Martin Chuzzlewit in Reading the Classics

Jun 19, 2020 Ginny rated it liked it

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Martin Chuzzlewit (the American one) and Jonas both are selfish.

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Jul 22, 2023 Drkshadow03 rated it liked it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Martin Chuzzlewit deals with the disinheritance of the younger Martin by his grandfather in the midst of ongoing family squabbles over the elderly man’s fortune and the grandfather’s dislike that Martin has selected his female attendant Mary as his future wife who he considers to be like a daughter. The grandfather seemingly plots with the conniving Mr Pecksniff to kick Martin out of his home as a pupil. Poor and disinherited, Martin goes on a ill-planned journey to America to make his fortune, Martin Chuzzlewit deals with the disinheritance of the younger Martin by his grandfather in the midst of ongoing family squabbles over the elderly man’s fortune and the grandfather’s dislike that Martin has selected his female attendant Mary as his future wife who he considers to be like a daughter. The grandfather seemingly plots with the conniving Mr Pecksniff to kick Martin out of his home as a pupil. Poor and disinherited, Martin goes on a ill-planned journey to America to make his fortune, only to return as a man who repents his former selfishness and his carelessness towards others. He apologizes to his grandfather who is now living with Mr Pecksniff and is under his influence. With his grandfather seemingly dismissing him, he heads to London to get advice from old friends, Thomas Pitch and John Westlock about his next steps. However, all isn’t as it seems and eventually Martin is reconciled to his grandfather who is not really as deeply under Mr Pecksniff’s influence or physically weak as he pretends, but has been testing the true nature and worthiness of his relatives. Running alongside this plot is a murder mystery involving a cousin named Jonas Chuzzlewit whose skeletons come to haunt him as he tries to cover up a murder his from those trying to exploit their knowledge of it to control him or bring him to Justice.

This is definitely not one of Dickens’s stronger novels. The beginning struggled to get the plot moving. While the ending captured my attention better, the scene where Martin is reconciled with Mary and his grandfather, Mr Pecksniff gets his comeuppance, and the grandfather reveals he has been manipulating events all along as a test for everyone felt a little contrived and too convenient. Although the American episodes in the middle were genuinely funny, lampooning American culture with its pretensions to being champions of liberty and freedom while defending the institution of slavery, it being a place where everyone is either a General or a Colonel, and every citizen is one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet, overall it felt like a digression that didn’t really add anything to the overall story. I appreciated the humor, while it felt misplaced and not really enjoyable as part of the larger story.

The real strength of the book is its memorable characters: the hypocritical moralistic Mr Pecksniff who steals his students work and money and speaks poorly about them behind their backs if it will advance his cause all while projecting a patina of moral self-righteousness, fake humility, and bland platitudes. Mrs Gamp the drunk nurse who attends to her own selfish needs more than her patients and makes reference to conversations with the imaginary Mrs. Harris. Then there is the ill-humored domineering Jonas who would kill his own father to get the fortune he would have inherited anyway and who chooses a wife that he ends up hating. Among the heroes, there is the good-mannered Thomas Pinch who tries to see the best and goodness in everyone and is the moral center of the story—the true ideal of selflessness, even to the point of him sometimes being used and deceived by the likes of Pecksniff. There is also Mark Tapley who believes there is no credit in being jolly surrounded by happiness so he seeks more difficult and desperate situations under the strange belief that this will grant merit to his naturally happy disposition.

The major theme of the book is selfishness. The grandfather is wearied by his family because of their endless selfishness, while Martin comes to the epiphany of his own selfishness while in America. Martin has a major revelation that is central to the book in response to the sickness of his friend and servant Mark Tapley.

“He asked himself, besides, when dreading Mark’s decease (as all men do and must, at such a time), whether he had done his duty by him, and had deserved and made a good response to his fidelity and zeal. No. Short as their companionship had been, he felt in many, many instances, that there was blame against himself; and still inquiring why, the curtain slowly rose a little more, and Self, Self, Self, dilated on the scene.

It was long before he fixed the knowledge of himself so firmly in his mind that he could thoroughly discern the truth; but in the hideous solitude of that most hideous place, with Hope so far removed, Ambition quenched, and Death beside him rattling at the very door, reflection came, as in a plague-beleaguered town; and so he felt and knew the failing of his life, and saw distinctly what an ugly spot it was.”

Martin realizes his great fault in life has been his selfishness. Martin’s epiphany contrasts with the previous scene of the novel where Mr Pecksniff dismisses his longtime loyal servant, Thomas Pinch, because Pinch learns the truth about Mr. Pecksniff’s hypocritical moralistic character and finally sees through his own delusions about him as the greatest of men. Unlike Pecksniff, Martin engages in self-reflection to see his great selfishness and how he hasn’t done his duty towards Tapley for his loyalty, which leads to his moral reform and fundamental change as a character.

“In every single circumstance, whether it were cruel, cowardly, or false, he saw the flowering of the same pregnant seed. Self; grasping, eager, narrow-ranging, overreaching self; with its long train of suspicions, lusts, deceits, and all their growing consequences; was the root of the vile tree.”

Although many of the characters display selfishness, the novel suggests it takes different forms. Mr Pecksniff’s ingratiating obsequiousness and superficial moralism is different than Jonas’s outright cruelty, bad-temper, and willingness to murder his own father. Like in many of Dickens novel, the heroes have flaws, but as we see with Martin they are willing to engage in self-reflection, recognize their faults, and change. The villains remain stuck in their old ways and refuse to change. ...more

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Dec 18, 2017 Tango rated it it was amazing

This wasn't my favourite Dickens but I'm still giving it 5 stars. His characters, dialogue, humour and language is just so brilliantly original. My favourite characters were Mark Tapley, Bailey and Mrs Gamp (the alcoholic midwife cum nurse cum undertaker's assistant). ...more

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