The Pickwick Club discussion
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Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz
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Our Parish, Sketches 1 and 2
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I had never read these Sketches. For me, the Beadle felt most like a stereotype, and the Half-pay Captain like a real Dickens character. I'm not saying this in a critical way, but in a sense a 'real Dickens character' may be 'cartooned', but is not 'stereotyped'.
Maybe the Beadle appears to be rather stereotypical as Dickens must have had it in for these kinds of petty potentates, and the overbearing behaviour of some Beadle might have made him rather see the office than the person fulfilling it. And as we probably all know, offices may deform characters.The Half-Pay Captain is a very likable, chaotic character in my opinion. His everyday clashes with the Old Lady are fun, too. I especially like this bit:
"Then he took to breeding silk-worms, which he would bring in tow or three times a day, in little paper boxes, to show the old lady, generally dropping a worm or two at every visit. The consequence was, that one morning a very stout silk-worm was discovered in the act of walking up stairs - probably with the view of inquiring after his friends, for, on further inspection, it appeared that some of his companions had already found their way to every room in the house."
In a sense Dickens is playing himself with the idea of 'type' in that he claims for his sketches a certain universality. These are not individuals, with individual names, but Old Lady, Half-Pay Captain. He also claims that there are hundreds of old ladies like this one. Yet they are vivid, living characters. Representative of a type, but never stereotyped. Typical without being clichés. The Beadle, certainly, is described more in his role as an official, whereas the others are just themselves. I daresay Dickens would have known characters like the Half-Pay Captain through his father.
·Karen· wrote: "In a sense Dickens is playing himself with the idea of 'type' in that he claims for his sketches a certain universality. These are not individuals, with individual names, but Old Lady, Half-Pay Cap..."I see what you mean about these characters representing a type without being stereotypes, and I would say this is true of the Old Lady and the Half-Pay Captain. Dickens achieves this tension between type and individuality by having the Captain indulge in exotic pastimes such as breeding silkworms and the like. I don't know if you've read Dombey and Son, but there we have a retired officer of quite a different stamp: full of mannerisms, predominantly linguistic ones, and selfish to the bone.
When it comes to the Beadle, however, I see less diversity here - and I ask myself: Do you have to be self-important and pompous to be a Beadle? [If so, what a magnificent Beadle has been lost in me.] It's probably a consequence of Dickens's disgust with the Poor Law, but in Oliver Twist every single representative of the parish was an unpleasant character, mostly even a caricature. This was also obvious to contemporary writers, such as Trollope, who gave his two cents on Dickens's preferred way of presenting these characters in The Warden.
I liked Dickens's sketch of the parish schoolmaster because to me it seemed well-observed. Which makes me think of schoolmasters in Dickens: I think there is a meek old schoolmaster, redolent of the one described in the Sketches, in The Old Curiosity Shop, but then there is also the fanatic Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend.
Tristram wrote: "I liked Dickens's sketch of the parish schoolmaster because to me it seemed well-observed. Which makes me think of schoolmasters in Dickens: I think there is a meek old schoolmaster, redolent of the one described in the Sketches, in The Old Curiosity Shop, but then there is also the fanatic Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend"Now you got me thinking about different schoolmasters in Dickens and these are what I came up with:
Mr. Marton from The Old Curiosity Shop, a poor schoolmaster. He befriends Nell and later inadvertently meets her and her Grandfather on the roads.
Creakle ( David Copperfield ) Severe headmaster of Salem House Academy where David first goes to school. He was based on William Jones, headmaster of Wellington Academy which Dickens attended from 1825-1827.
Blimber, Dr ( Dombey and Son ) Headmaster of the school in Brighton where Paul Dombey Jr attends. Blimber is assisted at the school by his wife and daughter Cornelia. Dickens describes Blimber as "a portly gentleman in a suit of black, with strings at the knees, and stockings below them. He had a bald head, highly polished; a deep voice; and a chin so very double, that it was a wonder how he ever managed to shave into the creases."
Feeder, Mr ( Dombey and Son ) Assistant to Dr Blimber at the school in Brighton where Paul Dombey Jr attends.
Gradgrind, Thomas ( Hard Times ) A mill owner retired from business and father of Louisa and Tom. He runs a school and emphasizes the importance of facts and figures over fancy to his students and his children.
Headstone, Bradley ( Our Mutual Friend ) A school teacher and master of the boys department of a school on the borders of Kent and Surrey.
