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Our Mutual Friend Master’S Diploma Thesis

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Our Mutual Friend Master’S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Roman Valenta Identity, Capital and Redemption in Our Mutual Friend Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Roman Valenta I would like to thank my supervisor, Doctor Stephen Paul Hardy for his invaluable advice and comments he provided in the course of my writing. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Identity and the Net Worth of a Man in Our Mutual Friend 10 1.1. Introduction to Identity 10 1.2. John Harmon – The Deceiver 17 1.3. Bella Wilfer – The Vain Daughter of a Clerk 25 1.4. Nicodemus Boffin – ‘The Golden Dustman’ 30 1.5. Eugene Wrayburn – The English ‘Superfluous Man’ 38 Chapter Two: Capital, Commodification and Blackmail in Our Mutual Friend 46 2.1. Introduction to Capital 46 2.2. The Veneerings and the Lammles – The New Capitalists and the Bankrupts 57 2.3. The Undesirable Effects of Capitalism – Usury and Commodification 61 2.4. Capitalist Code of Conduct, Contempt of the Working Class and Extortion 68 Chapter Three: Suffering, Punishment and Redemption in Our Mutual Friend 73 Conclusion 90 Works Cited 96 Summary 101 Résumé 102 Introduction This thesis aims to explore the issues of identity, capital and redemption in Our Mutual Friend. It is split into three chapters and argues that in the novel, there exists a connection between one’s identity and the capital he or she possesses. The first chapter is concerned with the unstable identity of four major characters and inquires into their archetypal features. It stresses the importance of changing identity, which in this thesis is referred to as re- identification, and suggests that this transformation is represented as highly ambiguous, because it can be feigned. The second chapter asserts that the novel portrays and mocks the clash of the old money and the noveaux-riche characters, all of which results in the overestimation of capital and leads to commodification and blackmail. The final chapter addresses the issue of suffering and redemption and considers both of them from various points of view. It argues that Dickens presents redemption as non-religious and attempts to prove that it is mediated either through money and capital or through love. Our Mutual Friend is the last finished novel of Charles Dickens. The idea for this work had existed since 1860, but due to his occupation with other projects and his continuing extramarital affair with Ellen Ternan the prolific writer did not start writing until 1864. The novel, which presents a considerable shift from his previous works in terms of perception of society, can be read as a ‘social chorus’ with an emphasis on the identity of its characters and their possession of property. In The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens, Paul Schlicke mentions that both the plot and the title of Our Mutual Friend were 1 foreshadowed in Dickens’ Book of Memoranda (Schlicke 442). Originally, the intention was to commit to paper a tale of “a man, young and perhaps eccentric, feigning to be dead . and for years retaining the singular view of life” (qtd. in Watkins 134) accompanied by a storyline of “a poor imposter of a man marrying a woman for her money, she marrying him for his money, after marriage both finding out their mistake, and entering into a covenant against folks in general” (qtd. in Schlicke 442). Dickens’ plan was carried out according to his preliminary proposal. However, John Harmon became the principal character, while Alfred and Sophronia Lammle were overshadowed by other major characters such as the indolent lawyer Eugene Wrayburn or the naïve noveaux riche Nicodemus Boffin. It might even be argued that the novel presents the reader with a number of heroes, out of whom John Harmon is the formal protagonist. Regardless of this, Due to his meekness and civility, Harmon may be read as a very and morally commendable and Eugene Wrayburn can be understood as a disillusioned member of the mid-nineteenth century upper-class intelligentsia. Like Harmon, Nicodemus Boffin is a character whose identity is highly unstable, for he comes from a working-class and his lack of education manifests itself no matter how inventive he becomes when trying to conceal it. John Harmon’s identity may be perceived as even more ‘schizophrenic’ than that of Mr. Boffin, but his pretense is far easier to detect. Geraldine Godsil in “Reflections on Death and Mourning in Relation to Dickens’ Novel Our Mutual Friend” calls the novel an “individual drama . enmeshed with multiple subplots, where money, possessions and status exercise a destructive 2 influence” (Godsil 474). This applies to a number of characters including the Lammles, Wrayburn and his friend and co-lodger Mortimer Lightwood. However, in accordance with the principles of moral