Martin Chuzzlewit 4: Chapter 36 - 44

[Sara]

I asked myself the same questions, Sue. Is he pretending? and why?

[Sue]

I’m finding it more difficult to stop myself from reading ahead but I really want to stay with the group. The discussion is too interesting to spoil.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Peter - Such great observations, thank you!

Sue and Sara - Also well highlighted; I suggested this was odd in my comments.

I'm sorry that today's chapter is a little later than usual! I'm having (unrelated) contractual problems. (I will explain more in Mrs. Dickens parlour in the next day or two 😊)

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

Chapter 44: Further Continuations of the Enterprise of Mr. Jonas and His Friend

Jonas arrives at Mr. Pecksniff’s house, and Mr. Pecksniff immediately enquires about Mercy. Jonas comments that she is “well enough.” Mr. Pecksniff also asks after Charity, whom Jonas replies is also well, though comments that she has a sour personality. He asks Mr. Pecksniff if he is aware that Charity has a sweetheart, which Mr. Pecksniff affirms he knows. He claims to have brought up his daughters for the domestic hearth, adding: “a sphere which Cherry will adorn”, to which Jonas replies:

“She need adorn some sphere or other … for she ain’t very ornamental in general.”

Jonas tells Mr. Pecksniff that he has brought an important gentleman to meet him, and Pecksniff says he would be welcome as a guest. But when Jonas implies that the gentleman is of too high standing for that:

“The good man pricked up his ears; his interest was awakened …
A man who was able to look down upon Mr Pecksniff could not be looked up at, by that gentleman, with too great an amount of deference, or from a position of too much humility.“

So Jonas invites Mr. Pecksniff to join them for dinner at the Blue Dragon. He says they have come down to Salisbury on business, and explains that this gentleman is extremely wealthy and well connected. Pecksniff begins to boast of his own accomplishments in Art and draughtsmanship, under the pretence of sharing them with someone who has a taste for the fine arts.

Jonas listens and “look[s] at Mr Pecksniff now with such shrewd meaning twinkling in his eyes”

that Mr. Pecksniff pauses in mid-flow. Jonas flatters him, and says that he could make them very rich, obliquely asking who Mr. Pecksniff’s heir is. Mr. Pecksniff replies equally obliquely that Jonas is his heir. Because Jonas is even more boorish and rude to him than usual, Mr. Pecksniff believes that Jonas isn’t interested in his money. Mr. Pecksniff thinks to himself “if this young man wanted anything of me for his own ends, he would be polite and deferential.”



“Oh fie, fie!” cried Mr. Pecksniff. “You are very pleasant. That I am sure you don’t! That I am sure you don’t! How can you, you know?” - Fred Barnard - 1872

So inch by inch and bit by bit, Jonas reels in his prey.

“Primed in this artful manner, Mr Pecksniff presented himself at dinner-time in such a state of suavity, benevolence, cheerfulness, politeness, and cordiality, as even he had perhaps never attained before.”

As he is introduced, Mr. Pecksniff thinks that Mr. Montague looks familiar: “that towering forehead … and those clustering masses of rich hair” but can’t quite place where he has seen him.

Pecksniff dines with Jonas and Mr. Montague and turns on his charm. All three joke knowingly about making money and “building our fortune on the weaknesses of mankind”, and all feel they have the better of the others, whilst maintaining their cordiality and high humour.

“Again they all laughed in concert; and again Mr Pecksniff laughed especially …they were as frank and merry as three honest men could be.”

After much good food and drink, Mr Pecksniff says (seemingly inadvertently) that:

“if he understood the objects of that Institution with which he was newly and advantageously connected—knowing them but imperfectly—they were calculated to do Good; and for his (Mr Pecksniff’s) part, if he could in any way promote them, he thought he would be able to lay his head upon his pillow every night, with an absolute certainty of going to sleep at once.”

