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Book 3, Chapter 7
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
A constant train of carts and horses goes to and from the dust mounds, which begin to get smaller. Meanwhile, Betty has been traveling ever since she ran away to free Sloppy. Whenever she gets tired, her fear of having to accept charity motivates her to keep going. Still, one day she pushes herself so hard that she faints. When she wakes up to find a crowd gathered around her, she insists that nothing’s wrong.
Betty’s sense of self-reliance ends up being both a positive and a negative quality. On the one hand, it may have indirectly caused Johnny’s death, as Betty tried to do everything herself rather than seeking help from a children’s hospital. The way she goes off on her own shows a similar sense of good intentions and recklessness, foreshadowing that she might not be as strong as she believes.
Themes
Another time, Betty slips and falls into a river and needs to be pulled out. She awakes to find herself in the care of a man who calls himself the Deputy Lock of the lock-house. He wants to turn her over to the local parish, but Betty insists that she’s fine to go on her own and even bribes him with pocket change.
Betty’s fall into the water resembles that of many other characters, like John Harmon and Roger Riderhood. Like Roger, Betty’s “rebirth” after emerging from the river doesn’t seem to actually change her that much, as she remains as stubborn as ever about refusing help from others.
Themes
Betty continues walking, with few things left in life that she desires. She has sewn enough money into her gown to pay for her burial along with a letter that contains instructions for after she dies. She fears that if anyone finds her with the money before she dies, they’ll take the money, and she’ll be sent to a workhouse. As Betty is getting faint and thinking about Jesus, she suddenly sees a woman with dark hair who appears like an angel to her.
This passage shows that, as irrational as Betty’s self-reliant ways sometimes seems, there is a certain method to her madness: she wants to avoid ending up in a poorhouse, preferring even death to that. Betty’s desperation to avoid the poorhouse shows the constant fear that many lower-class Londoners lived in. The angelic woman at the end of this passage seems to suggest that, in fact, Betty’s death might not be that far off.
Themes
Betty asks the woman to take out her letter and read it. She asks the woman to make sure she sends the letter and money to the correct people. She then asks the dark-haired woman her name, and the woman reveals herself to be Lizzie. Betty asks Lizzie to lift her up.
The ending of Betty being lifted up suggests an ascension to heaven, implying that she dies here. The fact that she gets discovered by Lizzie continues to develop the idea that all the characters’ fates are connected in surprising ways.
Themes
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