harmony, John Harmon attempts to fight this destructive influence and to exercise love in one of its purest forms – a marriage unburdened by mammon and only then does he decide to disclose that for years he has been deceiving everyone around him with the intention to alter their perception of society. Our Mutual Friend surpasses Dickens’ previous novel – Great Expectations – in terms of both size and sophistication of character development, because those who seemingly develop might just pretend in order to catalyze development of others. During the course of the novel, the major characters are given enough time and space to evolve and many of them including Bella Wilfer, Eugene Wrayburn and Silas Wegg undergo a change that directs them towards love and understanding or results in their irreversible moral decline. In certain aspects, Our Mutual Friend resembles Dickens’ unsatisfactory family life and his affair with Ellen Ternan. This applies to his depiction of marriages and relationships between children and their parents. The novel also changes the way Dickens’ characters deal with rejection in love. Instead of becoming reconciled with (temporary) rejection, like Pip does in Great Expectations, both Eugene Wrayburn and Bradley Headstone become pathologically obsessed with Lizzie Hexam and start pursuing her until she is forced to leave the city and to seek shelter from their ‘love’. Eventually, the infatuation of the lovelorn Headstone results into him losing his self and turning 3 violent, all of which brings about his death and suggests that emotional greed is just as dangerous as avarice. The story of Our Mutual Friend is set in nineteenth-century London, but the year is unknown. Dickens focuses on the identity of his characters and their property and thus the city itself takes second place. It can only be estimated that the novel takes place during the late 1850s or the early 1860s due to its depiction of economic opportunism and the rise of the noveaux-riche ‘class’. During the course of the novel, the reader is acquainted with characters such as the Veneerings or the Lammles, whose fates vary from becoming a member of parliament to going irredeemably bankrupt. What might be called an ‘unscrupulous opportunism’ is also represented by the greedy persona of Mr. Fledgeby. The young opportunist runs an undercover money-lending agency and attempts to raise himself socially by marrying Georgiana Podsnap – the daughter of this novel’s ‘rule-maker’ Mr. Podsnap. However, opportunism in Our Mutual Friend is also inherent to the working-class characters such Silas Wegg and Roger Riderhood and their existence partially corroborates the legitimacy of contempt of the lower-working class. The first chapter of this thesis deals with the unstable identity of four selected characters – John Harmon, Bella Wilfer, Nicodemus Boffin and Eugene Wrayburn and argues that identity in Our Mutual Friend is largely formed by social status and property. Apart from their attachment to material things, Dickens also analyzes his characters’ motivations, lack of taste and mocks their bad qualities or even questions their judgment. Greg Hecimovich in “The Cup and the Lip and the Riddle of Our Mutual Friend” contends that the novel deals 4 with the issues of “surface and substance [and] disguised identity” (Hecimovich 24). However, the identity of many characters can be accurately ascertained from their conversations regardless of their disguise. Every one of them has a distinctive manner of speaking ranging from the non-standard English of Hexam and Riderhood to the smooth upper-class English of characters such as Eugene Wrayburn or Mr. Podsnap. The narrator, however, also has a distinct identity. His language could be likened to that of John Harmon/Rokesmith, but there is an additional witty quality to it. In “Naming and Language in Our Mutual Friend”, G. W. Kennedy argues that “each Victorian novelist must identify himself in some way with t[he] collective consciousness” represented by his (or her) characters (Kennedy 165). Kennedy further stresses that in Our Mutual Friend, “Dickens uses his role of narrating voice to expose the dehumanizing effects of . an identification with the social voice” (Kennedy 165). Nevertheless, the narrator never truly identifies with the society and mocks the characters for their flaws while suggesting that they should refrain from worshipping what Kennedy calls “the false gods of money and work” (qtd. in Kennedy 165). In addition, the chapter argues that the identities of some major characters are closely linked to their social status and that money and education are not always equal to intelligence and good manners. In Our Mutual Friend, qualities such as cynicism, constant boredom or tendency to pontificate others are inherent to many members of the upper class and to those who consider themselves misplaced in the social hierarchy.
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