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Martin Chuzzlewit 4: Chapter 36 -
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“Tom had been already turning over in his mind the possibility of their having been tempted into that region to furnish forth a pie; but the sight of Mr Fips, who was small and spare, and looked peaceable, and wore black shorts and powder, dispelled his doubts.”
It’s a reference to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who according to urban legend of the time, used to kill his customers and serve them up in pies. But Charles Dickens uses the reference in such a quirky way. And he continued the metaphor with the patch of black ink staining the floorboards, which suggests a patch of blood to the impressionable Tom:
“a mighty yellow-jaundiced little office Mr Fips had of it; with a great, black, sprawling splash upon the floor in one corner, as if some old clerk had cut his throat there, years ago, and had let out ink instead of blood.”
What did you enjoy most about this chapter?
Sara wrote: "John Westlock is toast...."Sorry! I just got home from subbing at the high school and I'm still on the first part of Ch. 39. Sara gave me my favorite quote from today! :) I agree--John Westlock and Ruth might as well start planning the wedding now! I thoroughly enjoyed the domestic tranquility and joy in this scene, and the newness of it. Tom and Ruth have both been in such unhappy living situations for so long. One can feel their sense of freedom and joy as they encounter each new aspect of this fresh start together.
I hope Tom finds someone. I briefly thought that Mary might transfer her affections to him (when Martin was being a jerk), but he seems to have become a decent chap now, so I'm sure she will stay with him. Everyone else seems to have a special someone, but Tom has fixed on an unavailable young lady. It doesn't help that he looks like an old man! I hope some perceptive woman can see the beauty inside.
Cindy wrote: "Sara wrote: "I hope Tom finds someone. "Mrs. Lupin perhaps?
Jean thank you so much for your thoughts on the rubber stamping. I could not imagine what that was about, but I think you have sniffed out the exact meaning of it!I was so happy for Tom when the room was full of books. Can you imagine a better job for him than going through, sorting, and um reading books? Of course, I am perplexed about who his benefactor might be. Old Martin maybe? No one else comes to mind as a possibility. As usual, I love how John Westlock manages to do a good thing for Tom without making him feel any obligation. This is my favorite part of the story so far--just watching these good men do kindnesses for others.
PaulI think Tom will need to find someone else, because Mark Tapley seems to me more suited to help run the Dragon.
Paul wrote: "Cindy wrote: "Sara wrote: "I hope Tom finds someone. "Mrs. Lupin perhaps?"
I agree with Sara that the vivacious innkeeper is destined to become Mrs. Tapley. If Jonas gets knocked off by one of his unscrupulous new business partners, maybe the newly humbled, wiser Merry might be grateful for a man like Tom after the horrorshow of her first husband! Although that would make Pecksniff his father-in-law . . .
An interesting thought, Cindy. I would think a humbled Merry would be thanking her lucky stars for Tom, and after Pecksniff got her into this mess, she would probably be happy to pretend he was not her father.
Bionic Jean wrote: "The next day Ruth finds a cookbook waiting for her in the parlour, with the recipe for beefsteak pudding obliterated."I love the way they beat that pudding joke to death. Nobody cares that they've already covered it. They're all just so happy.
I would be worried about this mysterious, too good to be true, unknown employer of Tom, except I feel Tom has momentum in his favor, plotwise, and nothing can go wrong for him at this point in the story. And he's had so many people looking on and acknowledging his virtue all these years, that it must be one of them stepping in to help?
I do understand suspicious meat pies were a weird Victorian reality (Mrs Gamp lives 'next door but one to the celebrated mutton-pie shop, and directly opposite to the original cat’s-meat warehouse', which makes one think...), but I still find it hilarious that Tom is so often anxious about being made into a pie! :)I love the story about Ruth's pudding... ;)
Sara, I also thought that Tom got his dream job! I wouldn't mind being his co-worker :)
I remember laughing about the mutton shop across from the cat's-meat warehouse, and I laughed again! Thanks, Plateresca. Better cat's meat than what Sweeny Todd was serving up.
