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Book 1, Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Our Mutual Friend, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Society, Class, and Character
Greed and Corruption
Marriage, Adoption, and Family
Education vs. Real-World Experience
Misfits and Outcasts
Summary
Analysis
Reginald Wilfer is a poor clerk with a “chubby, smooth, innocent appearance” like a cherub. Because he’s shy, he often goes by R. instead of his full name, and some people have given him the nickname Rumty. In contrast to Mr. Wilfer, Mrs. Wilfer is tall and sharp. In the parlor, a pretty girl of about 19, Bella Wilfer, plays draughts with her younger sister, Lavinia. When Bella starts to lose, she flips the board so that Lavinia has to pick up the pieces.
The physical appearances of Mr. Wilfer and Mrs. Wilfer hint at their personalities. Mr. Wilfer is generally kind, soft-hearted, and at times a pushover. By contrast, Mrs. Wilfer can be stern and uncompromising. Beauty is often associated with virtue in stories, but this passage challenges that cliché, showing how the beautiful Bella gets easily frustrated in a game with her sister.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mrs. Wilfer announces that she has just received a new letter from Cecilia, the eldest daughter who is married and has left the house. One of Cecilia’s husband’s aunts has fallen on hard times and come to live with Cecilia. Bella herself was once supposed to marry a man named George Sampson, though she rejected his proposal. Lavinia thinks Bella never much liked him, but Bella won’t admit it. Bella was supposed to marry John Harmon, per the old Mr. Harmon’s will, but that all changed when John was found dead. With his death, Bella and her family are stuck in poverty.
Cecilia, who is not a major character in the novel, seems to represent a cautionary tale (at least in Mrs. Wilfer’s mind) of what happens when you marry the wrong person. Instead of being supported by her husband, she ends up having to take in his aunt. Mrs. Wilfer doesn’t seem to care about any other details in the letter, showing how she (like many characters) prioritizes economic concerns in marriage. By contrast, Bella seems to care about other things (based on her rejection of the eligible George Sampson), although she is reluctant to admit it.
Themes
A young gentleman comes to the door of the Wilfer house and asks about renting the first floor. He refuses to provide a reference, saying that he is a stranger in London and it’d be inconvenient to get a reference at the moment. He offers to pay in advance. Mr. Wilfer draws up a contract for the man, whose name is Mr. Rokesmith. Bella and Lavinia fear the new tenant with a mysterious background may be a robber or even a murderer.
Rokesmith’s unwillingness to provide references suggests that he is trying to hide something about himself for some reason. Although Bella and Lavinia fear this stranger, Mr. Wilfer draws up a lodging contract for him anyway. The implication is that the Wilfers are poor and so Rokesmith’s offer to pay up front is too attractive to turn down.
Themes
That evening at dinner, Bella asks Mr. Wilfer why the old Mr. Harmon had a condition about John marrying her in his will. Mr. Wilfer has no clue and suspects it may just have been a whim. He saw Bella when she was in the park one day when she was little and perhaps thought she seemed promising, because he asked Mr. Wilfer her name. Bella complains at dinner about how she’ll always be poor and how that involves taking in suspicious lodgers. She doesn’t even know one of the most suspicious things about their new lodger: that Mr. John Rokesmith looks like “a twin brother” to Julius Handford.
The story Mr. Wilfer tells about how old Mr. Harmon chose Bella to be John’s wife is yet another example of how old Mr. Harmon was eccentric. On the one hand, this passage shows how old Mr. Harmon was controlling and wanted to set the course of his son’s life even when John was still young. Interestingly, as bizarre as his process of picking Bella was, old Mr. Harmon attempted to pick a wife for his son based on her character, not on wealth or family connections.
Themes
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