"Jack Sheppard visits his Mother in Bedlam" by George Cruikshank, 1792-1878

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"Jack Sheppard visits his Mother in Bedlam"

George Cruikshank, 1792-1878

May 1839

Etching

11.8 x 9.8 cm

"Epoch the Third, 1724. The Prison Breaker," Ch. 8, "Old Bedlam," in Jack Sheppard. A Romance, Volume II, facing page 242.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

A far less cluttered composition than Cruikshank's earlier illustrations for Jack Sheppard, the scene of Jack's visit to Bedlam, the lunatic asylum, complements the text admirably as Jack in the picture appears to be judging his mother, but Jack in the text is highly sympathetic to her plight and greatly distressed at her mental deterioration. Initially, in her dementia she does not even recognise him, thinking him to be another inmate. Her unfortunate intervention prevents Jack from defending himself from the malevolent Jonathan Wild, and once again he is taken prisoner. Having momentarily recovered her wits, she attacks Wild, who then strikes her unconscious. The emotional scene ends with Wild's vowing to conduct Jack to the condemned cell at Newgate, depicted in its full psychological horror by Cruikshank just months previously for Oliver Twist in Fagin in the Condemned Cell (Part 23, March 1839).

References

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. A Romance. With 28 illustrations by George Cruikshank. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. Edited by Edward Jacobs and Manuela Mourao. With 31 illustrations. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2007.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.

Vann, J. Don. "Jack Sheppard in Bentley's Miscellany, January 1839 — February 1840." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Page 19.

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Last modified 15 November 2016