ornamental line

The Mind of a Mob

"In a word, a moral plague ran through the city. The noise, and hurry,
and excitement, had for hundreds and hundreds an attraction
they had no firmness to resist" (438).
Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1841)

 

Points for Reflection

C. Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1841), 51-66

  1. what does Gabriel Varden do with the note of protection handed to Mrs. Varden by Sim Tappertit (425)?
  2. Mrs. Varden’s behavior changes radically in chapter fifty-one; does her general demeanor, or her personality, shift as well (427, 429)?
  3. as Dennis notes, Hugh hurts himself “‘a hundred times more than [he needs] because [he] will be foremost in everything, and will do more than the rest’” (430).  What seems to drive Hugh, consciously or unconsciously, during the riots? What does he appear determined to accomplish?
  4. for what traits does Dennis malign Barnaby (431-32)?
  5. what causes the bold Hugh and Dennis to, for just a moment, feel shame (432)?
  6. why does the rioters’ laughter in the Boot so startle Barnaby (434)?  Can you identify other moments in the text where his awareness and perspicacity seem inconsistent with the “simplicity” of this “devoted and . . . blithest champion” (443) devoted to what he (quite wrongly) believes to be a righteous cause?
  7. does Dickens seem more intent on applauding or criticizing the London magistrates and law enforcement of the year 1880?
  8. what does Dickens suggest about the psychological mechanisms of an urban mob (437, 438, etc.)?
  9. which individuals does Hugh seek to protect while he is running riot?
  10. do you find yourself able to pity John Willet, in the mist of his post-traumatic stress disorder, or do you find his situation just recompense for his unremitting arrogance (449-55)?
  11. why is the unidentified man who finds John Willet tied up driven crazy by the tolling of a bell (457-59)?
  12. how do Haredale’s male servants respond when confronting violence (460)?
  13. why does Lord George Gordon not concur with John Grueby’s conclusion that Barnaby is “mad” (474-75)?
  14. do the soldiers who encounter Barnaby recognize his cognitive disability?
  15. does Barnaby change in any significant throughout today’s reading?
  16. Hugh claims that Dolly’s beauty grows with her distress (490).  Does Dickens’ narrator agree?
  17. who handles being kidnapped with more fortitude, Dolly or Emma?
  18. do women in this period face capital punishment as often as men (496)?
  19. which woman does Sim Tappertit promise to give Hugh as his own?
  20. what purpose does the unnamed one-armed man serve in the narrative (502, 503, 531, etc)?
  21. why does London’s Lord Mayor refuse to help Haredale imprison the murderer he has captured (506-509)?
  22. what is the cause and course of Mr. Rudge’s mental suffering, and how has this variable shaped his recent actions (510-15)?  Why is his suffering deepened by the assault on Newgate (537-39)? 
  23. how does Barnaby react when he learns the identity of his companion in Newgate Prison (520)?
  24. how do the rioters finally gain entrance to Newgate Prison (530-36)?
  25. what types of domestic pets do the depraved rioters burn alive (552)?



illustration of mob burning and pillaging in streets of London
illustration from chp. 52 (1841)
George Cattermole


Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu