DICKENS OLDER PEOPLE: The Portrayal of Older Adult Characters in his Novels 

Novel Five

BARNABY RUDGE: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty ( 1841)

PART ONE:  BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

                               J. Yaeger, engraving of Barnaby Rudge. 1841. Illustrated in Simon

                                Jarrett: " Those They called IDIOTS." Reaktion Books. 2020. p170

ARGUABLY Barnaby Rudge, at its serialization ( in Master Humphrey's Clock 13. Feb -27.Nov.1841) and ever since, "is both the least loved and the least read" of all his novels. (1) It was Dickens's first of two historical novels. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) continues to outstrip Rudge in popularity with the general public. However, they both received mixed reviews from critics then and now. What was Dickens's intention and motivation for embarking on this project? Was it an attempt to build on his very successful writing to date? He wanted Rudge to be considered a serious historical novel (2), following in the footsteps of Sir Water Scott, whom he greatly admired, especially in his novel Ivanhoe, which remains relatively popular, unlike Rudge.  

Remembering that Rudge was initially published in serial form, the angst Dickens had in putting his handwritten scrawl on paper, he disclosed to his then publishers Bently in 1836  embarking on this intended serious work of literature it was designed to "build his fame and was frustrating."(3) Later Dickens writes to John Forster ( his close friend and subsequently biographer) that it was "hanging over him like a hideous nightmare." (4) I shared the feeling when I was reading the book! But it is important to note that Dickens, professionally and personally, at the same time was still working on Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Pickwick, and The Old Curiosity Shop, which had already considerably enhanced his fame. Money was always a motivator for him, though not for its own sake( he was always generous), but increased fame was his crucial motivation. Once he got into the plot and chapters, completing it in late 1841 and writing again to Forster, he said, " I think you'll find it comes out strong to the last word" (5). This blog is not the place to go into Dickens's convoluted and complex contractual history with his publisher. Still, it had considerably drained his energy and patience, changing from Bently to the publishers Chapman and Hall. 

In his personal life, it was a period of activity and distraction. He became a father again, holidayed in Scotland, travelled backwards and forwards from a family stay in Broadstairs to London, planned a visit to America with his wife Catherine in early 1842, was forced to undergo surgery for a fistula and had to rest for a month, had difficulties with his feckless father, and, to top it all off, his pet Raven Grip 'fell off its perch'. 

Returning to the novel itself in terms of its genesis and conception, Dickens originally intended Gabriel Varden to be the central character and title. His portrayal is noteworthy, 'a round, redfaced, sturdy yeoman with a double chin and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good humour and good health.'(6) Varden was in a 'Green old age' - slowed down but active and fit, today classed as 'the young old'. Philips and Gadd point out that Dickens was skilled in portraying "hearty, kindly characters"- especially in this period of their life course, and his novels are peppered with them. Whilst Dickens could not then be in the same literary class as Water Scott, certainly not in producing informed historical novels either in quantity or quality, he undoubtedly remains a significant and outstanding Victorian author of contemporary life. (7)

                            

                         Breakfast at Mr. Varden's/. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). Woodcut

                         first published in weekly parts by Chapman and Hall 1840-1.

So why did Dickens decide on the historical setting of the Gordon Riots ( 1780), which was, in fact, in the relatively recent past? It was very 18th-century. Chesterton posits that Rudge and the much later  A Tale of Two Cities were unconsciously connected, especially regarding the aristocrats. (8) Chesterton points too out that both the themes were about revolutions; Rudge dealt with 'ignorance and obscurantist Protestism' and A Tale of Two Cities, a revolt in favour of 'enlightenment and liberation' (9). These were always to occupy Dickens. Scholars differ in their view about whether Dickens was a historian; he, however, was a keen observer. The failure of Rudge against the success of  A Tale is, in part, a reflection of Dickens's anxiety and insecurity from his childhood and early young adulthood set against the maturity of his older self. Chesterton adamantly rejects the notion that Dickens became sadder in his later years, given he was only in his forties when writing his second historical novel and that he, in fact, never reached old age and was never " a victim of elderly disenchantment."  He was rather worn out by his "unremitting rapidity"; thus, he was not "wearied by his age; rather, he was wearied by his youth" (10). Perhaps Chesterton confused chronological age with life course experiences and his psychological ageing process. This would include Dickens's feelings about getting or being old, his age identity, anxiety about his perception of cognitive decline and general physical and mental health, underlying psychological issues, life events and especially his continuous goals,  beliefs, values, principles, and how he behaved to others. In my view, it was not fundamentally about his workload.

                                                                -000000000-

Dickens was acutely aware of the danger of mob violence, particularly in the context of the Chartist Movement, and his fascination with criminality, criminal and "abnormal" minds. A murder had a particular fascination, as did general violence and brutality. (11) I would also add intellectual disabilities, commonly phrased in the 19th Century as "idiots." These all intersect, and at the very heart of Rudge Dickens's striking prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church is evident. (12)

I share the opinion of Philip Hobsbaum that "Barnaby Rudge is hard to discuss as a novel. "The characterisations do not live, move or generally have their being in the fabric of the events. There are too many strands of action, and they are not satisfactorily interwoven"  (13). For good or ill, Dickens was greatly influenced by Thomas Carlyle, resulting in an "emphasis shifting from the individual lives disrupted by the Gordon Riots as a social phenomenon in themselves." (14) If Dickens's portrayal of the Green-aged Gabriel Varden is sympathetic to ageing, we are confronted by the character of the 18th-century politician Lord Chesterfield. Hobshaum writes "if the old man is objectionable villainess, we get no flavour of his sense that union between Protestant and Catholic is miscegenation". (15). Old Sir John Chester is described as a "staid, grave, placid gentleman, past the prime of life  (16); he is 'cold and calculating and scheming" who, in true Dickensian fashion, is killed off during an angry encounter with Geoffrey Heredale a Catholic squire and younger brother of the murdered Reuben Haredean. (17) Again, as we have seen in Dickens's earlier novels, the association between older characters eventually getting their violent comeuppance for failing to reflect on their wickedness and repent. A very Victorian notion.

                  Old Mr. Chester. Hablot Kight Browne (Phiz). Woodcut was first published 

                in the weekly parts by Chapman & Hall. 1840-1

The Intersection of The Gordon Riots of 1780 and The Chartists of 1836

The Gordon Riots of June 1780 "occasioned a mob rampage through London for eight days attacking private homes and public property." (18). They became, for Victorians and Dickens himself, a "most terrifying example of public disorder and violence" (19). Anti-Catholic prejudice that existed in the Eighteenth Century and the rhetoric of Lord George Gordon triggered by The Catholic Relief Act (1778), granting increased Civil Rights, was the torch that lit the flame.  

Gordon was the leader of the Protestant Association, and he used this platform to generate opposition, which was rejected by the Government.  The Association fed anti-Catholic feelings, culminating in riots, which reached their climax in July 1780. Martial Law was proclaimed, and the army called in, killing and wounding hundreds of rioters. Dickens was familiar via the writings of Thomas Carlyle (1839), whereby Chartism was "a manifestation of an inner fury latent in popular consciousness." Dickens had also read Carlyle's History of the French Revolution (1837), which later would shape Dickens's narrative in A Tail of Two Cities (20). The notion of mob rule, violence and cruelty was to be feared, but it was also fascinating to the young Dickens. It energised him as he penned the storming of Newgate prison and the burning down of Lord Mansfield's home. (21)  Uncontrolled violence and mayhem again intersect with both his fears and anxieties about such; his compulsive interest with murder, death, retribution, anti-Catholic feelings, social reform and Chartism. Barnaby Rudge was the result.  Jon Mee, however, points out that Dickens needed to 'offer a clear sense of a new order emerging from this conflagration.' which he ultimately failed to do (22)

 

        

           The Rendezvous of the Mob: Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) 

                                       The real Lord George Gordon ( 1751 - 1793)

The consequences of inadequate and poor criminal laws, penal conditions, and policing of the 1830s and 40s did Dickens think to demonstrate the lessons from 1780 precisely the same issues would be learnt? (23) However, Dickens's reading of Scott and Thomas Carlyle appears not to have led him to explore the socio-economic causes of the riots in Rudge. There is little sense of reform, but as Mee points out, he does not "provide its readers with a single, comfortable vantage point from which to view the past."  Instead, he re-enforces Victorian England's superiority (24). The riots of 80 were a reflection of, at best, ambivalence and, at worse, a denial of the consequences of poor social order and appear not to have grasped the different phases of the riots - who were the rioters?  In addition, he fails to explore its relationship to Chartism and the parallels or correlations between past and present. (25) 

The characters, settings, and multiple plot lines could have been more explicit for many readers then and the few now, but they have provided Dickensian scholars with rich pickings since their publication. How far are those characters a reflection of the phases of the Gordon riots?  This is important in understanding Dickens's mindset and self-perception of which social class he came from and his desperation to secure an enhanced one. He was not born into absolute poverty, but it is fair to say that his father's social position and family during his childhood were sometimes precarious. That precariousness was mainly a result of John Dickens spending well beyond his means and constantly moving house to avoid his numerous debtors'

The renowned social historian  E.P. Thompson argues that the initial 'revolutionary crowd" which presented the Petition to Parliament was, in the main, "the better sort of tradesmen ...exceedingly quiet and orderly and very civil" (26), reflecting the dissent of the lower middle class. The second followed the Parliament's rejection, which attracted journeymen, apprentices, and servants, as well as a minority criminal element motivated by antipathy, again to the rich (the middle class). The final phase was one of indiscriminate violence, orgies of drunkenness, arson and pickpocketing, whereby arguably, the mob was less about protest and more about thuggery and violence for its own sake (what's new). The conflation of the Gordon riots with the Chartist movement, comprised of radicals and reformers in peaceful and organised demonstrations, led to Victorian anxiety about Chartism, reform, and the ghost of mob rule. Dickens's position and ambivalence in the Rudge novel were how far the " unrepresented, and/or their organisations faced with persecution and repression to affect their objectives ?" (27) At what point do radicals and reformers ( of which it is argued Dickens was one) turn into a real threat to law and order and usurped into a violent mob?  Dickens was no Chartist; he did not support their Movement or Trade Unionism (28). He reflected the Establishment. Some have argued that his attitude was paradoxical. Rudge was a critique of mob rule. His earlier published novels show a young adult exposing various social issues but with an antipathy to reform. He supported many "good causes." as we would define them today. Still, as I explored in a blog previously in A Christmas Carol, he remains perplexing. He believed poverty, injustices, abuses, ignorance, want, and exploitation within society and families could be addressed through existing middle-class morals and values and by being charitable, kind, and compassionate. He could indeed be riding two horses and fell off in Barnaby Rudge. Barbara Hardy writes that he was "interested in the conditional character, but includes in his fiction a continuing fantasy about the ideal, the unconditional virtue" (29). The character Barnaby was 'pure' in a society of darkness, poverty, exploitation, aristocratic privilege, entitlement, abuse and riot, but he was, above all, a survivor. This was the essence of Dickens.  

The older adult characters will be explored in Part Two. The principal is, in fact, "a round, redfaced, sturdy yeoman with a double chin and voice husky with good living." He was living a good young, old age. 

References

1. RICE.T.J. (1987) Barnaby Rudge: An Annotated Bibliography. Routledge Revivals

2. The Dickens Page: (undated) Charles Dickens Barnaby Rudge. 

3. SCHLICKE. P. (Ed) (2011). 'Barnaby Rudge: Inception and Composition. The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens. Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press. 

4. Ibid (p 29)

5. Ibid (p 30-31)

6. PHILIP, P. & GADD.L. (1989 ed) The Dickens Dictionary. Bracken Books. London. (p 302)

7. CHITTICK.K. (1990) Dickens and the 1830s. Quoted in SCHLICKE.P Ibid. (p 32)

8. CHESTERTON. G.K. (1911) Appreciations & Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, Moncrieff Press. (2022 ed) (p 59-60)

9. Ibid (p 59)

10. Ibid ( p134-135)

11. GLANCY. R.F. (1999) Student Companion to Charles Dickens: Student Companions to Classical Works. Greenwood Press. Westport. Connecticut. London (p 37) 

12. WAGENKNECHT. E. ( 1970) The Man Charles Dickens: A Victorian Portrait  (2nd Edition) University of Oklahoma Press. Norman. (p 224)

13. HOBSBAUM.P. (1998 ed) A Reader's Guide to Charles Dickens. Syracuse University Press. (p 63)

14. Ibid (p 63)

15. Ibid  ( p63)

16. Ibid. Philipps &  Gadd (54)

17. HOWE .D. (1998) Whos Who in Dickens. Routledge & Taylor. Francis Group. London & New York. (p 102-3)

18. GARDINER. J. ( 2011) Dickens and the Uses of History (Chapter 16) in Paroissien, D.(Ed) A Companion to Charles Dickens. Wiley-Blackwell (2011) (p249)

19. MEE.J. (2011) Barnaby Rudge (Chapter 33). Ibid  Paroission. D (p 338)

20. Ibid (p 340)

21. Ibid ( p340) Quoting Dickens's letter to Forster ( Letters 2:385)

22. Ibid. MEE (p340)

23. Idid (p341)

24 Ibid ( p341)

25 Ibid ( 341)

26. THOMPSON. E.P. ( 1968 Edition) The Making of the English Working Class. Penguin. London  (p77)

27. Ibid (p 176)

28. Chartist Charter: (I). A vote for all males over 21: (2). A secret ballot. (3). No Property qualification. (4). Payment for MP's (5). Equal Constituencies (6). Annual Parliaments

29. HARDY. B. (1985 edition)  The Moral Art of Dickens The Athlone Press 

30. BROWN. J.M. ( Date unknown) A Sociological Analysis of the Novels of Charles Dickens. (PhD Thesis) London School of Economics 

 

 

 

.