Our Mutual Friend Essay Questions

Are John Harmon and the Boffins justified in deceiving Bella?

John Harmon hides his true identity from Bella until long after they are married, but he also conspires with the Boffins to trick Bella. They want to test her integrity and so Mr. Boffin pretends to be a cruel and greedy miser. This trick does lead to Bella eventually following her heart and choosing to be with John even when she believes he will only ever be able to give her a modest lifestyle. In that sense, the deception is successful and leads to Bella having a happy life. If she had not been tricked, she might have always continued to be greedy and materialistic. At the same time, John and the Boffins behave in a condescending and paternalistic way because they assume Bella cannot be trusted to make choices that are good for her.

Is the domestic world shown to be a source of happiness or unhappiness in the novel?

Some characters do experience domestic happiness in the novel: the Boffins are loving and supportive to one another, and Lizzie and Wrayburn and John and Bella seem like they will have happy marriages. However, many other characters experience deep unhappiness in their domestic lives. Mr. and Mrs. Lammle find themselves trapped in an unhappy marriage after they each try to deceive the other; Mr. and Mrs. Wilfer have learned to tolerate each other, but are not well-suited and do not get along. Parents can also be a source of domestic unhappiness for their children: Jenny has to struggle with the shame and burden of having an alcoholic father, while Lizzie is ashamed and troubled by the immoral way in which her father earns a living.

How does Dickens use the Lammle plotline to critique marriage?

The Lammles get married in hopes of using each other: they each believe the other to be wealthy, and are shocked and unhappy when they learn the truth. This set-up functions as a critique of the way that many people in the Victorian era married without knowing very much about their partner, and prioritized wealth and social standing. Because divorce was extremely difficult at this time, the Lammles are also stuck with each other. They turn their bitterness and regret to scheming, which leads them to almost trapping Georgiana Podsnap into another unhappy and materialistic marriage. This plot suggests that when individuals have shown bad judgement about their own marriages, they encourage others to marry for similar reasons and this perpetuates the cycle.

How is education portrayed in the novel?

Dickens challenges the idea that education leads to moral progress since some of the characters who show the most integrity in the novel, including Lizzie, Jenny, and Boffin, are illiterate and uneducated. Nonetheless, they are able to show good judgement and intuitive understanding: "The characters with natural wisdom to read others well, albeit through unconventional methods, surpass a more intellectual or school-based reading. Fire, dust, the river, place, and people become the book that educates the illiterate characters" (Pacious, pg. 340). Meanwhile, the two villains of the novel, Silas Wegg and Headstone, both serve as educators since Silas reads to Boffin and adopts the role of teacher. Not only are they shown to not necessarily be good characters just because they provide education, but that education is shown to be a potentially corrupting force. As Charley Hexam becomes more educated, he becomes more selfish and less empathetic to his sister.

Why is deceit an important theme in the novel?

As David Kaplin points out, "Our Mutual Friend is a novel that runs on deception and concealment" (Kaplin, pg. 245). Many characters lie to each other and try to trick each other: Silas deceives Boffin, and then Venus deceives Silas. Riderhood plots against Hexam, and Headstone tries to frame Riderhood to cover up his crime. The Lammles scheme against Georgiana Podsnap while she innocently believes that they are her friends. The theme of deceit makes it clear that characters live in a treacherous world where it is hard to know who to trust. However, deceit is sometimes shown to be a tool used to achieve positive results, such as when John Harmon conceals his identity and when Bella is tricked into believing that Boffin is a miser.