Eyeing One Over

"the absence of soul is far more terrible in a living
man than in a dead one" (35).
Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1841).

Points for Reflection

C. Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1841), chps 1-16

1. does Charles Dickens whole-heartedly embrace a physiognomic formula which suggests that one’s character can be read in her/his appearance?
2. do those characters who surround their proclamations and options with references to “Nature” and what is “natural” prove themselves to be the most astute, perceptive characters?
3. Dickens and a number of his characters deploy words signaling mental illness (e.g. “mad”) frequently and figuratively.  How does this accumulation of metaphorical references function within the narrative?
4. what kind of connection does Dickens recognize between mind and body (64)?
5. what two parts of Sim Tappertit’s body is the fellow exceedingly proud to exhibit?
6. is Barnaby Rudge a “lunatic” or an “idiot”?
7. what features does Dickens apply to Barnaby Rudge’s person (appearance) to signal his intellectual deficiency?
8. does Barnaby's facility with language exceed the capacity suggested by his behavior and the narrator’s description of his mind?
9. does Barnaby share any characteristics with the fool in King Lear?
10. why does Gabriel Varden think Barnaby a more able messenger than most (51)?  What of his claim that Barnaby will one day grow more ‘cute (i.e. acute) than the rest of them (51)?
11. of whom is Gabriel Varden speaking when he says that Barnaby’s companion “‘has all the wit’” (61)?
12. do those characters most assured of their own intelligence, and others' lack of acumen, act wisely?
13. what is Stagg’s occupation, and is he taken in by Sim Tappertit’s grandiloquent exhibition (79-80)?
14. does George Cattermole’s illustration of Miss Miggs, which appears halfway through chapter nine (83), disrupt or solidify your previous (previous to p.82) conception of her character and person?
15. John Willet likens Hugh to a “gipsy” (88), Mr. Chester categorizes him with the centaurs (131)?  Does either label appear to be warranted?
16. what do you make of the inaccuracy of Barnaby’s assessment of Mr. Geoffrey Haredale’s relations towards Mr. Chester (compare p.96 top w/ p.103 mid)?
17. does Dickens’ narrator concur with John Willet’s conclusion that Barnaby has barely a soul at all (111)?
18. Mr. Chester claims that the world requires us to rely upon and interact with mere surfaces and appearances, even when we recognize that truth lies deeper (104-105).  Do the characters we have met thus far take Barnaby Rudge at surface value, or do they discover within him a depth visible to those who look closely?
19. why does Mr. Chester ask Edward to close the door before revealing to his son the state of their financial situation (134-35)?
20. does Mr. Chester’s narcissism (135) resemble Sim Tappertit’s?
    
    
    
    illustration from chp. 3, detail (1841)
    George Cattermole

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu