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Chapter 2
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
When Snodgrass and Winkle return from their near-duel, they find Pickwick with two men: the stranger, and one of the stranger’s friends, Dismal Jemmy. This second stranger has a particularly unsettling appearance, with sunken eyes, disheveled black hair, and a gaunt face. After brief introductions, Pickwick requests that Jemmy share the story he had begun telling before the others arrived. Jemmy begins telling a story about the tragic life of a once-promising actor who spiraled into poverty and destitution due to alcoholism.
Although The Pickwick Papers is generally a light-hearted novel, there are several moments where it examines the dark side of life in London. Dismal Jemmy—whose name and appearance reflect his personality—is one of several perpetually struggling people Pickwick meets in his travels. Despite Jemmy’s attitude, Pickwick shows just as much interest in what he has to say as he would anyone else.
Themes
As the actor’s addiction worsens, he loses his career and dignity, reduced to begging for odd jobs and scraps. At one point, Jemmy, who was the man’s friend, encounters him grotesquely dressed as a clown, asking for money to survive. A few days later, Jemmy is summoned to the man’s squalid lodgings, where he finds him gravely ill. Delirious with fever, the man confesses that he abused his wife and child. Now, he fears his wife is going to kill him as an act of revenge. Despite Jemmy’s attempts to comfort him, the man dies in a state of terror.
The actor’s clown costume illustrates the depth of his humiliation, turning his talent into a cruel joke. Jemmy’s attempt to comfort the man in his final moments with companionship, but the man’s still dies in fear and feeling unredeemed. Dickens uses this scene to show the horrors of poverty, which compound upon themselves until there is no human being left.
Themes
As Jemmy finishes his grim tale, the mood in the room is somber. Pickwick, visibly moved, is about to offer his thoughts when the waiter enters, announcing the arrival of some visitors. Winkle informs Pickwick that these are officers from the 97th Regiment, whom he met earlier that morning. Lieutenant Tappleton, Dr. Payne, and Slammer enter the room, and tension immediately rises when Slammer identifies the stranger.
Although Jemmy’s tale is a serious moment in the novel and for Pickwick, Pickwick does not get a chance to truly reflect on it before Smaller and his colleagues enter. Their entrance marks a return to the humor that largely characterizes the novel. One of Slammer’s colleagues, Dr. Payne, illustrates Dickens’s comedic use of names—Payne is a homophone for “pain,” which is not what one typically wants to associate with one’s doctor.
Themes
Slammer demands that the green-coated stranger either provide his card for a duel or face immediate physical retribution. Pickwick tries to calm the situation, asking for an explanation. Tupman recounts the events of the previous night, including the detail that the stranger had borrowed Winkle’s coat, leading to the misunderstanding. As the situation escalates, Tappleton recognizes the stranger as a strolling actor, making the duel unacceptable by gentlemanly standards, as it would be below Slammer’s dignity. The duel is called off, and the officers leave in a huff, with Slammer and Payne delivering parting insults to the Pickwickians and their guests. However, brandy restores the group’s good spirits, and the evening ends as it began: with camaraderie and jovial conversation.
Slammer’s demand for a duel reveals how easily honor culture escalates even the smallest offense into violence. Meanwhile, Tappleton’s recognition of the stranger as an actor highlights the rigid class distinctions at play: since actors are seen as socially inferior, the duel becomes unthinkable, reflecting how rules of honor only apply among equals. After Slammer and his colleagues leave, the Pickwickians save their night by turning to alcohol, which functions throughout the novel as a social lubricant that helps the characters leave the past in the past.
Themes
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