Charles Dickens: Our Mutual Friend

Not strictly anything to do with my travels, but trying to keep my brain in gear a little.

Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens.

Wilkie Collins once wrote of his story The Dead Secret that "I thought it most desirable to let the effect of the story depend on expectation rather than suspense (allowing) the reader (to be) all the more interested (in) the discovery of the secret, if he previously held some clue to the mystery in his own head." Such is the approach of Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend (written 1864-65 and his last major completed work) since the majority of major plot revelations take place in the final fifth of the story, resolving principally what occurred in Chapter One - the death in the River Thames of John Harmon, who was on his way to receive his fathers inheritance. The character development is a gentle one for the most part, with each one having their own reasons for their actions, although it often felt as if characters would change at their core relatively quickly later on in the story. However, given that Our Mutual Friend is at heart a story of lies, of deception and of manipulation, this is hardly a surprise. Characters turn on a sixpence and go in a direction previously seen as the last thing they would do - often in the sphere of romance. The lies - those of John Rokesmith as to his true identity; the untruths told by Mr and Mrs Boffin to teach Bella Wilfer what is important in life; and the general dishonesty of 'Rogue' Riderhood. Very few characters reveal the truth behind the motivations for their actions until very late on.

The characters that stand out in the novel are Silas Wegg, a one legged rascal and blackmailer with a cruel sense of humour, who is ultimately deceived by the Boffin's own fakery; Bradley Headstone, the headmaster who, failing to get the girl that his heart desires - Lizzie Hexam - attempts to kill her other suitor, the lawyer Eugene Wrayburn. His attempt to end his life drives Eugene and Lizzie together, defying the class barriers that previously forebade it, and they end up married, leaving Bradley a broken man, meeting a wet end in the Thames with Riderhood; Mr Boffin, the ultimate deceiver, playing the part of a miser just to teach an important lesson in life to someone with most of it still to live.

As with much of Dickens' work, there are many characters represented at every level of Society, and that money is one of the most important factors in which level you live. The higher class - the Veneerings and the Podsnaps, are insufferable, being as they are sniffy towards anyone of a lower class than they. Silas Wegg at one point comments upon how the division of labour, so crucial in the structure of society, has been of extremely beneficial use to those higher up the social scale. That is, they have to do very little work of any kind, and just live the high life. However, Our Mutual Friend shows that, whatever level of Society you live in, there are always lies, deception and cruelty in amongst the love, the friendship and the honesty. And how very true this is.