The Pickwick Club discussion
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Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit
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Chuzzlewit, Chapters 42 - 44
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I have never had a greater desire to reach into the book and punch Pecksniff as I did reading Chapter 43!I know that sounds uncouth, but man! I had a very hard time reminding myself he was just a fictional character. It's weird because in the beginning of the novel, I found his antics humorous (in a tongue in cheek sort of way), but it is not funny anymore!
Mr. Jonas Exhibits his Presence of Mind
Chapter 42
Mr. Pecksniff Announces Himself as the Shield of Virtue
Chapter 43
Amelia, the pragmatic idealist wrote: "I have never had a greater desire to reach into the book and punch Pecksniff as I did reading Chapter 43!I know that sounds uncouth, but man! I had a very hard time reminding myself he was just a..."
I agree with you, Amelia, that the entertainment and amusement you can derive from Pecksniff's Pecksniffery is beginning to wear thin by Chapter 43. However, maybe it is Dickens's intention to make his readers feel somewhat impatient about Pecksniff's threadbare hypocrisy? I have definitely stopped regarding him as one of the more harmless and mildly amusing characters from the moment he started to impose on Mary when he even resorting to putting her under pressure with regard to the terrible things he could bring down on Martin junior.
I think that Dickens really enjoys Pecksniff's eventual downfall, which is so obvious by now that its arrival can hardly be doubted all the less so as the narrative voice even seems to foreshadow it when it says,
"Little did he foresee when he said, 'All is but dust!' how very shortly he would come down with his own!" Chp.44
And when you come to think of it, there is some bitter-sweet irony in the fact that the selfsame person Pecksniff earlier refused a loan of, was it, a few shillings will now apparently deprive him of his whole hoard. There is some retribution in this.
A milder instance of retribution lies in Martin junior's exclamation that maybe now he can put himself under the guidance of Tom for learning how to earn a living, whereas in former times it was he who patronizingly had seen himself as Tom's guide and guaranty of fortune.
However carelessly Dickens was planning his earlier novels, there are surely some ends that are well tied-up.
Amelia, the pragmatic idealist wrote: "I have never had a greater desire to reach into the book and punch Pecksniff as I did reading Chapter 43!I know that sounds uncouth, but man! I had a very hard time reminding myself he was just a..."
Amelia
Such a vigorous, and perfectly understandable reaction to the horrid Pecksniff!
Perhaps, to bring some tenderness and Dickensian humour to the chapter ... Did you enjoy, as I did, the great lines of Mark Tapley to Mrs. Lupin in Ch 43. "I ain't a-kissing you now ... I'm a - kissing my country." I laughed out loud. Dickens has such a knack of whiplashing emotions and situations within a single chapter. After the ponderous and somewhat protracted time in America, it's good to have Mark and Mrs. Lupin back together again.
I must, of course, drag in my Joseph Campbell Monomyth comments again. In Ch 43 Martin jr. gives an almost perfectly scripted rendition of the "return" of the hero. "Grandfather ... From a painful journey, from a hard life ..." and on and on. I am, naturally (;>} shocked that Campbell did not spend chapter upon chapter extolling how Dickens demonstrated the theory of the Monomyth.
Like Tristram, I too am rubbing my hands at what seems to be a prologue to Pecksniff's ultimate downfall. As much as one can dislike Jonas, as he leads Pecksniff towards Montague and the Anglo-Bengalee society I hear myself give a little cheer.
Yes Amelia, Peter and Tristram, never have I longed for a fictional character's downfall as I do now. Bring it on!!!!You're right Peter: the humour is rife. One instance comes to mind: Mrs Lupin to Mark about Mark; "How could he ever go to America! Why didn't he go to some of those countries where the savages eat each other fairly, and give an equal chance to everyone!"
Hilary wrote: "Yes Amelia, Peter and Tristram, never have I longed for a fictional character's downfall as I do now. Bring it on!!!!"The more you nasty brutes dump on him, the better I like him. He's a sweet guy who is being given a bad rap by that Dickens fellow.
Ah, he has duped you Everyman, as he has so many others before. Justice will out!
Hilary wrote: "Ah, he has duped you Everyman, as he has so many others before. Justice will out!"I said what I meant and I meant what I said,
And an Everyman's faithful one hundred percent.
Ah even unto death ... Admirable
Excellent poem, Everyman, btw!
A Grinch is a GrinchWho won't give an inch
Hilary wrote: "A Grinch is a GrinchWho won't give an inch"
Nor would he, nor should he,
And it's good that nor could he.
See how inspiring the serenity of Seth Pecksniff is!
True Tristram! Shakespeare doesn't have a patch on Pecksniff when it comes to inspiration.Everyman, waiting for that new publication of jolly clever ditties. :-)
Was that not an awe-inspiring roller-coaster of a chapter? I'm, of course, talking about chapter 42, which sent Montague, Jonas and Bailey on a trip through thunder, lightning and hell? Once again, we have Dickens as a master when it comes to creating atmosphere and mood.
Chapter 43 is another climax in drama when Martin tries to make his grandfather accept him in a spirit of meekness and simplicity - but there is Pecksniff as the Shield of Virtue. Can anybody better sum up Pecksniff as Mark Tapley did in his little speech?
Chapter 44 seems to prepare the ground for Pecksniff's downfall - and when Jonas says that he is about to leave very early in the morning because he has Something to do, and the narrator gives that "something" a capital letter, we invariably ask ourselves what this Something may be.
So there is ample room for discussion once again, my friends.