Our Mutual Friend Lesson Plan

What does life in London look like in these opening chapters?

The opening chapters create a somewhat grim view of London in both its upper and lower class ranks. Life is difficult for Lizzie, who seems surrounded by the physical hardships of enduring cold, damp, and often foul smelling conditions, as well as the deeper moral hardships of knowing that her father engages in ethically reprehensible behavior, and might even be insinuated in some sort of criminal underworld.

While the river scenes introduce the possibility of criminal secrets, and the dark mysteries of how bodies come to find their final resting place in the water, the scenes at the Veneering house show a...