Summary
Although the school he was sent was poor quality, Charley Hexam showed enough intellectual promise to get transferred to a better school, some distance outside of London, where he is now studying with expectations of someday becoming a schoolmaster himself. It is now autumn, six months after the death of Hexam, and a year since the discovery of John Harmon’s body. At his new school, Charley works closely with a teacher named Bradley Headstone, who expresses interest in going with Charley to meet his sister Lizzie and assess whether or not she is an appropriate person for Charley to continue to associate with.
As Charley and Headstone depart, they encounter another teacher named Miss Peecher, who is secretly in love with Headstone. From her favorite student, Mary Ann, who acts as a kind of personal spy, Miss Peecher learns they are going to see Charley’s sister. Charley and Headstone arrive at a small house in a rundown neighborhood where Lizzie has been staying since the death of her father. She is working as a seamstress and stockroom keeper in order to provide for herself. They are greeted by a strange child, who claims to be the head of the house, and tells them Lizzie will be returning shortly.
The strange child speaks in a very adult-way, explaining that she works as a dolls’ dressmaker, and seems to lead a lonely and isolated life. A short time later, Lizzie arrives at the house and greets her brother and Mr. Headstone. This is the first time Charley has come to visit her since in the past she has met with him somewhere near the school. In order to have some private time to visit, the siblings walk at a bit of a distance, and Charley suggests she find somewhere else to live, complaining that he was embarrassed to bring Headstone to such a place. Lizzie explains that the doll’s dressmaker is the daughter of a drunken man who works at the same employer as she does, and that her grandfather, who is also an alcoholic, drowned and was found and robbed by their father. Lizzie now sees living with the child as a kind of restitution for the harm their father did, but Charley argues that they should try to move beyond the past and rise to better social positions.
After parting from Lizzie, Charley and Headstone walk home together. Charley is startled when they pass a man who he recognizes as Wrayburn and wonders why he would be in this neighborhood, explaining to Headstone that he dislikes the lawyer. Headstone suggests that Wrayburn might be visiting Lizzie. Charley explains that on the day his father’s body was found, Wrayburn came to break the news to Lizzie and he was annoyed to find him there when he was sent to return home. They discuss Lizzie’s lack of education; Charley worries that this might be embarrassing to him in the future as his own position advances, while Headstone points out that it might also make a man less willing to marry her. Charley suggests that it might be possible to hire a female teacher for Lizzie, and Headstone promises to think about whether he knows anyone suitable.
Meanwhile, Lizzie returns to her house and is greeted by the doll’s dressmaker, who goes by the name Jenny Wren. The two have a close and affectionate relationship, and Lizzie helps Jenny, since she suffers from various physical disabilities. Eugene Wrayburn arrives at the house, explaining that he thought he saw Charley passing by in the other direction, which Lizzie confirms. Wrayburn has been getting Lightwood to keep an eye on Riderhood, but he has nothing new to report to Lizzie. He also asks Lizzie about his offer to hire a female teacher to come and instruct her and Jenny, and complains that she is making a mistake by continuing to hesitate. Lizzie is moved by his efforts to help her, and agrees to the lessons. The two young women ask Wrayburn to leave before Jenny’s father comes home, and after he goes, the drunken man arrives, where he is chastised by Jenny, who takes a parental role towards him.
Veneering has an opportunity to go in to Parliament, and needs to seek support from his friends. He seeks out Twemlow, hoping he will intervene with an aristocratic relative, but Twemlow declines to do so. He does offer to do what he can to secure the help of others. Veneering then goes to seek out Podsnap to ask for his help. Podsnap agrees to help, and after finalizing some plans for his campaign, Veneering gives word that he will be running for a seat. Mrs. Veneering, meanwhile, has sought out Lady Tippins who also throws her social connections and influence into the project. That evening, they all gather for dinner at the Veneering house. After a short electoral speech, and a few perfunctory efforts, Veneering is successfully elected. Everyone is delighted with the triumph, except for Twemlow, who worries that the election was irresponsibly conducted since Veneering knows nothing about his new riding or constituents.
Georgiana Podsnap has become good friends with both Mr. and Mrs. Lammle, and visits them frequently. One day, Mr. Lammle tells her that a young man named Fledgeby has seen her with them, become attracted to her, and is interested in courting her. The Lammles arrange for the young couple to meet at their house, and facilitate the pair getting to know each other. Georgiana is wary of being courted but anxious to please her friends; she is unaware that they have arranged with Fledgeby to conspire to get their hands on Georgiana’s fortune.
