandfather. Mrs. Jarley tells Nell about the figures featured in her waxworks show, which are famous people from the past and present. When they arrive in town, Nell goes for a walk. She spots Mr. Quilp and his boy, Tom Scott, and she hides in an alleyway. Neither notice her, but she still has nightmares of them catching her.
Chapters 24-27 Analysis
Once again, the novel associates Nell with birds. She finds happiness in birdsong as they walk, and she follows the flight pattern of a songbird as it moves from tree to tree. Nell also continues to offer services in exchange for food and shelter. She cleans up the schoolhouse, befriends the students, and even repairs classroom materials to show her gratitude for being allowed to stay an extra night.
While staying with the schoolmaster, Nell accompanies him to the deathbed of his favorite student. Although Nell is an orphan, she was so young when her parents died that this is her first real encounter with death. She previously spoke with a woman whose husband died young, but she had not come face-to-face with the death of a young person. The death deeply upsets her, as she now understands how tragic it can be for the family left behind: The boy’s grandmother even blames the schoolmaster because she needs to lay blame somewhere in order for her grandson’s death to make sense. When Nell returns from the boy’s deathbed, she cannot bear to discuss the matter—a child dying young and leaving an elderly grandparent behind to mourn alone—with her grandfather. The episode hints that Nell may have some presentiment of her own death, and the situation’s parallels to that of her and her grandfather certainly serve as foreshadowing for the reader.
These chapters also establish a pattern that will prove more and more significant by the novel’s end: the repeated occurrence of crossroads. A crossroads is not only a figurative decision point but also the literal intersection of two roads, each leading to different paths with their own different, difficult decisions. Earlier, when traveling with Codlin and Trotters, the crossroads where they resolved to go to the Jolly Sandboys made Nell suspicious of her companions, and she decided to leave in secret. Now, she meets Mrs. Jarley at another crossroads and is given the choice to come work with her in her wax figure exhibition. Nell’s acceptance of the job offer sees her almost run directly into Mr. Quilp, the one person whose clutches she left London to escape. This wonderful opportunity immediately puts her in the path of danger.
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