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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pickwick Papers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Male Friendship
Predatory Social Institutions
Social Class and Inequality
Marriage and Courtship
Generosity and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
Bamber tells a grim story of revenge. He begins by describing Heyling—a man driven by hatred for his father-in-law, who caused the deaths of Heyling’s wife and child. Years earlier, Heyling married the man’s daughter, but her father disowned her due to Heyling’s poverty. Later, the Heyling family falls into extreme poverty and are entirely unable to make ends meet.
The disownment not only fractures the family but also indicates a broader societal tendency to prioritize wealth over human relationships. Dickens uses the characters’ suffering as a way of exploring the destructive consequences of pride and greed, as well as the ripple effects of systemic poverty.
Themes
When Heyling begs his father-in-law for help, he cruelly turns them away, leaving them to die. Heyling swears revenge as he watches his wife and child suffer and die in misery. From that moment, Heyling dedicates his life to destroying his father-in-law. Over several years, he pursues legal cases, filing endless lawsuits that drain the old man of his fortune and leave him homeless. Heyling follows the man wherever he fled, determined to see him suffer. No setback slows his mission of revenge.
Here, Dickens suggests that extreme suffering can transform moral principles into instruments of destruction. Meanwhile, the use of the legal system as a weapon reflects how law, instead of protecting the vulnerable, can become a tool of personal vendetta. Heyling’s unyielding pursuit shows how revenge consumes those who seek it, leaving no space for reconciliation or peace.
Themes
After years of relentless pursuit, Heyling finally tracks down his father-in-law living in poverty in Camden Town. Confronting the old man, Heyling coldly reveals how he orchestrated the complete destruction of his life. The old man begs for mercy, but Heyling refuses to offer any forgiveness. That same night, the old man’s only son struggles in the sea, drowning just off the shore. The father pleads desperately for Heyling to save him, but Heyling stands still, watching as the young man dies, ignoring the cries for help. Heyling walks away from the old man, fully satisfied with the devastation he has caused. Soon after, the old man dies alone, but Heyling’s revenge has consumed Heyling completely. After that final act, Heyling vanishes without a trace, never to be seen again.
Heyling’s quest offers no true satisfaction. He thinks he can avenge his family’s death by subjecting his father-in-law to a similar level of suffering and misery. However, Heyling’s sad fate suggests that his refusal to show his father-in-law mercy has not brought him the satisfaction he thought it would—it has only perpetuated his own suffering. Dickens suggests that vengeance, while satisfying in the moment, ultimately depletes the humanity of those who pursue it. The ruined father-in-law becomes a mirror for Heyling himself, as both men are stripped of dignity and reduced to their basest selves by the end of the conflict.
Themes