Fledgeby has grown up in an unhappy family and is anxious to acquire money to fund his dissolute lifestyle. Mr. Lammle goes to rebuke him and bully him for not pursuing the courtship of Georgiana vigorously enough, and Fledgeby promises to move ahead more energetically with the plan to get Georgiana to marry him. After Lammle leaves, Fledgeby goes out and meets with an elderly Jewish man named Riah. Riah had formerly borrowed money from Fledgeby’s father, and after his death Fledgeby forgave the debt in exchange for Riah running the money-lending business on his behalf. After giving Riah some business instructions, Fledgeby is surprised to find Lizzie and Jenny there; they had made Riah’s acquaintance after buying some fabric scraps from him, and now enjoy the peaceful quiet of his building in order to relax and study.
Meanwhile, Lightwood tells Wrayburn that he notices his friend has been preoccupied throughout the summer months and wonders if he is keeping some sort of secret. As the two friends speak, Hexam and Headstone arrive at their office. Charley has come to demand why Wrayburn is showing so much interest in his sister, but the real antagonism in the room seems to be between Wrayburn and Headstone. They are angry that Wrayburn has arranged and paid for Lizzie’s education, since Charley and Headstone were planning to see to this themselves. Wrayburn is dismissive of the schoolmaster, which only makes him angrier. Headstone warns Wrayburn to stay away from Lizzie; after he and Charley leave, Lightwood questions Wrayburn about his intentions towards Lizzie. Wrayburn refuses to clarify whether he has any.
Analysis
This section illustrates the impact of Hexam's death on his children and how it has left both of them vulnerable. Lizzie has to work to earn a living, and while she has formed a friendship with Jenny Wren, she lives in undesirable conditions. On the surface, Charley seems to be faring better: he is advancing his education, and seems to have a bright future ahead. However, his education has also had undesirable effects. It has put him in under the sway of the sinister figure of Bradley Headstone, and since Charley is still quite young and sheltered, he has complete trust in his mentor. Perhaps because he has lacked a good fatherly role model, Charley trusts Bradley very quickly and is very open with him. Likely under Headstone's influence, Charley is also becoming increasingly aware of social class, and anxious to hide any traces of his lower class origins. He is less interested in Lizzie's security and comfort than he is in making sure that his sister doesn't embarrass him.
Charley brings Lizzie into contact with Headstone, unwittingly putting her in an uncomfortable and challenging situation. Like Wrayburn, he is immediately attracted to Lizzie, and while Headstone is also aware of Lizzie's lack of education and social graces, he seems to see these qualities as ways of exerting power over her. Possibly drawing on his past experience of gaining Charley's trust and devotion by showing interest in a boy with humble origins, Headstone seems to be interested in exploiting Lizzie's vulnerable status as an unprotected young woman who is not likely to be a desirable marriage prospect for many men. As a rivalry starts to emerge between Headstone and Wrayburn, both men treat Lizzie as a passive object; neither of them seem interested in her own preferences and desires. Their desire to educate her becomes a way to assert their dominance over each other, and their hopes of educating Lizzie reflect an attempt to help her but also to control and groom her.
The introduction of Jenny Wren and her doll's dressmaking shop allow for the introduction of gothic and grotesque imagery, as well as further exploration of the theme of failed family relationships. The novel repeatedly raises the unsettling parallel that human bodies are mere objects, which can be bought, sold, cut up, and parceled off. Hexam and Venus both make their livelihoods by treating human bodies as forms of commodities; Silas Wegg's desire to purchase back his amputated leg reveals the grotesque implications of how Victorian capitalism seems to be literally consuming the people who must labor under it. Dolls highlight this theme as well, being simultaneously similar to humans, but also objects of exchange to be bought and sold. The presence of dolls within Jenny's business is a particularly dark irony, since Jenny is young enough that she could almost still be playing with dolls herself, but her family circumstances have forced to her to take on the role of breadwinner and surrogate parent.
This section reveals the nature of the Lammle plot: they have identified the naïve and wealthy Georgiana Podsnap as a woman they can lure into marrying Fledgeby, and then split her fortune amongst themselves. Paralleling Charley and Mr. Boffin, Georgiana is too quick to trust individuals who seem to be acting like her friends and mentors, and fails to realize what a ruthless and relentless world surrounds her. Interestingly, although Georgiana has lived in wealth and high society her entire life, she still makes mistakes about who to trust.
The plot allows for the introduction of another scheming and villainous character, Fledgeby. He is exploitative in both his personal and professional life: money-lending was considered to be one of the most unethical ways to earn a living at this time, and part of the reason why pawnshops and lending were traditionally associated with Jewish businesses was because Jewish individuals were blocked from so many other career paths. Fledgeby exploits the negative stereotypes by hiring Riah to bear the negative social consequences of their line of work, while he gets to enjoy both the profits and a clean reputation.