M'Choakumchild ( Hard Times ) Schoolmaster in Gradgrind's school where fancy and imagination are discouraged in favor of hard facts.
Mell, Charles ( David Copperfield ) Assistant schoolmaster at Salem House Academy attended by David Copperfield.
Sharp, Mr ( David Copperfield ) First master at Salem House where David attends school. "He was a limp, delicate-looking gentleman...with a good deal of nose, and a way of carrying his head on one side, as if it were a little too heavy for him."
Strong, Doctor ( David Copperfield ) Headmaster at the school David attends in Canterbury. He is chiefly concerned with assembling his Greek dictionary.
There, did I miss anyone? The school masters seem to be a pretty good mix to me. Young, old, bad, good, meek, haughty, prideful, kind, etc.
Reading the sketches, and thinking about the characters in them; will any of these characters reappear? There seemed to be quite a list of school masters in Dickens, but I could only come up with one beadle, our famous Oliver Twist beadle.In the second sketch we have the curate, which of course gets me to thinking about clergy in Dickens and there doesn't seem to be very many clergy present in Dickens novels, but I may have missed some. Here are the ones I came up with:
Rev Chadband ( Bleak House ) Typical Dickensian hypocritical reverend, admonishing Jo in the spirit while he starves.
Crisparkle, Canon ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Minor canon of Cloisterham Cathedral. "Mr. Crisparkle, Minor Canon, early riser, musical, classical, cheerful, kind, good-natured, social, contented, and boy-like."
Milvey, Reverend Frank ( Our Mutual Friend ) Reverend who assists the Boffins in the adoption of Johnny.
Stiggins, Reverend ( Pickwick Papers ) Hypocritical Deputy Shepherd (from the Dorking branch) of the Brick Lane Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Temperance Association.
Tope ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) Mr. Tope is the Head Verger at Cloisterham Cathedral. He and his wife rent rooms to John Jasper, in the gatehouse, and to Datchery, in their own house. Tope is based on William Miles, the Head Verger of Rochester Cathedral at the time the novel was written.
From what I remember of these characters they don't seem to have much in common with the curate of our second sketch.
The story of the curate amused me because of how it reminded me of real life, and Dickens longer novels don't normally remind me of real life thankfully. In the sketch he says when the new curate arrives "Pews in the immediate vicinity of the pulpit or reading-desk rose in value", and later in the sketch when another new clergyman arrives "Seats are once again to be had in any part of our parish church, and the chapel-of-ease is going to be enlarged as it is crowded to suffocation every Sunday!"A few months ago our senior pastor retired, and a few weeks later we had a new pastor. Immediately the attendance went up. Every Sunday there seemed to be more people in the congregation, I had to increase the amount of time I played the offertory because it was taking so much longer to pass the plates through the pews of people. Then one of the elders commented to me "if this keeps going we're going to have to enlarge the sanctuary". Not long after that I noticed there were a few empty seats, the next week a few more, and then more. Now we're back to "normal", the same people are back in the same seats, the offertory is back to two minutes, and I guess everyone has seen and is used to the new pastor. :-}
Kim wrote: "Reading the sketches, and thinking about the characters in them; will any of these characters reappear? There seemed to be quite a list of school masters in Dickens, but I could only come up with ..."There are indeed not many men of the cloth around in Dickens's novels, and maybe this is because in Dickens's day it was quite risky to set the clergy up to ridicule and that is probably also why Stiggins and Chadband would be members of the Low Church rather than the High Church. Talking of Stiggins, by the way, I don't even think he was a representative of the Anglican Church at all, but one of the zealots Dickens apparently despised quite vehemently.
All in all, Dickens seems to have had his reservations over religious zealots, e.g. when Mr. Snagsby repeatedly observes that his wife "likes her religion rather sharp" or when even as early as in NN he takes his time to make fun of "serious" people - in connexion with the job agency. Is it not in Little Dorrit that he also describes the bleakness of a typically "serious" Sunday in connexion with Mrs. Clennam?
P.S.: The curate desribed in the Sketch seems unique in Dickens to me, too. However, when reading the Sketch I felt reminded of some of the things going on in Barchester.
