63 pages • 2 hours read
Charles DickensA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The River Thames is an essential part of the plot and the aesthetics of Our Mutual Friend. The river winds through the city and the surrounding towns, uniting the rich and the poor alike despite The Rigidity of Social Class: The same river on which the poor boatmen float back and forth in search of ill-gotten gains facilitates international trade and brings John Harmon back from his exile abroad. The dirty, polluted river runs thick with the waste of the city, creating a unified symbol of the cost of London’s success. The Thames becomes a symbol of the pollution at the heart of the society itself; from murder to blackmail to the predatory practices of wealthy and poor people alike, the dirty river brings everyone together and mires them in the pollution of immorality.
Amid this corruption and pollution, the Thames plays an important narrative role. The story begins with a body being fished out of the water by Gaffer Hexam. This act is rife with the immorality that the river symbolizes, as Hexam searches the dead man’s pockets for any money. This is not the first body that will be found in the Thames; even Hexam himself will fall into the river and drown, implying that he has fallen victim to his own corruption.
By Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty
Charles Dickens
Bleak House
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Hard Times
Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit
Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens
Pickwick Papers
Charles Dickens
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop
Charles Dickens
The Signal-Man
Charles Dickens