Our Mutual Friend
| Written by: | Charles Dickens |
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| Synopsis: | |
| First published: | 1865 |
The final completed novel by Charles Dickens, and quite possibly his darkest.
A body is found floating on the Thames, identified as John Harmon, the heir to a great fortune, and -- well -- things go from nasty to nastier, and one of the biggest and most complicated plotlines in literature begins, set against a backdrop of Victorian London (and the surrounding countryside), the river Thames in particular.
This book has been adapted into three different TV miniseries, and the Young Shakespeare Players recently[when?] did an eleven-hour stage adaptation.
Tropes used in Our Mutual Friend include:
- Abusive Parents: Old Mr. Harmon, and Rogue Riderhood.
- Jenny Wren's family situation is arguably Parental Neglect.
- Aerith and Bob: Sophronia and Alfred.
- Alliterative Name: Multiple (not unusual for Dickens): Rogue Riderhood, "Fascination" Fledgeby...
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Bradley Headstone's disastrous proposal to Lizzie Hexam, in which he states that she is the ruin of him, and he regrets ever meeting her. When rejected, he threatens to kill Eugene, and nearly attacks her.
- Arch Enemy: Bradley for Eugene.
- Arranged Marriage: John Harmon was set to inherit his fortune only if he agreed to marry Bella Wilfer, a young woman he had never met. Now that John Harmon is drowned, all that has changed... until they get married anyway, without Bella knowing it.
- Being Evil Sucks: You almost feel sorry for Bradley at the end, even after he's crossed the Moral Event Horizon
- Berserk Button: Bradley has a number of them.
- Big Fancy House: The Bower.
- Big Screwed-Up Family: The Snigsworthy/Twemlow/Fledgeby clan.
- Blackmail: Two cases, neither of which go well:
- Silas Wegg attempts to blackmail Mr. Boffin with a new Will he's found, leaving all the property to the crown. It turns out there's a THIRD Will, leaving everything once again to Mr. Boffin.
- Rogue Riderhood attempts to blackmail Bradley Headstone over the near-murder of Eugene Wrayburn. That goes even less well.
- Blue Blood: Fashionable society, most of which congregates at Mr. Veneering's dinner parties.
- Catch Phrase: Boffin's "Mornin', mornin', mornin'!"
- Changeling Fantasy: Several, with varying degrees of veracity.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Pretty much everyone at the Veneerings' dinner parties.
- Clear My Name: John Rokesmith is accused of the murder of John Harmon. He doesn't have a terribly hard time clearing himself of those charges.
- All of Pubsey & Co's clientele think Mr. Riah is a Greedy Jew, little guessing that it's really Fledgeby in control of the operation... eventually Mr. Riah leaves in disgust, and winds up becoming the most genial and generous creditor around.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Jenny Wren, and her long stories about angels and blessed children and being dead.
- Con Artist: Alfred and Sophronia go into an arrangement. It doesn't work out.
- Contrived Coincidence: Surprisingly few for Dickens, but there are a couple.
- Betty Higden just happens to stumble across Lizzie Hexam in the last few moments of her life.
- Disabled Snarker: Jenny Wren, when she isn't engaging in flights of fancy.
- Domestic Abuser: Rogue Riderhood dispenses his version of parental duty in the form of a boot tossed at his daughter's head.
- Driven to Suicide
- Even Evil Has Standards: Several:
- Sophronia refuses to go ahead with the plan to trap Georgiana Podsnap.
- Charley Hexam learns that Bradley Headstone has nearly beaten Eugene Wrayburn to death, and rejects him.
- Faking the Dead: The Harmon Murder is one of the driving forces of the book...
- Gambit Pileup: How many different plots are running at any one time here?
- Gold Digger: Bella Wilfer starts out as this. She gets better.
- Greedy Jew: Subverted and fake-Invoked in a big way. Everyone in the plot thinks Mr. Riah is this, but he is secretly under the control of Fledgeby, who uses this public perception of Jews in order to camouflage his own operation. Riah eventually gets away from Fledgeby and inverts the trope fully, Clearing His Name in the process.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Bradley Headstone's violent (literally) hatred for Eugene Wrayburn, over Lizzie Hexam.
- Heel Face Turn: Sophronia feels guilty about the plot to marry off Georgiana to Fledgeby, and enlists Mr. Twemlow in rescuing her.
- Henpecked Husband: Reginald Wilfer, who was apparently something of an Author Avatar.