Kim wrote: "Tristram wrote: "I liked Dickens's sketch of the parish schoolmaster because to me it seemed well-observed. Which makes me think of schoolmasters in Dickens: I think there is a meek old schoolmaste..."An impressive list, Kim! I find it especially interesting that schoolmasters are growing more and more complex in Dickens. Whereas Mr. Squeers and also Mr. Creakle were figures of fun and horror alike, the later schoolmasters Dr. Blimber and Mr. Gradgrind were definitely not the best teachers one could wish for one's own children, but at least they had good intentions, i.e. they were really of the opinion that what they were doing was to their pupils' benefit.
By the way, I especially like the name M'Choakumchild.
Kim wrote: "Reading the sketches, and thinking about the characters in them; will any of these characters reappear?"I have by now finished Sketches 1 - 6 and there are indeed reappearing characters, namely Mr. Bung and the half-pay captain.
I like these lines about the parish beadle, especially the last one. I love Dickens sense of humor.“The parish beadle is one of the most, perhaps _the_ most, important member of the local administration. He is not so well off as the churchwardens, certainly, nor is he so learned as the vestry-clerk, nor does he order things quite so much his own way as either of them. But his power is very great, notwithstanding; and the dignity of his office is never impaired by the absence of efforts on his part to maintain it.”
Tristram wrote: The curate desribed in the Sketch seems unique in Dickens to me, too. However, when reading the Sketch I felt reminded of some of the things going on in Barchester.Oh definitely, Trollope and his Barchester novels were in my mind the whole time.
More of Dickens humor:“It is quite delightful to hear him, as he explains the state of the existing poor laws to the deaf old women in the board-room passage on business nights; and to hear what he said to the senior churchwarden, and what the senior churchwarden said to him; and what ‘we’ (the beadle and the other gentlemen) came to the determination of doing.”
“As to the churchwardens and overseers, we exclude them altogether, because all we know of them is, that they are usually respectable tradesmen, who wear
hats with brims inclined to flatness, and who occasionally testify in gilt letters on a blue ground, in some conspicuous part of the church, to
the important fact of a gallery having being enlarged and beautified, or an organ rebuilt.”
Both of these sections remind me of our own church elders, not quite as bad of course, but each week we have an "elder moment" which makes me groan (silently) when a gray haired man comes to the front of the church and updates us on the progress of the new elevator, or widening the stairway, or installing new railings on the walkway outside. It seems to go on and on. :-}
The section on the parish schoolmaster I found sad and I felt sorry for him.“He had children whom he loved, and a wife on whom he doted. The former turned their backs on him; the latter died broken-hearted. He went with the stream—it had ever been his failing, and he had not courage sufficient to bear up against so many shocks—he had never cared for himself, and the only being who had cared for him, in his poverty and distress, was spared to him no longer.”
“He is an old man now. Of the many who once crowded round him in all the hollow friendship of boon-companionship, some have died, some have fallen like himself, some have prospered—all have forgotten him.”
“As the grey-headed old man feebly paces up and down the sunny side of the little court-yard between school hours, it would be difficult, indeed, for the most intimate of his former friends to recognise their once gay and happy associate, in the person of the Pauper Schoolmaster”.
Tristram wrote: "I liked Dickens's sketch of the parish schoolmaster because to me it seemed well-observed. Which makes me think of schoolmasters in Dickens: I think there is a meek old schoolmaster, redolent of the one described in the Sketches, in The Old Curiosity Shop, but then there is also the fanatic Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend."
Yes, but let's not forget that the first schoolmaster to appear in Dickens's novels Squeers.
I was not sure to what extent, as he was discussing the Beadle, Dickens was trying to offer an accurate picture of a typical historical figure, and to what extent he was being sarcastic and negative about the figure.Knowing his representation of the beadle in Oliver Twist I was prejudiced to think the latter, but as I read it I kept in mind that this was the same man who was, I believe at the time, a journalist (of sorts, at least) and wondered whether he was actually trying to presnet an accurate historical picture.
The thing that impressed me about his description of the Parish, though it read to me as negative sarcasm of a sort, was how the Parish, for local citizens, was really, if Dickens is to be believed, was really the central government in a rural citizen's life. Much more so than local governments today, where most of the laws that govern us are federal and state rather than local, and most of the public institutions are either built and controlled by state or federal governments or else are heavily subject to state and federal law. (Schools, for example, are largely locally controlled, but in most states are subject to very detailed state and federal legal mandates and oversight.) It appeared to me from these papers, again if Dickens was trying to be factually accurate (even if snide about it) that the Parish was really the center of government management of the local citizenry.
