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Book 4, Chapter 16
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
Sometime later, Mortimer goes to a dinner party at the Veneerings. Mr. Veneering has by now retired from parliament. Mortimer ends up seated next to Lady Tippins, who asks Mortimer what it was like to be away from Britain with “the savages.” He has just been to visit Eugene and Lizzie in a colony. Tippins talks about what an “exhibition” Eugene made of himself by marrying “a female waterman.” Podsnap agrees that the marriage seems like no good.
Although much has changed for characters like Lizzie and Bella, back at the Veneering parties, everything is more or less the same, save for the absence of the Lammles and Eugene. People like Lady Tippins and Mr. Podsnap continue to gossip about people (like Lizzie) who come from a lower social class but who nevertheless intrigue them. This once again suggests the hollowness of upper-class life and how it motivates people to look elsewhere for purpose.
Themes
Everyone goes around the room voicing their disgust for Eugene and Lizzie’s marriage, while a frustrated Mortimer listens. The first person to disagree is Twemlow, who says that the matter is simply about “the feelings of a gentleman.” When Podsnap starts to disagree with him, Twemlow becomes more forceful. He thinks that if Eugene followed his feelings as a gentleman, then he did the right thing. A “wet blanket” falls over the party, with only Mortimer cheered up. At the end of the evening, Mortimer shakes hands with Twemlow enthusiastically and goes back home happily.
While Mortimer’s sympathy for Eugene is unsurprising, Twemlow’s support for Eugene and Lizzie is an evolution of his character. Twemlow used to value aristocracy and doing things the old-fashioned way, but he now argues that a person’s character is more important than their social class. Partly, this may be because Twemlow himself has recently suffered a financial mishap, giving him a better sense of perspective.
Themes