Bionic Jean wrote: "It’s a reference to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who according to urban legend of the time, used to kill his customers and serve them up in pies. But Charles Dickens uses the reference in such a quirky way. And he continued the metaphor with the patch of black ink staining the floorboards, which suggests a patch of blood to the impressionable Tom..."Thanks for explaining the Sweeney Todd reference! I loved the imagery of the clerk cutting his throat and bleeding ink (that was my favorite quote, as well) but did not know the part about the pies, which only makes it the more delicious (no pun intended). :)
I was very intrigued about the leg-stamping Mr. Fip, too. When I picture a man in knee-breeches, I just see white stockings, which would make the stamps even more shocking. Judging from the illustrations, though, he appears to be wearing black, which makes his actions less visually startling but no less odd. He is yet another example of how boring clerical work can be and the lengths you will go to amuse yourself! :)
It is so great to see Tom handed this plum job. For him, this is the type of job that is more fun than work! That is exactly how I felt about being a librarian--my husband even called the library my "playground." Tom deserves that type of job after his years of servitude to Pecksniff!
Bionic Jean wrote: "Ah Shirley, do you remember our group read of The Cricket on the Hearth? It's similar to that; a sort of pun.The Victorians liked to have brass or iron ornaments on their hearths to..."
A hearth ornament! That had not occurred to me, Jean. Thank you for clearing that up for me. Maybe because I associate beetles with Kafka's The Metamorphosis, but I would NOT want a beetle (real or not; good luck or not) on my hearth. LOL
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Bionic Jean wrote: "In the translation I read it was a cockroach! 😆 It's funny how if beetles are red or yellow with spots we call them ladybirds (ladybugs in the US?) and think they are cute, though."Proof that even in the natural world pretty people get treated differently.
I was also thinking that Tom’s mysterious benefactor must be Old Martin, for lack of any other person to fit the bill. If, indeed, he is then it would seem to fit also that he hasn’t been duped at all by Pecksniff but is biding his time for his own reason. Also, Mary would then be in a safer position though she wouldn’t have any way of knowing that.
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Tom diligently goes to work every day, and spends a lot of his time wondering who his employer might be. He doesn’t believe it really is Mr. Fips, but cannot come up with any other ideas, except the remote possibility of it being Mr. Pecksniff. And if it was he, Tom tells John, he would not accept it. But John laughs at such a ludicrous idea, saying that Mr. Pecksniff was incapable of performing any generous action.
Tom leaves the outer door to the office open, and listens constantly for the footsteps of his employer, wondering when he will meet him.
“Misgivings, undefined, absurd, inexplicable, that there was some one hiding in the inner room—walking softly overhead, peeping in through the door-chink, doing something stealthy … came over him a hundred times a day”
He even follows people in the street sometimes, thinking they must be his employer, but to no avail. Then Mr. Fips calls to give Tom his first week’s salary, and tells him not to mention the particulars of his job to anyone. Tom answers that he would like to meet his employer to thank him, and find out if he is satisfied with his work. However Mr. Fips will not be drawn, and says that Tom has the proper attitude. Even when Tom tells him he will soon have finished sorting out the books, Mr. Fips says there will still be plenty of work to occupy him.
Since Tom has no organ to play, he takes long walks with his sister early every morning instead. They take a leisurely stroll through Covent Garden Market, enjoying looking at the produce on sale. Then they walk to the river Thames to look at the steamboats.
One morning, they are standing on the wharf looking down at all the steamboats, when Tom is poked and prodded with an umbrella by someone behind him. It keeps happening, and he gets quite cross as it is deliberate and painful. Turning round he remonstrates:
“‘What a very ill-natured person you must be!’ said Tom.”
The woman argues with him, but manages to squeeze herself in front of them. The narrator tells us it is Sairey Gamp. Ruth asks if she is watching the boats for something or somebody:
“The Ankworks package,’ Mrs Gamp replied. ‘I will not deceive you, my sweet. Why should I?’
‘That is the Antwerp packet in the middle,’ said Ruth.“
Mrs. Gamp cannot seem to find what she is looking for, and Ruth asks she why she is so worried. Mrs. Gamp observes that she is single:
“But others is married, and in the marriage state; and there is a dear young creetur a-comin’ down this mornin’ to that very package, which is no more fit to trust herself to sea, than nothin’ is!”
and shouting, shakes her fist at the chimney:
“you’re a nice spluttering nisy monster for a delicate young creetur to go and be a passinger by; ain’t you! you never do no harm in that way, do you? With your hammering, and roaring, and hissing, and lamp-iling, you brute!”
“Mrs. Gamp down at the London Docks - Mrs. Gamp creates a sensation with her umbrella” - Fred Barnard - Household Edition 1872
Ruth asks her who she means, and sees a cloaked gentleman and a lady boarding one of the boats:
“ … his face is almost hidden?’
‘Well he may hide it!’ Mrs Gamp replied. ‘He’s good call to be ashamed of himself. Did you see him a-jerking of her wrist, then?’
‘He seems to be hasty with her, indeed.’“
“Mrs. Gamp at the Docks” - Harry Furniss - 1910
Tom meanwhile, is distracted by a hand on his arm, and turns to find his landlord standing there. The landlord asks Tom if he sees a man swathed in a black cloak with a lady in a black shawl getting on to a boat. (The narrator comments that he must be able to see them himself in order to describe them so well.) However when Tom eventually spots them, he points them out, as asked. The landlord then asks Tom to take the cloaked man a letter, which Tom makes haste to do, in order to be helpful.
However when he gets near the cloaked man, Tom realises that it is Jonas Chuzzlewit.
“Tom understood him to say, what the devil did he want; but it was not easy to make out what he said; he spoke so indistinctly.”
Tom tells Jonas that he had not recognised him, but had merely been asked to deliver a letter to him. Jonas opens the letter, reads the brief contents and looks extremely shocked:
“His emotion was so different from any Tom had ever seen before that he stopped involuntarily.”
He roughly pulls the woman out of the cabin and drags her, pale and frightened, off the boat, threatening:
“‘I have changed my mind. I can’t go. Don’t question me, or I shall be the death of you, or some one else.’
He turned, even in the madness of his hurry, and scowling darkly back at Tom, shook his clenched hand at him. There are not many human faces capable of the expression with which he accompanied that gesture.“
Tom follows him, as Jonas demands to know “Where is he?” whereupon:
“a gentleman of foreign appearance, with a black moustache and whiskers; … addressed him with a polite composure, strangely different from his own distracted and desperate manner.”
He then asks to be introduced to the lady dragged along by Jonas. Jonas introduces him as Mr. Montague, and the man then asks if they are going on a “continental trip”.
Mrs. Gamp is curtseying, wanting to introduce herself, and does so when Montague asks who she is.
“’You are here too, are you?’ muttered Jonas. ‘Ecod, there are enough of you.’”
Jonas then goes off angrily and sulkily with Montague:
“’I am sorry to take you away,’ said Montague.
Jonas gave him a sinister look, which long lived in Tom’s memory, and which he often recalled afterwards.“
The two men get into a cabriolet which is waiting for them and drive away, as Tom looks around for his landlord, who seems to have vanished. Then he sees a hand beckoning to him from a hackney-coach; and discovers it is Merry’s. She begs him to tells her what they have been brought back, but he knows no more than she.
Tom and Ruth are left there wondering what is going on. The narrator ends:
“Had Mr Nadgett appointed the man who never came, to meet him upon London Bridge that morning? He was certainly looking over the parapet, and down upon the steamboat-wharf at that moment. It could not have been for pleasure; he never took pleasure. No. He must have had some business there.”
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What exactly did Tigg Montague ask Jonas to do before, that caused him to feel so trapped and panicked that he would jump on a boat leaving the country?
My summary is a bit long today I’m afraid, but there is quite a lot of “meat” (or plot development) in this chapter 40, which it is important not to miss. For instance I’ve included some quotations about Jonas, which must fill us with strong foreboding, if not actual terror. What a villain! Here’s another part which struck me (Jonas to Tigg Montague):
“Jonas replied, after a moment’s silence:
‘The necessity is none of my making. You have brought it about yourself.’
He said nothing more. He said even this as if he were bound, and in the other’s power, but had a sullen and suppressed devil within him, which he could not quite resist. His very gait, as they walked away together, was like that of a fettered man; but, striving to work out at his clenched hands, knitted brows, and fast-set lips, was the same imprisoned devil still.“
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The third element for me is the garrulous Mrs. Gamp; one of Charles Dickens’s most-loved comic characters. Some think she is the best part of Martin Chuzzlewit! Strange that we never do seem to see this “Mrs. Harris” who she reveres so much …
But Mrs. Gamp provides my favourite quotations today. There are quite a few delicious malapropisms, (see next post) but my favourite has to be “witness for the persecution”.
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan created the character Mrs. Malaprop in his play The Rivals in 1775. Mrs. Malaprop constantly used a wrong word with a sound resembling the right one, to great comedic effect. Her name comes from the French phrase mal à propos (inappropriate) and is an example of an aptronym—a name that fits some aspect of a character. The word “malapropism” is now used of this verbal aberration, which Mrs. Gamp displays all the time!
Interestingly although a “gamp” is an old-fashioned colloquial English word for a large, bulky umbrella, “Mrs. Gamp” is not called after it. It is the other way round! Instead, she gave her name to it, after the book was published.
I’m eager to read your thoughts on this chapter, and theories about the mysteries!
Sue wrote: "I was also thinking that Tom’s mysterious benefactor must be Old Martin, for lack of any other person to fit the bill. If, indeed, he is then it would seem to fit also that he hasn’t been duped at ..."That is what I think too, Sue. That it is old Martin Chuzzlewit who is his secret benefactor. And I have a feeling that Mary exposed Pecksniff in his dealings with Tom, and she told old Martin what a good man Tom really is.
All of this thinking has made me love how Dickens just named his book Martin Chuzzlewit, and is leading his readers on a "magical mystery tour" as we try to figure out WHICH Martin Chuzzlewit is the actual hero of the book. LOL
I also have wondered if old Martin were Tom's benefactor. It does not seem like the job Tom is doing is one that really needs doing. Judging from the state of the room and the books, it does not seem like anyone is in particular need of them. Although, as a couple of other people have mentioned, it seems like it would be an enjoyable job.
Sue wrote: "I was also thinking that Tom’s mysterious benefactor must be Old Martin, for lack of any other person to fit the bill. If, indeed, he is then it would seem to fit also that he hasn’t been duped at all by Pecksniff but is biding his time for his own reason. Also, Mary would then be in a safer position though she wouldn’t have any way of knowing that."Pretty harsh on Mary if that's the case. Unless Shirley's right and Mary's also behind it.
Given the way Dickens handles (view spoiler) in another novel, though, I don't think he is of my opinion that torturing a person so you can give them a nicer surprise later on is not ok.
I guess we'll see.
Shirley (stampartiste) wrote: "All of this thinking has made me love how Dickens just named his book Martin Chuzzlewit, and is leading his readers on a "magical mystery tour" as we try to figure out WHICH Martin Chuzzlewit is the actual hero of the book. LOL."That is a great point, especially since CD himself seems a little bored with Martin Jr. Otherwise why abandon him for so long to hang out with Tom and beefsteak puddings and such?
Regarding Mrs. Gamp, I was really hoping that as they stood above and watched so many people coming and going, she would see her mythical Mrs. Harris! But no.
Lots of activity on the steam boat pier. I have to imagine Dickens was recalling some of his own adventures and misadventures on the ‘Britannia’ coming to North America in 1842.Jonas must be in some deep trouble to want to escape the country and he is dragging Merry along with him. Mysterious notes, mysterious people, and Mrs Gamp round out the chapter’s central action.
This is a chapter of questions: who is Tom’s employer; why is Jonas attempting to leave London in disguise; what is the role of Mrs Gamp and Tom’s landlord at the steamboat terminal; what were the contents of the short note Tom delivered? Each of these questions will no doubt be answered in time. Dickens has us guessing, and, of course wanting to read on.
As to Jonas, I wondered if perhaps he realized that his new acquaintances and their company really wanted him for his money and possible connections and became afraid of losing the money. Or perhaps he has stolen or swindled and risks being caught.If Old Martin is Tom’s benefactor, could he have sent the note to Jonas on the boat? If so, Old Martin must really be tuned in to an awful lot that is happening in London since the letter, not Montague, caused Jonas to leave the boat.
So many possibilities but also so many unknowns.
Adding one more question to the questions: Mr. Nadgett standing and watching on made me think...is Nadgett Tom's landlord? He is the most likely person to have sent the note, getting Jonas off the boat and into Montague's hands. Montague cannot be the landlord, because Tom would recognize Tigg since he once loaned him money? Or maybe I am overthinking this and the landlord is neither of them.
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"So many possibilities but also so many unknowns."
