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 TWO:  THE CAST OF OLDER ADULTS: MEETING 'THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY' 

                     

                    Taken from Charles Dickens Info ( Published February 18. 2021)

There are basically thirty-four characters in Rudge, of whom fifteen could reasonably be viewed as fifty years or older ( based on my definition of an older adult). Dickens frequently refers to them as 'elderly or old', so this is not in dispute,  but on occasions, others could also be classified as 'of uncertain age.' Where the character falls within this category, I have explained why their description and/or friendship or familial relationships give the impression of being in their later years. Where the character is based on a natural person, I have checked the historical record of their birth and what age they would have been in 1780 ( the date of the Gordon Riots). 

Additionally, to gauge the traits and roles assigned to them and how far  Dickens and Victorians generally attributed them to "old age" derives from the intrinsic character portrayed. (1)     

With these caveats, let's meet them and what they tell us about Dickens and early Victorian approaches to age and ageing. 

Sir John Chester: Often referred to as "old Mr Chester" and clearly 'past the prime of life'. He was loosely based on the 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) and was obviously dead by the time of the Gordon Riots. The character is Edward Chester's father, and later,  becomes Sir John. There is a "deep and bitter animosity" between him and Geoffrey Haredale, "which is aggravated by Chester being a Protestant and Haredale a Roman Catholic "(2). He is described as a "soft-spoken, delicately made, a precise and elegant gentleman, cold, calculating and scheming."(3)  In addition ", he wore a riding coat of a somewhat brighter green that might have been expected of a gentleman of his years, with a short black velvet cape, and laced pocket holes and cuff of linen, which was of the finest kind, worked in a rich pattern at wrists and throat, and scrupulously white."(4) Note that his dress was viewed as age-inappropriate. 

Chester is a villain, coercively controlling towards his son and manipulative towards Hugh and evicts Edward from the house. Gabriel Varden confronts Sir John with the revelation that "Hugh was his illegitimate son by a gypsy woman who he had abandoned and who had been hanged for petty theft" (5)(6) 

Unlike the late Earl of Chesterfield, Dickens's portrayal is not of the aristocracy. Still, as in many of his novels, it is of an unsympathetic older parent who thwarted, denied, and abandoned his son. This abusive parent does not repent - he always remains outwardly unruffled, "the same imperturbable, fascinating gentleman of previous days."(7). Apart from the age-inappropriate quip, does Dickens's evidence of ageism? I think not. Instead, if we use Berman Nelsons's analysis of Voltaire's portrayal of old age, Chester reflects as an old man who had power due to his social standing, relative wealth and egotistically obsessed wanting his son to marry into wealth that would contribute to securing his own lifestyle. (8) One is reminded of Ralf Nickleby, who abandoned his son Smike and came to a sticky end! (9)

       Mr Chesters's Chair. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). Woodcut, Chapman and Hall          (1841)  

                    Death of Sir John. George Cattermole.Woodcut. Chapman & Hall (1841)
      

 

Tom Cobb: Although of uncertain age, he is a general Chantler and Post Office keeper in Chigwell, Essex. He is a cronie and sidekick of old John Willetts, Solomon Daisy and Long Phil Parks at the Maypole Inn. It may be a stretch to assume he is fifty-plus, and they were all of the same generation, but the term chronic implies that they were all of a certain age. Regulars at local public houses tend to be. His description doesn't really help us. I simply felt uncomfortable to have discounted him entirely. I am sure Dickensian scholars will put me right! 

Ned Dennis: (Tyburn Hangman). Again, it may be a supposition on my part to include him in this listing. My rationale is based on his occupation, being a natural person, and the fact that by the time Dickens was writing, attitudes to public hanging were changing. Above all, the description and imagery given in Rudge are telling. The words and phrases speak for themselves: "A squat, thick set personage, with a low forehead, a course shock of red hair, and eyes so small and near together that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of usual size. A dingy handkerchief twisted like a cord about his neck - his dress was of threadbare velveteen - a faded, rusted, whitened black, like ashes of a pipe - in lieu of buckles at his knees, he wore unequal lengths of packed thread" (10) 

By the time Dickens wrote Rudge, he was aware of the changing attitudes associated with public executions. The real Edward Dennis (1740-1800) was known to be theatrical and brutal. In 1780, he was not, within our definition, an older adult, and he retired eight years after the Gordon riots and lived until 1800 in reduced financial circumstances. Dickens has his 'Ned Dennis' imprisoned and condemned to death, crying and cowardly until he experiences 'the drop.' Do we feel pity for this thoroughly pathetic character in his last days? Was it Dickens's intention? I think not.

       Dennis and Hugh Condemned. (Harry Furness (1910)). Scanned by Philip                              V. Allingham. (Victorian Webb)

         

                                

      Dennis by Clark, Joseph Clayton (KYD) "Very Good No Bindimh (1920)

Notwithstanding the literary and historical importance of his character and physical attributes, some key terms Dickens uses cannot be ignored if they reflect and generalise 19th-century age and ageing imaging ( 'twisted', 'dingy', 'faded' and 'rusted' ). The illustration above by Furness is clearly an adaption of Phiz's original, "Dennis and Hugh in the Condemned Cell"). Dickens personally selected and agreed to all illustrations in his fiction. The illustration by Furness is reminiscent of Daniel Quilp ( The Old Curiosity Shop), discussed in a previous blog. (11.1) It is also worth reminding ourselves of the meaning of "red hair" during the 19th Century and its inference of antisemitism. (11.2)

Daisy Soloman: Although we are not given his age, there are some indicators from the storyline, relationships, and illustrations, both in the original serialization and subsequently. Soloman is a parish clerk and regular at the Maypole Inn. He tells his cronies, Cobb and Parks, addinfaniteam of the murder of Reuben Rudge and the discovery of his body twenty years previously. He was a direct witness to that discovery. Dickens describes him as having ' little black shiny eyes like beads', and this 'little man wore at the knees of his rusty breeches, a rusty black coat' (12). In narrative terms, it is not of an infirm man, given he, together with Parks and Cobb, 'walks from Chigwell to London to see for themselves what is happening there' (13). The illustration below, however, by Phiz ( and agreed by Dickens) appears to give a different impression.

                    

                               Soloman enters the Parlour. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) .Woodcut.                               (1840-1)

Sir John Fielding (1721-1780): English Police Magistrate at Bow Street. At the time of the Gordon riots, he was fifty-nine and died in the same year. Brother of the novelist Henry Fielding, commonly called the "Blind Beak." A recognised reformer of the criminal justice system. He championed a better understanding of juvenile offenders, and Dickens would be aware of his attempts to professionalize the role of magistrates and an advocate of understanding the social and economic causes of crime. This resonated with Dickens, who generally regarded the Gordon Riots less as an inter-religious conflict than a statement of social conditions.

Mr Gashford: ( Lord George Gordon's Secretary) At the outset, this character cannot reasonably be within our definition of an older adult. So why include him?  I discussed in previous blogs that we need to look at a pattern of portrayals that reflect gerontophobia and/or ageism in his writings. Notwithstanding Dickens's portrayals of children (especially pre-pubescent girls, evidencing ephebophilia) in terms of older adults, the dismal, grotesque, physically disabled, evil, criminal, and exploitative characters are dominant. Dickens throws his net wide, equally capturing these negative characteristics across demographic age groups. Gashford is a case in point.

Hawes comprehensively summarises Gashford's role and description of this 'villainous' character. He was loosely based on Lord George Gordon's biographer, Robert Watson (1746-1838), who claimed to be the Lord's Secretary.  This claim is generally disputed. Hawes believes that Dickens would have been very much aware of the Inquest on Watson shortly before he started the serialisation of Rudge and the discovery of Watson's body, which "may have been responsible for Dicken's choice of name for this character '  concluding that the " personality and behaviour"  is entirely of Dickens invention. Watson would have been thirty-four at the time of the Gordon riots. An invention that describes Gashford thus: "angularly made, high shouldered, bony, and ungracfull. His dress, imitating his superior, was demure and staid in the extreme; his manner was formal and constrained. This gentleman had an overarching brow, great hands and feet and ears, and a pair of eyes that seemed to have made an unnatural retreat into his head...the man that blows the fire, a servile, false, and trucking knave" (14)  The young adult Dickens ( he was aged twenty-five when he started writing Rudge, and at the same time still penning Oliver Twist) showing his narrative brilliance. 

              Gashford on the Roof. Hablot Knight Brown (Phiz) Woodcut (1840-1)

Reuben Haredale: Father of Miss Haredale and elder brother of Mr Haredale. "He is not alive, and he is not dead - not dead in the common sort of way..found murdered in his bed chamber, and in his hand was a piece of cord attached to an alarm bell outside the roof."(15) The brutal murder of Reuben, bloody and cruel by the hands of Barnaby's father is probably more critical to the plot than in fact The Gordon Riots. The intra-family dynamics of the Haredales are classic Dickens, which I will refer to later in the series.

Mr Langdale: Here again, Dickens has based his character on a historical figure, Thomas Langdale (1740-90), a well-known distiller and vintner whose premises fell victim to the riots. At the time, he would be aged forty. Dickens, however, refers in his portrayal as a "portly old man, with a very red face, or rather purple... but also a very hearty old fellow and a worthy man" (16). Philip and Gadd's commentary adds that Langdale was a " rubicund, choleric, but a good hearted gentleman" (17). Whatever Dickens had in mind regarding his portrayal, the reference to the description of a forty year old man as "old." is interesting. (18) It goes to the current notion that "age is just a number." Remembering, again, that Dickens was both a novelist and a journalist. This good-hearted character showed anger at the refusal of the Lord Mayor to arrange the transfer of Mr Rudge (senior) and put him in custody, even though he was contained in a coach outside Mansion House.

The illustration by Fred Barnard (1874) below, and the always valuable commentary of the Victorian Webb, shows the cowardly Mayor in his nightshirt refusing the aristocratic Haredale and the middle class Langdale pleading to arrest and put Rudge in prison. It was, says the Victorian Webb, a result of both being Catholics. It reflects Dickens's political satire of public officials who were afraid; in this instance, the mob supported Gordon's call for "No Popery" (19). Political satire should, in the pen of Dickens, its master, always be factored in officialdom as a process and/or of a particular character. It asks if Victorian age stereotypes intersect with how Dickens portrayed his older characters. In this case, being based on a natural person who happened to be forty years old.

             Illustration by Fred Barnard (1874) Scanned and text by Philip Allingham.                           Victorian Web   

                    

 Mr Rudge: Steward of  Reuben Haredale and father of Barnaby Rudge, who murders his employer for financial gain, in fact, robbery! In addition, he murders Haredale's gardener whilst escaping from the house, who is subsequently believed to be that of Rudge himself. Unsurprisingly, he goes on the run but returns decades later as the Stranger in the bar of the Maypole Inn and is now aged "sixty or thereabouts." Dickens described him as having " hard features..much weather-beaten and worn by time, and the naturally harsh expression was not improved by a dark handkerchief bound tightly around his head. His face scarred and his complexion of a hard hue." (20). 

Together with Stagg, he tries to now exploit his wife, whom he had abandoned and later would be imprisoned with her. Mrs Rudge is keen for him to 'repent' but true to form this dastardly character aggressively "in a paroxysm of wrath, and terror, and the fear of death ...rushes into the darkness of his cell...casts himself jangling down upon the stone floor, and smote it with his iron hands" (21) Yet again, Dickens, as he had done with numerous older characters throughout his literature has the older unrepentant ( and even the repentant) facing a justified end, this time by the hangman. A good Victorian riddance! 

It could be argued, however, that Rudge's age was irrelevant, given his lifetime of criminality (e.g. Fagin). It again demonstrates Victorian beliefs and approaches to crime and punishment of the criminal classes, which, as Clive Emsley highlights, Dickens himself 'helped shape popular conceptions' (22). Older criminals were considered unreformable, whereas young male adolescents were. Indeed, in Dickens's numerous family sagas, they were, by and large, older adults who were exploited, robbed, abandoned, abused and murdered, whilst the stereotypical girl or woman was seen as a victim or in need of 'psychiatric treatment' and confined in asylums rather than prison. Dickens was a rescuer of females, both in his writings and life. The intersections of gender, sexuality, criminology and ageism come into play throughout the Victorian age. He advocated prisons and transportation ( ended in the mid-1850s). Older male criminals were 'incorrigible' as were some older male parents and guardians within families, but older female characters could be bad, maybe mad, harsh and unfeeling, but seldom criminal.

It could be said that he, in today's terms, 'exploited' -  female sex workers whilst also opening Urana Cottage, a refuge for them in 1847. His motivation has been a matter of debate amongst Dickensian scholars. I'll leave it there.

                         Barnaby and his father. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)

                                  WoodcutChapman & Hall 1840-1

However, there is an additional point when we explore the parenting of Barnaby by his father - it was nonexistent. It cast a sinister shadow over him. In several of his characterizations, Dickens demonstrated their ego-centricity, of which Mr Rudge, according to Dr Archana Gautam, was arguably "the most outstanding" (23). Gautam examined several of Dickens's egocentric parents where children "suffer at the hands of their own callous and uncaring, and selfish parents and demanding parents", adding that 'mothers are odd and fathers bad.' Mr Rudge was killed on the very day Barnaby was born, adding that "in the eyes of his murderous father, it is as if the baby son... sprung from his victim's blood." In the many examples of wicked, evil, neglectful, and murderous fathers, there is a dynamic in the Rudge son/father dynamic ( literary and personal) that the parent must suffer and pay for their behaviour (24). Their age is perhaps irrelevant, but it is interesting from a literary gerontological perspective that the debt is paid in full in their later adult years - an untimely but deserved death.

At this juncture, it is worth considering the relationship between Chester and his son Edward, which has been the focus of a study that emphasises Chester's refusal to take parental responsibility, shaping the father and son relationships in Barnaby (25). The representation of father figures towards their children is a common theme Dickens reflected in his early ( and even later) novels. Here, they mirrored Mr Rudge's senor in the characters of Barnaby and Chester with Edward. These older characters do not accept responsibility. Bergh-Seeley talks about "the dark halves in Dickens's writing" (26), which I would suggest reflected the two sides of Dickens himself. Youth and its Portrayal v's that of Old Age

Revisiting Gabriel Varden and introducing his Mrs Martha Varden as "of uncertain temper."

                    Gabriel Varden with Miggs and his wife Martha

Whilst referenced earlier in the Background and Context, the portrayal and function of Gabriel Varden and his wife now require closer attention. Prompted by Sylvia Kasey Marks, who wrote in the Journal The Dickensian, "Dickens's very portrayal of him is to engage the reader to be attentive to what Gabriel Varden says and does"( 27). He is charitable, selfless, kind, and a better creature than ever. He is also courageous but, at the same time, "a long suffering husband in a chaotic household."(28) Marks points out that Vardens " domestic situation is a microcosm of the political and religious divisions in the novel...full of little people with undisciplined hearts."

Martha Varden's chronological age is unclear, but her physical portrayal is described as "plump and buxom and not unattractive". Her personality, however, is shrewdish and mercurial. Donald Hawes says she made people uncomfortable, adding "that when people were merry, Mrs Varden was dull; and that when other people were dull, Mrs Varden was disposed to be amazingly cheerful" (29). Being contrary has always been a stereotype of older people, and though she could arguably be viewed as in her middle years, her description is telling. In transactional analysis terms, she moves from a critical parent to an unrestrained child ego state as she becomes conflicted, transitioning from an ardent supporter of the Protestant cause during the early stages of the riots and "becomes quite young." Evidence again of the Victorian view that older people who repent somehow undergo a personality change.

As we have seen, during his early career as a journalist and novelist, Dickens married Catherine (1836) and was some years away from his separation from her in 1858. He came to resent her in his middle life and wrote unflatteringly about her physical appearance compared to the attractive and petite young woman he married. Dickens never loved her, and his courtship was businesslike, serving his role as a husband, provider, father, and increasingly national personality.  It would be foolish to think he did not care about Catherine as he wrote Barnaby along with his initial novels (30). He did, nevertheless, portray many female middle-aged women in the style of Martha Gabriel, perhaps foreseeing the heavy and sedentary thirty-six year old Catherine. The Varden's daughter Dolly is Dickens's ideal modelled after his 'first love', Maria Beadnell. Martha, whilst 'buxom and plump', was at the same time portrayed as attractive, perhaps reflecting the intersectionality of Dickens's childhood experiences, perception of self,  sexuality, ageism, ambivalence and guilt. 

Dickens remained virile, trim, and physically active at forty and into his fifties ( his depression and general mental health are another matter). However, he became increasingly intolerant of his wife. In the portrayals of Martha and Dolly, this young author perhaps displays signs of an inner conflict concerning his relationship with young and older women. I cannot, however, hold him to account for the Victorian stereotyping of old age, which increasingly became pathologising. Nevertheless, his portrayals, generally and particularly with the Vardens, were shaped and influenced by his childhood and adolescence. Thus, we find a multi layered approach that serves a literary and personal purpose.  

                              

                                  

                                        Dolly Varden. Alamy

              

Those of An "Uncertain Age"  

Obviously, in all of Dickens's early novels, there are some character portrayals we can easily exclude, but not always those in their forties. This inevitably is the case with Barnaby Rudge, e.g., John Grueby, Tom Green, Emma Haredale, Hugh, Mary Jones, Miss Miggs, Simon Tappertit, etc. However, some of these are analysed in the context of a relationship with an older adult. This is found in all of Dickens's early novels ( including the novella A Christmas Carol).

However, I have included characters whose portrayals suggest an older person but may not have been seen as such in Dickens's mind. Could they reflect a level of ageism through today's prism? If he was even in young adulthood, demonstrating that 'being younger is better than being older", would it reflect his discomfort with ageing? (31) From Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and A Christmas Carol to Barnaby Rudge, we have seen in Victorian cultural and policy terms being older was increasingly seen as a time of deficit, sickness and fragility. However, underpinning that notion, there is evidence that compassionate ageism existed. Workhouses were brutal, but so were poverty and abusive family relationships. Dickens knew this, and his characterisations pored into his fiction from the processing of his own childhood, his journalistic and court reporting experiences, and his relationships. 

Barnaby Rudge is not an easy book, nor was writing and trying to understand it in relation to literary gerontology. I have deliberately avoided exploring Dickens and his attitude to Learning Disabled people (see Simon Jarrett) for rationale. (32), but it may be focussed upon in future publications about Dickens's Older People. 

Sources and References 

 1.  BERMAN, L & NELSON "Voltaire: Portrayal of Old Age". International Journal of Human Development. Vol 24 (3) (1986-7) Baywood Publishing.Co. Inc, from which these quotes are based

2. HAWES, D. "Whose Who in Dickens". Routledge imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. (1998,2000) (p 39)

3. Ibid (p 39)

4. PHILIP, A & GADD, L. "The Dickens Dictionary" Bracken Books. London. (1989 Ed). (p54)

5. Ibid. HAWES. (p39)

6. SCHLICKE, P. "The Oxford  Companion to Charles Dickens". Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press (2011) (p 32)

7. Ibid. HAWES.( p39) 

8. Ibid. BERMAN & NELSON. ( p 163)

9. EASTMAN. M. "The Portrayal of Older Adults: Nicholas Nickleby. Blog CooperativeMerveUleashed.blogspot. co. (Posted March 2023)

10. Ibid. PHILIP & GADD. (P84)

11. Ibid. EASTMAN, M  "The Old Curiosity Shop"  blog (Posted December  2023)

12. Ibid. HAWES (p 54)

13. Ibid . HAWES (p54)

14. Ibid. PHILIP & GADD. (p 113) 

15. Ibid. PHILIP & GADD. (p 134)

16. Ibid. HAWES ( p133)

17. Ibid. PHILIPS & GADD (P 169-70)

18. Ibid. HAWES. (p 133)

19. BARNARD, F. (1874) "The Victorian Webb. created 20.08.2020. Modified 4.10.2020. Picture Scanned and Text by Philip.V. Allington 

20. Ibid. HAWES. (p 203)

21. Ibid HAWES. (p 204)

22. EMSLEY, C. "Crime, Crime Prevention, and Criminals" in Ibid SCHLICKE.P. ( 2011) (p 129)

23. GAUTAM, A. "Ego-Centric Parents in the Novels of Charles Dickens". SmartMoves Journal / Jellh 4(7):7 July 2016. (p272-3)

24, Ibid. GAUTAM (p272)

25. BERGH-SEELEY, R. "The Other Self: Dark Counterparts in the Novels of Charles Dickens ". A Thesis Presented to the Department of Literature. The University of Oslo in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree. Spring Semester (2011) ( p39)

26. Ibid (p 41)

27. KASEYMARKS, S. "Little People Matter in David Copperfield and Barnaby Rudge" The Dickensian . Summer 2024. No 523.Vol 120. Part 11. (p 162)

28. Ibid. (p263)

29. Ibid HAWES. (p135)

30. GARNETT, R. "Charles Dickens in Love". Pegasus Books. New York/London (2012) (p135)

31. LEARDI. J. "Ageing Sideways - Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older" Copywrite (c) 2024. by Jeanette Leardi. ISBN: 979-8-218-45246-9. Psychology/Development/Adulthood -Ageing. Introduction (p xv)

32. The importance of Barnaby Rudge's portrayal in the context of Charles Dickens's attitude to Intellectual disability has been brilliantly discussed by SIMON  JARRETT in his publication "Those They Called Idiots: The idea of the disabled mind from 1700 to the present day" Reakton Books. 2020. Barnaby Rudge as a character fell outside the Older Adult definition, hence the focus of "Charles Dickens's Older People".  I shall, however, pick up the issue in my forthcoming examination of David Copperfield, which will feature the character of Mr Richard Babley, commonly known as Mr Dick.