Nothing could be better, and all the papers are laid before him so that Mr Pecksniff will be the last partner and proprietor in the Anglo-Bengalee company. Jonas plays his part, picking flaws in it, grumbling and advising Mr. Pecksniff against his venture, so that Pecksniff iss convinced that he must have been very crafty and canny indeed, and secured himself a dazzling investment

Before leaving the Dragon, Pecksniff asks Mrs. Lupin if Mark and Martin have left, and she replies that they have.



“Pecksniff leaving The Dragon” - Harry Furniss - 1910

Mr. Montague will stay overnight to finish his business with Mr. Pecksniff the next morning. He tells Jonas that he will meet alone with Mr. Pecksniff tomorrow, and Jonas may leave if he wants to.

“They appeared to have changed places again; Montague being in high spirits; Jonas gloomy and lowering.”

Jonas responds bitterly to this, and is given some documents to sign. He begins grudgingly:

“But he had scarcely marked the paper when he started back, in a panic.
‘Why, what the devil’s this?’ he said. ‘It’s bloody!’“

He has used red ink by mistake, but in his agitation cannot seem to put it out of his mind:

“He asked how it had come there, who had brought it, why it had been brought; and looked at Montague, at first, as if he thought he had put a trick upon him. Even when he used a different pen, and the right ink, he made some scratches on another paper first, as half believing they would turn red also.”

Mr. Montague is relieved that he can now travel home alone.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

This is the end of installment 16. Installment 17 will begin with chapter 45 on Monday, in a new thread.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

My favourite quotation today is the first sentence of the chapter:

“It was a special quality, among the many admirable qualities possessed by Mr Pecksniff, that the more he was found out, the more hypocrisy he practised.”

It seems that the more of Mr. Pecksniff’s true bad character shows, the more he offsets it with the appearance of being good. I suppose we would call this “doubling down” today, but how much more elegant Charles Dickens's expressive portrayal is: both sarcastic and succinct.

This is becoming more and more apparent in the story, and in this chapter Pecksniff displays his talents to perfection! Appalling as he is, I confess I do look forward to the scenes he is in, albeit with a sort of fascinated horror. This made me laugh:

“’How is my other child; my eldest; my Cherrywerrychigo?’ said Mr Pecksniff, inventing a playful little name for her, in the restored lightness of his heart.”

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

But what of Jonas. Does he have something more on his mind? He seems increasingly unbalanced, e.g. the extreme way he responded to the “bloody” ink he almost signed a document with. 😱

This reaction to red ink seems to be a further sign of his mental instability. The narrator notes all the insistent questions, commenting that “he attached a strange degree of importance” to a simple mistake. Again, this type of paranoia is a common sign of a psychotic break.

We feel as if we have been heading toward violence and bloodshed ever since Jonas’s true character became known. Is this image foreshadowing? It seems a strong indication that violence is soon to take place.

And meanwhile we are at the end of an installment! So the original readers had to sit and bite their nails for a whole month. I completely understand how you feel Sue. I'm so pleased you are enjoying the discussions. We can only get a glimmer of what it was like to read these installments as they were written, but pausing briefly at the end of each, certainly helps us to formulate and explore many of the possibilities in our minds 😊

I’m eager to read everyone’s responses to this chapter.

[Paul]

Bionic Jean wrote: " Jonas flatters him, and says that he could make them very rich, obliquely asking who Mr. Pecksniff’s heir is. Mr. Pecksniff replies equally obliquely that Jonas is his heir. Because Jonas is even more boorish and rude to him than usual, Mr. Pecksniff believes that Jonas isn’t interested in his money. Mr. Pecksniff thinks to himself “if this young man wanted anything of me for his own ends, he would be polite and deferential.” "

All of which begs the question that I had in my mind as I was reading. Jonas is a scoundrel! No doubt about that. But why in the world would he assist Montague to swindle Pecksniff out of his money (and effectively spread it out to the other members of the confidence scheme) when he had every reason to believe that he would inherit it all?? If Jonas was such a bounder capable of murdering Montague (and clearly we believe he is), then why not put a plan in place to murder Pecksniff and have done with Montague completely?