Indeed, there are so many questions, including the one we have wondered about right from the start; who is the novel actually about? As Shirley reminds us, even if we think of the 2-word abbreviated title there are still two Martins - and the full title says it is the whole family: "his relatives, friends, and enemies"
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Sara - we learn here that Nadgett is indeed Tom Pinch's landlord. 🙂 He was the man who gave him the letter:
"‘There are so many people, and so much motion, and so many objects,’ said Tom, ‘that I find it difficult to—no, I really don’t see a gentleman in a large cloak, and a lady in a black shawl. There’s a lady in a red shawl over there!’"
‘No, no, no!’ cried his landlord, pointing eagerly again,"
Then he seems to disappear:
"He [Tom] gazed round for his landlord. But he had done that more than once already, and no such man was to be seen."
And the chapter ends with a further mysterious question posed by the narrator.
Bionic Jean wrote: "And a little more …Richard Brinsley Sheridan created the character Mrs. Malaprop in his play The Rivals in 1775. Mrs. Malaprop constantly used a wrong word with a sou..."
This is so interesting, Jean! I had never heard of the term "malaprop" before, but it reminded me of a very famous American comedian back in the 60s and 70s, I think? His name was Norm Crosby, and his comedy routine was using the wrong word, as you mention here. I just looked him up, and he was known as the Master of Malaprop. From the articles I read, I don't think he knew the history of the term. So interesting, though! "Everything old is new again."
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I saw The Rivals onstage in the West End once, with Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey?) as Mrs Malaprop 😆
I'm loving everyone's guesses about the events on the pier and the boat. It never occurred to me that Jonas might be running away from Montague. What I thought was happening (because of Mrs. Gamp's reaction), was that Jonas was intending to kill Merry for the insurance money, and he was hiding his identity to escape discovery of the crime. But his reaction to Montague definitely makes me see it as you all do.I am puzzled at the identity of the landlord because it looked like Tom and Mary just stumbled onto their new home. It would really be a coincidence if the landlord was someone involved in these affairs. Having said that, I'm wondering if the landlord is Dr. Jobling, as he would know about the insurance policy and he is deeply tied in with Montague. And he obviously did not want to be seen by Jonas or Montague. And being a doctor, it would make sense that he would want to save Merry.
But again, as Sara noted, it could have been Mr. Nadgett, as he appeared to know every movement that Jonas made.
Yes, Sue! "So many possibilities and so many unknowns."
Bionic Jean wrote: "And l'd never heard of Norm Crosby - but looking him up, he's really famous, isn't he?I saw The Rivals onstage in the West End once, with Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey?) as Mrs Malapr..."
Yes, Norm Crosby really was famous in his time! I have always loved this type of humor. My mother was French, and she always found ways to mangle the English language. Here in the South, a much-used expression is "you're not just whistling Dixie", my mother would say the nonsensical "you're not just whispering gypsy." That was my favorite, and our family still use her quote. LOL
I *loved* the incomparable Maggie Smith!
Nadgett being Tom’s landlord really interferes with my theories a bit but my mind is flexible and still churning. But now I’m realizing that Nadgett is the landlord of their home. I was confusing him with the office. Wow, everything is so tied together. I just reread the section on the boat and, if I read it correctly, Tom seemed to be present when Montague confronted Jonas. He didn’t appear to recognize him. Of course he might not have been paying close attention since he probably wanted to be away from there.
I think the plot is getting very interesting.
Sue wrote: "Nadgett being Tom’s landlord really interferes with my theories a bit but my mind is flexible and still churning. "This is sort of the point when, as with some but not all Dickens novels (Oliver Twist comes to mind), I give up trying to figure out what is going on and whether it makes sense, and just accept the ride. I am mostly reading on now to find out where everyone ends up and whether they deserve it (including whether I find people's emotional journeys believable), and am prepared to overlook how ridiculous or unlikely the plot-string pulling that gets them there might be.
Julie, I am a mystery reader since childhood so I can’t stop myself from trying to unwind these details, fruitless as the attempts might be. Thankfully I don’t get upset with myself when I’m wrong ;-)
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I do have to disagree about Oliver Twist being straightforward though. We've discussed at least two mesmeric episodes in it, and times when one character could not be in the place they appeared to be. Also the distance from - or within - London of the baby farm varies in different parts of the book, ditto the workhouse location etc. Plus Oliver's long walk, if you work it out, was c.10 times as far as the actual milestone says. Then there's the horrendously convoluted "explanation" delivered by Mr Brownlow at the end - aaargh! (I'm sure everyone in our group read remembers that!) If you try to take it all literally, it's a nightmare! Most of the time readers skip questioning the details.
There were reasons for Charles Dickens having to be so devious (as I think you imply) ... I'm just saying that even a book as popular as Oliver Twist is not really as straightforward and simple a storyline as we may remember! 😆
Jean, I have to adopt a completely different mode of reading when I read Faulkner…or I’d go nuts!
Jean, it looks like I overlooked several messages when I stopped and went back to re-read sections of the chapter that I wanted to check. Thank you for re-directing me to your message about Nadgett. What a complicated chapter full of new questions.
Thanks, Jean. I must have registered that when I read and then forgotten that it was clearly stated. There is a lot to process in this chapter. In fact, if I can squeeze in the time in the morning, I might try to read it again before I go forward.I agree that sometimes you just have to ride...but, like Sue, I cannot stop myself from trying to put the puzzle together.
Bionic Jean wrote: "I do have to disagree about Oliver Twist being straightforward though. We've discussed at least two mesmeric episodes in it, and times when one character could not be in the place they appeared to be. Also the distance from - or within - London of the baby farm varies in different parts of the book, ditto the workhouse location etc. Plus Oliver's long walk, if you work it out, was c.10 times as far as the actual milestone says. Then there's the horrendously convoluted "explanation" delivered by Mr Brownlow at the end - aaargh! (I'm sure everyone in our group read remembers that!) If you try to take it all literally, it's a nightmare! Most of the time readers skip questioning the details."Yes, sorry I was not clear, but that was the point I was trying to make! I have read the ending of Oliver Twist 4 or 5 times and I kind of have to double-read that final explanation every time because it is so incredibly complicated and (I feel) unnecessarily so, as well as highly unlikely. At this point I just accept that's how some Dickens stories are going to end up.
Sue wrote: "Julie, I am a mystery reader since childhood so I can’t stop myself from trying to unwind these details, fruitless as the attempts might be. Thankfully I don’t get upset with myself when I’m wrong ;-)"That absolutely makes sense as a mode of reading coming out of mystery novels! I'm not really a natural mystery reader, because for me keeping track of the possible solution detracts from getting lost in the world. But I know they're some people's favorite reading, for the opportunity to sort out the puzzle. When I read them, I am instead very happy to have the sleuth explain the whole thing to me at the end, preferably over some kind of nice meal or cup of tea, or in an attractive travel destination. :)
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We know that Charles Dickens laughed to himself when he wrote the American chapters, as he told John Forster so. Well with this one I can imagine him rubbing his hands together with glee as he drops little hints, never revealing too much as he plots and plans 😆
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"This is sort of the point when, as with some but not all Dickens novels (Oliver Twist comes to mind), I give up trying to figure out what is going on and whether it makes sense, and just accept the ride."
I had assumed you meant that Oliver Twist was the exception, and not an example (i.e. "not all" referred to Oliver Twist!) All clear now, good 🙂
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Let's move on now then, with today's thrilling episode. 😱
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It is not far to the “Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company”, where Montague Tigg takes Jonas. Jonas remains silent and angry all the way there, but ”there was a striking difference in his manner …
He had the aspect of a man found out and held at bay; of being baffled, hunted, and beset; but there was now a dawning and increasing purpose in his face, which changed it very much. It was gloomy, distrustful, lowering; pale with anger and defeat; it still was humbled, abject, cowardly and mean; but, let the conflict go on as it would, there was one strong purpose wrestling with every emotion of his mind, and casting the whole series down as they arose.“
When they arrive at the office, Jonas leaps out of the carriage and goes upstairs. Montague asks Jonas why he was trying to escape, when he has been made part of the company, which will benefit them both. Jonas objects, saying that he doesn’t know for certain that he was actually trying to flee. Mr. Tigg responds that it is the only explanation for why Jonas was dressed to hide his identity, and trying to get on a foreign boat in the daytime.
Mr. Tigg tells Jonas that he has information on him, but says it will not benefit him to use it against Jonas. He also says:
“I am not a moral man, you know. I am not the least in the world affected by anything you may have done; by any little indiscretion you may have committed; but I wish to profit by it if I can; and to a man of your intelligence I make that free confession.”