Tristram wrote: "There are indeed not many men of the cloth around in Dickens's novels, and maybe this is because in Dickens's day it was quite risky to set the clergy up to ridicule..."Had it really changed that much from Dickens to Trollope? While Trollope has some wonderful clergymen, he also has a number who are certainly to be held up to negativity, if not actual ridicule. I think, for example, of Mr. Slope, Bishop Proudie, and Dr. Stanhope, for just a few clergy who are, uh, let's just say not presented in the most favorable light.
Everyman wrote: "Had it really changed that much from Dickens to Trollope? While Trollope has some wonderful clergymen, he also has a number who are certainly to be held up to negativity, if not actual ridicule. I think, for example, of Mr. Slope, Bishop Proudie, and Dr. Stanhope, for just a few clergy who are, uh, let's just say not presented in the most favorable light. "At the moment I cannot really remember any example where Dickens is poking fun at a clergyman the same way Trollope often is. One might, as I said, point out Stiggins and Chadband, but these two are decidedly Low Church like Mr. Slope. Trollope, however, extended his tongue-in-cheek criticism also to representatives of the High Church such as Bishop Proudie or his opponent Archdeacon Grantly. Yet at the same time Grantly and even Proudie are not mere caricatures - the way Dickens would have devised them - as they also display a warmer, human side. Trollope clearly saw the human being behind the cloth.
Everyman wrote: "Yes, but let's not forget that the first schoolmaster to appear in Dickens's novels Squeers. "Granted. Nevertheless, Squeers was a special case since, as Kim pointed out, he was modelled on the example of an infamous Yorkshire scoundrel and Dickens's reaction to social injustices in his day. - Maybe the people he described in the Sketches were more supposed to illustrate typical - if such a thing exists - specimens of their respective species rather than special cases. That's probably also why mostly they go unnamed.
Kim wrote: "The section on the parish schoolmaster I found sad and I felt sorry for him.“He had children whom he loved, and a wife on whom he doted. The former turned their backs on him; the latter died bro..."
One cannot help but feel sorry for the Schoolmaster described here. I also noticed in later Sketches that Dickens was very good at arousing that kind of sentiment whereas the early novelist often exaggerates and has recourse to corny cliché, which makes these passages rather unbearably sentimental.
Everyman wrote: "I was not sure to what extent, as he was discussing the Beadle, Dickens was trying to offer an accurate picture of a typical historical figure, and to what extent he was being sarcastic and negativ..."I'd like to give my opinion on this question but I'd rather wait for a later thread in order to avoid one of my nasty spoilers.
You guys are making me miss Barchester. I love Mrs. Proudie. And I love that Mr. Quiverful has 14 children. You'll soon have me digging Trollope out of the cupboards again. :}
Kim wrote: "You guys are making me miss Barchester. I love Mrs. Proudie. And I love that Mr. Quiverful has 14 children. You'll soon have me digging Trollope out of the cupboards again. :}"Dig away. What else could you do that would soothe your soul as much as re-reading Barchester?
Kim wrote: "You guys are making me miss Barchester. I love Mrs. Proudie. And I love that Mr. Quiverful has 14 children. You'll soon have me digging Trollope out of the cupboards again. :}"Aaaah, good old Barchester! Trollope is next to Dickens in his abiltiy not only to write novels but to create intriguing little universes. - I wouldn't even have to dig Trollope out of the cupboards, his works have a prominent position on my bookshelves.
Tristram wrote: "Kim wrote: "You guys are making me miss Barchester. I love Mrs. Proudie. And I love that Mr. Quiverful has 14 children. You'll soon have me digging Trollope out of the cupboards again. :}"Aaaah..."
I don't have bookshelves, I have old "Hoosier" style kitchen cabinets, 6 of them, and one really, really big old farm house kitchen cabinet right in the middle of the living room. Against the wall of course. :-}
pray feel invited to share your impressions and thoughts concerning the first two of the Seven Sketches from Our Parish. Some ideas to discuss might possibly be:
1) Can you already discern characters that are to make their appearance in later Dickens novels?
2) Do you think Dickens is really a good observer of human nature and of people of his time, or would you say he has recourse to stereotyping quite often?
I actually think that reading the Sketches might enable you to see his novels in a new light because in his later works he takes for granted the reader's knowledge of contemporary affairs, whereas here it is these affairs he is centred on.