[Connie]

I had the same question as Paul -- why would Jonas swindle Pecksniff out of his future inheritance? It might be that Montague is holding something he knows over Jonas' head. Did Jonas commit a crime at the time of his father's death where he could be imprisoned or hanged? That would be even worse than losing an inheritance.

Montague will keep using his information to blackmail Jonas in the future. Jonas knows this so that's why he tried to kill Montague with the horses' hooves after the carriage accident.

[Katy]

Now I'm wondering if Jonas really meant to kill Montague previously or if he was just trying to scare him to get the upper hand. Montague did prove useful to him in his negotiations with Pecksniff, since Montague was much more capable of presenting himself as someone of influence. However, I don't know what Jonas has in mind, but I think everyone who comes in contact with him is in danger.

Jean, I also liked the quote about Pecksniff's hypocrisy.

I think Montague's refrain of "I shall travel home alone" is going to be significant since it gets repeated so many times.

[Cindy]

Connie wrote: "It might be that Montague is holding something he knows over Jonas' head. Did Jonas commit a crime at the time of his father's death where he could be imprisoned or hanged?..."

Montague does have some incriminating information about Jonas and is using it to control him. Judging from Jonas's reaction to it (I went back to Ch. 38), it is epic! (Just as a refresher), When Montague tells Jonas what he has learned about him, Jonas turns "from red to white; from white to red again; from red to yellow; then to a cold, dull, awful, sweat-bedabbled blue. In that short whisper, all these changes fell upon the face of Jonas Chuzzlewit; and when at last he laid his hand upon the whisperer's mouth, appalled, lest any syllable of what he said should reach the ears of the third person present, it was as bloodless, and as heavy as the hand of Death. He drew his chair away, and sat a spectacle of terror, misery and rage" (561-562).

That reaction could only merit some really serious crimes! It seems that Montague's evidence is strong enough that he now pretty much owns Jonas for the rest of his life and can force him to do anything he wants. I think Jonas sees killing Montague as his only escape. Now that they are going after Jonas's "inheritance," it only strengthens his motivation for getting rid of his blackmailer. If I were Montague, I wouldn't assume that just because Jonas is returning to London without another attempt on my life that it means he's not thinking about it. He now has time to plan it out, which is even worse! His next attempt won't depend on something as chancey as where a horse's hoof lands!

I do give Jonas credit for handling Pecksniff like a pro. The whole reverse psychology thing worked like a charm. I did enjoy watching Pecksniff get suckered!

[Sue]

I also liked that brief moment when Pecksniff thought he might have seen Montague before their business meeting. He did appear to accept Tigg’s denial without a problem.

Pecksniff’s nickname for Charity was hilarious. I can’t imagine his ever using it except in a situation where he hopes to look like a doting parent. He really has outdone himself with his airs of propriety in this chapter…it makes him a proper victim with all we know of the real man. No one will mourn his financial losses.

So much to happen in the rest of the book!

[Peter]

I must comment on the brilliant illustration by Harry Furniss that Jean has presented us in message 204.

Pecksniff is presented as being larger than life which is certainly reflective of what Pecksniff thinks of himself. As readers, we know the he has been fully duped by Montague and Jonas. If we look quickly at the illustration we may well notice that the very long shadow of Pecksniff recedes behind him. On the surface, that means Pecksniff is facing the Sun and feels the warm Sun warming his beaming self-congratulatory face.

When we look closer we see the shadows of two faces within a room in the Dragon. They would be Montague and Jonas, no doubt congratulating them selves on their successful performance.

What is most delightful is in following Pecksniff’s shadow all the way to the wall behind him. Now, we have always seen Pecksniff’s upstanding tuffs of hair, but when we look at his head which is projected by the sun into a shadow on the wall we find that Furniss has portrayed the shadow of Pecksniff’s head into that of a dog? Cat? Rabbit? And this creature has very long legs that lead right back to Pecksniff.