- Ironic Nickname: Fledgeby is called "Fascination Fledgeby" behind his back, on account of being one of the most boring people his acquaintances have ever encountered. They don't know what he is, obviously.
- Kick the Dog: Fledgeby rather enjoys flexing his power over Riah, and everyone else.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Rogue Riderhood says that once a man has been almost drowned, he can't ever be drowned again. He is mistaken.
- Last-Name Basis: It was Victorian Britain, after all, so most of the male characters are referred to primarily by their last names. Except by their family members.
- The Man Behind the Man: Fledgeby, who is controlling Pubsey & Co. without anyone knowing about it besides him and Riah.
- Manipulative Bastard: Fledgeby.
- Meaningful Name: Bradley Headstone, Mr. Veneering, and a few others.
- Miniseries: It's been adapted three times.
- Missing Mom: Several - John Harmon's mom is gone, as is Lizzie Hexam's, and even Pleasant Riderhood's.
- Mr. Exposition: Mortimer Lightwood.
- Mysterious Benefactor: At the end, Mr. Riah is transformed into a genial and generous creditor, and his clients have no idea that their debts have been secretly bought up by John Harmon.
- Near-Death Experience: A number of characters have various versions of this:
- John Harmon is almost murdered for his fortune, which doesn't do much for his worldview.
- Rogue Riderhood nearly drowns in the river, but is saved. He assumes, due to superstition, that this makes him immune from drowning in the future. He is mistaken.
- Eugene Wrayburn gets beaten nearly to death by Bradley Headstone, which causes him to re-think his life, and he finally marries Lizzie, to save her reputation. He thinks he's going to die. He survives.
- Never Learned to Read: Boffin hires Silas Wegg to read him 'The Decline and Fall of the Rooshan Empire'.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Jenny Wren, who despite being a Cloudcuckoolander is one of the most observant and insightful characters of the book.
- Odd Friendship: Lizzie and Jenny.
- Ominous Fog: It heralds the approach of Riderhood to Mortimer's office.
- Parental Abandonment: Yep.
- Parental Substitute: The Boffins practically raised John Harmon, and he returns the favor.
- Police Are Useless
- Purple Prose: Dickens was paid by the word. Several of the characters lapse into Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, and Dickens's standard Author Filibuster is in attendance, and the Lemony Narrator is employed as well.
- Reality Ensues: Bradley Headstone tries to frame Rogue Riderhood for the attack on Eugene Wrayburn... but not only does it fail, it doesn't even get off the ground; nobody even suspects Riderhood or believes for a moment that anyone besides Bradley is guilty.
- The Reveal: John Harmon isn't dead. He's John Rokesmith.
- Mr. Boffin isn't corrupt.
- Rich Bitch: Lady Tippins.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Alfred Lammle, after learning that it's really Fledgeby who has been screwing him over (and pretty much everyone else in the book as well) the whole time, crams a mixture of salt and tobacco into Fledgeby's nose and mouth to prevent him crying for help, and then thrashes him with his cane so hard that the cane breaks... twice.
- Sick Sad World
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Dickens was writing at a particularly grim time in world politics, and it seeped into his work.
- The Snark Knight: Eugene Wrayburn.
- Stay with Me Until I Die: Betty Higden dies in the arms of the startled Lizzie Hexam.
- Taking You with Me: Bradley Headstone's murder-suicide on Rogue Riderhood.
- Title Drop: Boffin refers to Rokesmith as "Our mutual friend."
- Truth in Television: The Author Filibuster about the way Jews were treated at the time, and how the efforts to relieve the poor were being demonized.
- Unexpected Inheritance: The Boffins never expected to get the entire fortune, but now that John Harmon is drowned, the fortune passes to them.
- Unholy Matrimony: Alfred and Sophronia get married, each believing the other to be rich. When they find out the truth, they resolve to take their high-society "friends" down a peg.
- Uptown Girl: The gender-swapped version, as Eugene loves Lizzie, but feels he can't marry her because he comes from an old-money family and she's the daughter of a waterside "character," and what would society say? He eventually sees the light after a Near-Death Experience, and he marries her to save her reputation.
- Villainous Breakdown: Bradley Headstone. Frequently, but especially after nearly killing Eugene.
- Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Dickens always has one of these... and there are a lot of characters to cover, so be prepared for an Author Filibuster.
- Will: And it's implied there are even more than the ones that are found.
- You ALL Share My Story: John Harmon's story intersects with pretty much every character's arc at some point, however indirectly... and so does Lizzie Hexam's.
- Zany Scheme: A number of them.