Passage Illustrated: Young Bourgeois Suitor Makes Himself Useful

Tea being over, the young ladies resume their work, and Felix insists upon holding a skein of silk while Miss Thompson winds it on a card. This process having been performed to the satisfaction of all parties, he brings down his flute in compliance with a request from the youngest Miss Grey, and plays divers tunes out of a very small music-book till supper-time, when he is very facetious and talkative indeed. Finally, after half a tumblerful of warm sherry and water, he gallantly puts on his goloshes over his slippers, and telling Miss Thompson’s servant to run on first and get the door open, escorts that young lady to her house, five doors off: the Miss Greys who live in the next house but one stopping to peep with merry faces from their own door till he comes back again, when they call out ‘Very well, Mr. Felix,’ and trip into the passage with a laugh more musical than any flute that was ever played. [Chapter VI, "The Domestic Young Gentlemen," 38]

Comment

The tonal contrast between the previous illustration of posturing idlers in the street and this is sharp as we focus on a single, well-behaved and well-dressed young man in an obviously middle-class parlour that is female-dominated. The young gentleman now depicted is not a swaggering posturer, but a domestic ornament. Between the exterior and interior scenes the letterpress has given us "The Very Friendly Young Gentleman" (pp. 14-20), "The Military Young Gentleman" (pp. 20-27; depicted in the frontispiece), and "The Political Young Gentleman" (pp. 28-33): posers all. This young gentleman is not merely distinguished as a singular; he is named, and he is "amiable," or inclined to make himself agreeable in mixed company. Mr. Felix Nixon is what Americans might call "A Momma's Boy" since he is still living "at home with his mother" (33), and emphasizes fashion and appearance, by which Dickens suggests a certain degree of effeminacy. He does not relish exposing himself to the elements; rather, he protects himself from them with "India-rubber goloshes" (33) and a great coat. Like the birds in the glass display cases above the mantlepiece, Mr. Nixon makes himself an ornament to civilized female society, represented here by the middle-aged mother, Mrs. Thompson, and her adolescent daughters, all gathered around the dining table, sewing, presumably after supper. Phiz has Mrs. Thompson look up from her work to study the serviceable Felix thoughtfully, as if assessing him as a potential son-in-law.

Bibliography

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Caswell, Edward. Sketches of Young Ladies: In Which These Interesting Members of the Animal Kingdom Are Classified, According to Their Several Instincts. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 31 December 1836.

Dickens, Charles. Sketches of Young Couples. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1840.

Dickens, Charles. Sketches of Young Gentlemen. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1838.

Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.

Bentley, Nicholas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. "Sketches of Young Couples." The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. P. 237.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-85.

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Created 12 May 2023