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Book 4, Chapter 6
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
Day breaks on the river lock, where Bradley Headstone stands alone. He knocks on the door and Roger Riderhood wakes up to greet him. Headstone sleeps through the day, then in the evening, Roger offers him dinner. Headstone eats awkwardly and accidentally cuts his hand while eating a pie. After dinner, Roger confronts Headstone: he has already heard news of a body recovered from the river. Lizzie was the one who found it, which surprises Headstone.
This passage is full of suspense, as the audience knows that Headstone has likely just attempted to murder Eugene, but he hasn’t admitted to it yet. The fact that Headstone cuts his hand with a knife is yet another moment when a knife represents a person’s capacity for violence—although in this case, the imagery seems to suggest that Headstone’s attempts at violence might accidentally hurt himself.
Themes
Headstone goes out again for the evening, saying that he’ll be back to sleep at the lock again. This time, Roger secretly follows him. He sees Headstone undress and go in the water with his clothes, and at first Roger wonders if it’s a suicide attempt. But after swimming a bit, Headstone comes back out and changes into new clothes so that he no longer looks like Roger.
This passage implies that Headstone swam out into the river to dump his old clothes, so that no one finds them and realizes that he owns an identical outfit to Roger. Roger’s speculation about whether Headstone is attempting suicide is yet another hint of how Headstone’s violence might come back around to him.
Themes
Headstone walks toward the center of London, suspicious of every sound he hears. He thinks about the “vengeance” he took recently and how he might have orchestrated the whole thing even better. He makes it to his school, which reopens the next day. Charley is now working as a teacher at another school, but Miss Peecher and Mary Anne remain. Headstone invites Charley to his house for a visit.
This passage confirms that Headstone was the man who attacked Eugene. The savagery of his attack on Eugene contrasts with the bland, respectable persona that Headstone tries to keep up while he’s doing his work at his small school.
Themes
When Charley arrives, he asks if Headstone has heard the news that Eugene Wrayburn is dead. Charley asks at first where Headstone was during the death, then decides he doesn’t want the burden of knowing. Charley says if Headstone had any involvement at all in what happened to Eugene, Charley will never forgive him. Charley feels that he himself is now compromised due to his association with Headstone. He wishes Headstone had never seen Lizzie.
Charley had begun to see the world Headstone’s way, rejecting Lizzie and all that remained of his old life. But when Charley realizes that Headstone might have committed a murder, he sees the dangers of following Headstone’s way of thinking all the way to the conclusion. Charley is still young and figuring out his identity—he rejects Headstone as quickly as he rejected his old life by the river.
Themes
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Headstone takes Charley’s rejection poorly, falling to the floor and clutching his head after Charley is gone. Meanwhile, Roger goes “fishing” and comes up with a “bundle” (of the clothes that Headstone tried to dispose of in the river).
Headstone should be celebrating, but in his arrogance, he overestimated how likely Charley was to take his side. Meanwhile, an even greater sign of Headstone’s arrogance is how he underestimated Roger and made an enemy of him. All of this makes Headstone’s future look grim.
Themes
