72 pages • 2-hour read
The Old Curiosity Shop
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Symbols & Motifs
Birds
Bird imagery in literature often represents freedom, especially if the bird itself is uncaged and in flight. When Nell is at her freest, the uncaged birds flock to her side; when she lives in London, the only bird is her caged linnet. The caged bird symbolizes repression, oppression, or otherwise stifled freedom and mobility. Nell feels trapped by the circumstances of her life in the city, and her grandfather feels trapped by his debts and his anxiety about the future. When Nell flees London, she does not take her bird with her; she pursues her freedom, leaving her own cage behind. Likewise, when Nell and her grandfather leave the waxwork, Nell follows the sound of a songbird mid-flight, signaling their move towards freedom after escaping the grandfather’s new gambling debts.
When Kit and the rescue party reach Nell’s new village only to find she has passed away, her grandfather remarks that “the very birds are dead” (498). He further states that during the winter when the birds were at their coldest and hungriest, they would fly away from the village men, but they would never fly away from Nell. When Nell finally succumbs to her diminished health, the birds die as well. These simultaneous deaths further illustrate Nell’s close connection with birds on a symbolic level.
Other characters interact with birds in ways that reveal their relationships to Nell. When Mr. Quilp takes over the Shop, he plans to wring the linnet’s neck—a nod to the way his schemes keep the characters trapped—but Kit saves its life. His adoption of the linnet bird signifies his devotion to Nell and his status as the new target of Quilp’s schemes. Nell left her suffering behind, and Kit takes it up. Kit’s decision to keep the bird in its cage but near a window also illustrates how close freedom actually is, despite his stifling circumstances.
Eavesdropping
Heroes and villains alike obtain much of their information through eavesdropping on others’ private conversations. Mr. Quilp is especially guilty of this. He always appears at the most opportune moments in others’ conversations, as if he has been waiting behind the door, around the corner, or just outside the window. He forces his wife to coax information from Nell, which he overhears from the other room. He then sneaks inside the Trents’ rooms at the Curiosity Shop so he can hear the grandfather’s admission of his gambling habit. Quilp’s habit of eavesdropping highlights one of his worst traits, which is his lack of respect for other people’s privacy. He listens in on their conversations because he feels entitled to their secrets, and he weaponizes those secrets against them in order to further his own selfish desires.
That said, Quilp is not the only one who eavesdrops in the novel. Nell herself spies on Miss Edwards and her little sister, following them at a distance on more than one occasion. However, Nell does not do this maliciously—she is grateful to Miss Edwards for comforting her after Miss Monflathers verbally berated her in public and wants to understand this person who put herself at risk of punishment for her sake. Nell never does anything with what she learns about Miss Edwards; the most that comes of her eavesdropping is that she begins to feel bonded to the Edwards, as if she were part of their family.
On one other occasion, Nell does put her eavesdropping to use with good results. While returning to town from a walk, Nell overhears her grandfather talking to Isaac List and Joe Jowl about his new gambling debts. Nell takes immediate action, urging her grandfather to pack up and leave with her. Nell and Quilp both eavesdrop, which shows that the eavesdropping in itself is not necessarily an act of wrongdoing—rather, what one does with the information learned via eavesdropping is what makes the act good or bad. Nell uses what she learns to save her family; Quilp uses it to hurt the people around him for his own gain.
Crossroads
The chapters that focus on Nell’s pilgrimage elevate crossroads from mere intersections to symbols of turning points in her journey. The such occurrence is when she travels with Tom Codlin and Short Trotters. While at a crossroads, they debate whether to continue on to the races or to stop at a local inn for the night. Codlin decides for them, setting off to the inn where the group meets Jerry and his dancing dogs. Without this decision, Jerry would have likely never met Nell and thus never passed on information about her to the single gentleman. Later, after leaving the schoolmaster, Nell and her grandfather come upon another crossroads, where Mrs. Jarley has stopped her caravan to take tea. This meeting is significant because it leads to the first gainful employment Nell has found since she left London. It also takes Nell and her grandfather to the town where her grandfather meets Isaac List and Joe Jowl, causing him to relapse and rack up more gambling debts.
At the end of the novel, Mr. Quilp is buried at a crossroads with a stake in his heart. During the time period in which the novel is set (early 1800s), this was a common practice for executed criminals or those whose deaths were ruled as suicides. Since Christian doctrine prevented the burial of these people in the consecrated ground of church graveyards, a literal cross in the road was seen as the next best thing.
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