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Book 1, Chapter 17
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
Charley’s school is small and crowded, with boys and girls of all ages. Charley tells the schoolmaster, Bradley Headstone, that he wants to see Lizzie, but Headstone isn’t sure it’s a good idea for him to do that. But Charley manages to convince Headstone to walk with him, in order to go see Lizzie and prove that she could be a good student too.
Bradley Headstone clearly isn’t too wealthy if he teaches in such a shabby school. Nevertheless, he seems to have some snobbish ideas, like the belief that a girl from Lizzie’s background could never be a good student (and that a boy like Charley is too simple to realize that Lizzie isn’t worthwhile).
Themes
Literary Devices
A teacher named Miss Peecher works at the school and secretly loves Headstone, but he doesn’t love her back. She gossips with a pupil, Mary Anne, and hears that Headstone is headed with Charley to see Lizzie. When Charley gets home with Headstone, however, he doesn’t see Lizzie and instead sees an unfamiliar person named Jenny, who appears to either be a child or a “dwarf” and who has problems with her back and legs. Jenny says Lizzie should be back soon.
Miss Peecher’s name is another whimsical one, rhyming with “teacher” (similar to how Wegg’s name rhymes with “leg”). Jenny is one of several characters in this novel (and in Dickens’s work in general) who has a physical impairment. Her problems with her legs hint at how she lacks social mobility due to poverty and how her physical condition limits her options for work.
Themes
Jenny asks Headstone to guess her trade. She gives hints, and Headstone figures out that she is a dressmaker for dolls. Jenny says she’s always preferred grown-ups over children because they’re calmer. Headstone can’t tell Jenny’s age but guesses she’s maybe 12 or 13. At last, Lizzie returns and embraces Charley. Headstone tells Lizzie about how busy Charley has been in school—and how he doesn’t need any distractions.
The fact that it isn’t clear at first whether Jenny is a child or an adult reflects how despite her young age, she often has to take on adult-like responsibilities that actually make her appear older. Headstone ominously warns Lizzie away from seeing her brother, betraying again his controlling nature.
Themes
Charley gets some time to speak with Lizzie alone, and he tries to convince her that she needs to get into school as well. He thinks she shouldn’t be spending so much time around strange people like Jenny. Charley can tell that Headstone is ready to leave. He makes Lizzie promise that he won’t take his suggestions for her as an insult, then goes off with Headstone.
Charley’s harsh judgment of Jenny suggests that after being away from his old home for just a short period of time, he’s already started to reject lower-class life. He seems to be taking on some of the qualities of Headstone, who also isn’t that wealthy but who nevertheless looks down on anyone of a lower social class.
Themes
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As Headstone and Charley walk, they happen to see Eugene. Charley mentions that he doesn’t like Eugene because he meddles in business where he doesn’t belong. They keep walking, and Charley suggests that perhaps someone could act as a tutor to Lizzie. Headstone agrees, believing that if a man admired Lizzie and wanted to marry her, it would be a shame if she wasn’t properly educated. Charley suggests Miss Peecher for the tutor role, but Headstone rejects the idea and says he’ll think of someone for the job.
Headstone’s position on Lizzie’s potential as a student changes abruptly. The one thing that changed is that he saw Lizzie in person, and this passage strongly implies that when Headstone talks about a hypothetical man marrying Lizzie, he means himself. Still, Headstone seems too proud to admit that he wants some “beneath” him like Lizzie, which is why he then decides to educate her and make her “worthy” of him.
Themes
