Instances of deceit in Our Mutual Friend

The government may also deceive its citizens by failing to meet their promises and thus a negative situation of deceit. Many authors now use deceit as an important tool for building the plots of their work; it helps to clearly bring the relationships existing between the characters. This document will outline the instances of deceit in the book, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens and explain how they helped in building the plots in the novel. Quote: book four, chapter 11 “I should like to ask you, said Bradley Headstone, grinding his words slowly out, as though they came from a rusty mill; ‘I should like to ask you, if I may without offense, whether you would have objected- he tried to lure Lizzy.

Mr. ‘Not at all. Two of my daughters R. W. , this is the gentleman who has taken your first-floor. He was so good to make an appointment tonight when you would be at home. Another important problem that arose due to his deception, was the accusation of an innocent man Jesse Hexam. Unfortunately, Hexham dies before the accusation can be confirmed, leaving his children, Charley and Lizzie, with great stigma. He proposes to Bella who readily accepts him for marriage in spite of his poor job. Bella is forced to make a great sacrifice of turning away from Mr. Boffin’s family and thus the inheritance she was entitled to too, to start a new life with Mr. Mr. Boffin deceived himself that inherited wealth would earn him respect and a class in the society.

Having been servants of the John Harmon’s family for a long period of time, most of their neighbors got used to them as members of the class. Therefore they would find it hard to adjust in the ways they related with them, whether to consider them as the rich or still as the poor. For example, most of the people belonging to the high class were literate, unlike Mr. Quote: (Hutter et al, 135-175) in relation to chapter 11; ‘He sat close to them during small gatherings and at the end of the table during big gatherings’… “There is a friend of our family who, I think and hope you will agree with me, he is the friend on whom this agreeable duty almost naturally devolves, that friend is now among us… “Mr.

Twemlow deceived the Veneering’s family to be a close and good friend of theirs. Although he only sat close to them on the table, during small gatherings and away from them when there are large gatherings. He only did this to earn their trust as they were still new to the residence, which he would really benefit from later after knowing them deeply and exhausting all their secrets. This helps in building the work by trying to prove that, not all people who are close to you and trust you, do that without having a hidden agenda. Friedman, Stanley. “The Motif of Reading in Our Mutual Friend. ” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 28, no. 1, 1973, pp. Gill, Stephen. “Our Mutual Friend. ” A Dickens Companion, 1st ed.