weblogs/gmgauthier.com
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

article: dickens barnaby rudge

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Greg Gauthier 2022-12-25 14:18:26 +00:00
parent d0f38bc4e6
commit d9761bc587
1 changed files with 1 additions and 1 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

2
content/post/the-wicked-rhyme-of-history.md
View File

@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ At the end of the novel, in spite of the fact that the highly sympathetic Cathol
An interesting parallel to consider is between the title character Barnaby (depicted above, at the barn entrance with his Gordon flag), and Hugh, the dim-witted leader of the rioters. Both are simpletons. But Barnaby is a guileless, naive sort, who will commit himself to whatever task you give him (violent or otherwise), provided you can convince him it is for a good cause. Hugh, on the other hand, is a vicious, sadistic brute, who has no time for words, and is yearning for a cause to fight for, regardless of its moral provenance.
The cause they both end up fortuitously brothers in is, of course, the anti-Papist Gordon riots. And their ultimate end is to be the gallows. Barnaby, the gentle simpleton, is spared the gibbet at the last minute by the effort of another character because Dickens' Victorian readers would never have forgiven him otherwise.
The cause they both end up fortuitously brothers in is, of course, the anti-Papist Gordon riots. And their ultimate end is to be the gallows. Barnaby, the gentle simpleton, is spared the gibbet at the last minute by the effort of another character because Dickens' very early Victorian readers would never have forgiven him otherwise.
What is interesting to note, is that Dickens takes care to make sure you understand that Barnaby and Hugh are themselves *the products of violence*. Barnaby happens to the son of widow Mary Rudge, who's husband it turns out, did not die, but was the man that murdered the owner of The Warren mansion (Emma Haredale's father, and Geoffrey Haredale's brother). Hugh, meanwhile, turns out to be the bastard son of Sir John Chester. Orphaned after the woman Chester abandoned was hanged for what amounts to a Jean Valjean variety crime. The way I'm sure Dickens would put it, is that these men are the rotten fruit bore from a rotten tree (some, more victim than others). In some places in the novel, he's very explicit about this.