Jonas will not meet his eye, but wants to know if anyone else is privy to the information Montague has. When Montague says they do not, for the first time Jonas meets his eye and laughs, agreeing to help to lure Mr. Pecksniff.
“‘Ecod!’ cried Jonas, with a wild laugh. ‘There’s some fun in catching that old hypocrite. I hate him.’”
Jonas points out that Pecksniff cannot be tempted by being invited to the luxury surroundings and dinners as he was, because he does not know Montague. Or at least if he did, he will not recognise Montague now because of his false hair and black dye. He even spoke differently then; it is only now that he behaves as if he is a gentleman. Jonas says that Montague must go and see Mr. Pecksniff with him, in spite of Mr. Tigg’s initial reluctance.
“And they shook hands upon it.”
They decide to visit at night, and Jonas did not go home, reasoning that if he had been obliged to leave town on business in a great hurry, this would be a good excuse for having turned back so unexpectedly in the morning. He sends for his luggage, and sends a threatening message to his wife, warning her to stay away, when she asks if she can see him for a moment.
Jonas spends the rest of the day with Mr. Jobling the doctor, but on the way to his room he sees Mr. Nadgett. Montague overhears Jonas quietly asking Nadgett who had given him the letter. Mr. Nadgett replies with just as much secrecy, that it was his lodger, Tom Pinch.
Jonas drinks with Mr. Jobling, and notices a case of lancets. Taking one out, Jonas:
“opened one of the shining little instruments; and was scrutinizing it with a look as sharp and eager as its own bright edge.”
“A Little Verbal Fencing over Wine - ”Now, could you cut a man’s throat with such a thing as this?“ demanded Jonas.” - Fred Barnard - Household Edition 1872
He asks if it is possible to cut a man’s throat with them. Mr. Jobling tells him that it depends on where someone cuts, and shows him where the jugular is. Jonas makes a play at attacking him, “burst[ing] into a loud discordant laugh.”.
But Mr. Jobling says he should not joke with sharp tools. He tells Jonas a story about how a doctor killed a man by stabbing him in the heart with one of the instruments, so precisely that he left only one drop of blood. Jonas is very interested in the doctor’s story, so much so that the doctor is encouraged to act it out, first playing one part and then the other.
After dinner, Montague, Jonas, and Bailey start out for Mr. Pecksniff’s, with Jonas in high humour.
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In the carriage, Jonas begins to show signs of being a little out of control, even mentally unbalanced. He becomes more and more unpredictable and paranoid, such as when he sees the people watching the carriage go by from the roadside. There is no reason for him to think these people are actually spying on him, but in his heightened mental state it agitates him. This episode is almost manic, from the highs and lows of his mood, plus his paranoia.
I found this very powerful:
“He had left deep marks of his front teeth in his nether lip; and those tokens of the agitation he had lately undergone improved his looks as little as the heavy corrugations in his forehead.”
And the progression of Jonas’s behaviour becomes more exulting and wild as the chapter progresses. However Jonas’s shift from afraid and desperate to “self-possessed”, also tells us that something has changed in his plans and intentions. It it almost as if the power has shifted from Montague to Jonas; as if Jonas has now made up his mind about what to do … but my goodness the latter part of the chapter terrifies us as to his intentions, especially since Jonas does not now seem quite sane.
And with all this, Charles Dickens is still teasing us as to what Montague actually has on Jonas! “I thought I had discovered—”
It is a masterly chapter!
Mod
and the original readers had to wait a whole month to find out! We just have to wait an extra day, until Wednesday, when Installment 16 begins with chapter 42.
When your heart stops racing quite so much, do tell us what you think.
Sue and Julie, very interesting about modes of reading — especially mysteries and unpacking a story while trying to deduce things along the way. I found that to be the case in Bleak House, but had not so much expected it here. There’s sometime a mystery mode, it seems, in so many works that are not generally considered mysteries.
Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
Oliver Twist (other topics)Oliver Twist (other topics)
The Rivals (other topics)
The Rivals (other topics)
The Rivals (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)John Forster (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (other topics)
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perfectly sums up this stultification which Dickens believes is endemic to all English institutions, when:
“A ray of sun shone through a crevice in the shutter and struck upon the opposite wall, it went twirling round and round, like a gigantic squirrel-cage.
Dust was the only thing in the place that had any motion about it.“