Truly a brilliant, humourous, and totally appropriate comment on Pecksniff’s character and personality.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

What a brilliant interpretation Peter! Thanks 🙂

[Plateresca]

Jean, I envy you seeing Dame Smith as Mrs Malaprop!

Connie, now you know what I meant when I said in the very beginning that it might be better not to read some chapters of 'MC' very late at night :)

Peter, I also thought Pecksniff's shadow looked like an animal in that illustration by Furniss! I thought it resembled a mouse...

[Peter]

Plateresca wrote: "Jean, I envy you seeing Dame Smith as Mrs Malaprop!

Connie, now you know what I meant when I said in the very beginning that it might be better not to read some chapters of 'MC' very late at night..."

Plateresca Yes indeed. A mouse works even better as a suggested image. Pecksniff has certainly been unknowingly lulled into a trap by Jonas and Montague.

[Connie]

Plateresca wrote: "Connie, now you know what I meant when I said in the very beginning that it might be better not to read some chapters of 'MC' very late at night..."

LOL! I probably didn't express my thoughts well. We actually don't know what Montague whispered to Jonas. It's probably about his father's death, but Montague's detective could have come up with some other dirt about Jonas that made him want to kill Montague. Jonas will have a lifelong problem of blackmail unless he murders Montague. Even if he cooperates with Montague to swindle Pecksniff now, Montague could come up with new demands in the future. To protect his inheritance from Pecksniff, Jonas would want to kill Montague before Pecksniff signs the final papers.

[Shirley (stampartiste)]

Bionic Jean wrote: "Because Jonas is even more boorish and rude to him than usual, Mr. Pecksniff believes that Jonas isn’t interested in his money. Mr. Pecksniff thinks to himself “if this young man wanted anything of me for his own ends, he would be polite and deferential.”."

I just find Pecksniff's reasoning here almost comical in its total lack of self-awareness. In that same paragraph, Dickens also stated "For it is in the nature of a knave to think the tools with which he works indispensable to knavery; and knowing what he would do himself in such a case, Mr. Pecksniff argued, 'if this young man wanted anything of me for his own ends, he would be polite and deferential'." Does Pecksniff not realize that being "polite and deferential" is the exact tactic that he is using on old Martin Chuzzlewit, and wouldn't old Martin be just as suspicious of Pecksniff's obsequiousness as he has admitted he would be?

I firmly believe that, ever since old Martin and Pecksniff met in London, old Martin has been testing him for some reason of his own. His change was just too abrupt and unnatural for him. To me, his personality is such that he is going to give Pecksniff enough rope for him to hang himself with. Whatever old Martin is cooking up, he's even keeping it from Mary. I cannot wait to witness the downfall of that odious man who thinks he is so much smarter than anyone else.

[Julie]

Shirley (stampartiste) wrote: "Does Pecksniff not realize that being "polite and deferential" is the exact tactic that he is using on old Martin Chuzzlewit, and wouldn't old Martin be just as suspicious of Pecksniff's obsequiousness as he has admitted he would be?"

That's a good point, although I think also we make our worlds by assuming other people think the way we do ourselves, so Pecksniff is deluding himself by expecting his own hypocrisy from Jonas, when Jonas has methods of his own, I guess.

[Sue]

Pecksniff really seems blinded by his own feelings of superiority over, apparently, everyone else. There doesn’t appear to be anyone that he either cares about or for or truly cares about him. I doubt he’s ever considered that last bit or would consider it important.

[Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"]

As always there are some great insights here!
The new thread (for installment 17 onwards, starting with chapter 45) is now open and ready for comments LINK HERE

[Bridget]

I just finished Chapter 43, and I'm so glad others are having the same thought as me -- that Old Martin is faking his dependence on Pecksniff. Maybe that's Old Martin's way of keeping the other Chuzzlewits away.

I've also wondered what Julie posted about Tom's mysterious employer -- will he/she also help Young Martin. Which also reminded me of the mysterious person who paid Martin's passage to America. We still don't know who did that.

Off to read more and catch up!!