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Passage Illustrated: Pecksniff dismisses young Martin from The Garden

"Go on," said Martin, with a scornful smile. "I understand you now. What more?"

"Thus much more, sir," cried Mr. Pecksniff, trembling from head to foot, and trying to rub his hands, as though he were only cold. "Thus much more, if you force me to publish your shame before a third party, which I was unwilling and indisposed to do. This lowly roof, sir, must not be contaminated by the presence of one who has deceived, and cruelly deceived, an honourable, beloved, venerated, and venerable gentleman; and who wisely suppressed that deceit from me when he sought my protection and favour, knowing that, humble as I am, I am an honest man, seeking to do my duty in this carnal universe, and setting my face against all vice and treachery. I weep for your depravity, sir," said Mr. Pecksniff; "I mourn over your corruption, I pity your voluntary withdrawal of yourself from the flowery paths of purity and peace;" here he struck himself upon his breast, or moral garden; "but I cannot have a leper and a serpent for an inmate. Go forth," said Mr. Pecksniff, stretching out his hand: "go forth, young man! Like all who know you, I renounce you!"

With what intention Martin made a stride forward at these words, it is impossible to say. It is enough to know that Tom Pinch caught him in his arms, and that, at the same moment, Mr. Pecksniff stepped back so hastily, that he missed his footing, tumbled over a chair, and fell in a sitting posture on the ground; where he remained without an effort to get up again, with his head in a corner, perhaps considering it the safest place. [Chapter XII, "Will be seen in the long run, if not the short one, to concern Mr. Pinch and others, nearly. Mr. Pecksniff asserts the dignity of outraged Virtue. Young Martin Chuzzlewit forms a Desperate Resoluion," pp. 159-160 in the 1844 edition]

Commentary

Tom Pinch restrains the indignant young Martin from his assault upon the arch-deceiver, plagiarist, and general hypocrite Seth Pecksniff. This dramatic moment in Chapter 12 signals an important shift in the story because young Martin will now have to leave his studies in order to make his way in the world. The plot calls for the protagonist to quit Peckniff's house (a development which Old Martin has orchestrated) to facilitate the self-absorbed young man's character development by making him abandon his attitude of entitlement. Dickens had just recently returned from America, where he had experienced the young nations’s money-morality and multiple hypocrisies. He therefore seizes the opportunity to draw upon his recent experiences and sends his protagonist to the eastern United States and the Mississippi valley, on which he pours scathing satire.

The melodramatic scene of genuine and assumed indignation collapases into physical comedy or farce as Pecksniff, losing his footing in retreating from his adversary, tumbles over a chair and lands on the ground. The moment is not without levity as Dickens contrasts the seriousness of Martin's situation with the sanctimonious Pecksniff's pratfall: "Pinch caught Martin in his arms, and Mr. Pecksniff tumbled over a chair, and fell in a sitting posture on the ground." In all probability, Old Martin anticipated such a scene when he commanded the architect to eject his latest pupil. The scene repeats Pecksniff's earlier dismissal of Tom Pinch's fellow apprentice John Westlock. Here, the accident disrupts Pecksniff's heretofore imperturbable equanimity, and signals his humiliation at Martin's hands. This scene ultimately results in the poetic justice of Old Martin's thrashing Pecksniff in the final number, Warm Reception of Mr. Pecksniff by His Venerable Friend (July 1844).

The juxtaposition of this with the other plate for the May 1843 instalment, Mr. Jonas entertains his Cousins, implies that, at least for a time, the negative forces in the novel will be in the ascendant. And, indeed, the story's villain, Jonas, will marry one of Pecksniff's daughters, and the widower will woo the faithful Mary Graham in young Martin's absence.

Related Materials: Later Illustrations

• Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. (16 plates from the Ticknor and Fields' Diamond Edition of 1867)
• Fred Barnard (60 plates from the Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1872)
• Clayton J. Clarke (five studies from three sources, 1910)
• Harry Furniss (twenty-eight lithographs for the Charles Dickens Library Edition, 1910)

References

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978.

Vann, J. Don. "Martin Chuzzlewit, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, January 1843 — July 1844." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 66-67.

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Last modified 8 March 2019