The Pickwick Papers - chapters 41-43
Installment 15 of 20, in The Pickwick Papers 180th Anniversary Read Along hosted by On Bookes. This installment comes in June (there was no May installment), just as Dickens’ fifteenth installment was published.
Chapter 41 – This month picks up, of course, where we left off waaay back in April with the distressing scene of Mr. Pickwick being led off to debtor’s prison. Now as he is ushered securely into his new abode, the somewhat naïve Mr. Pickwick is stunned by the miserable living conditions in the prison. The reader almost hopes Mr. Pickwick capitulates and pays, even though he is innocent, just to avoid the misery of Fleet prison, but the author ensures us that Pickwick’s resolve is undaunted.
Chapter 42 – Has Pickwick settling in more comfortably into prison. If Mr. Dickens is to be considered reliable, it was in those days possible for prisoners to purchase certain niceties in prison, like a private room, food, wine, etc. if they were able to pay. Mr. Pickwick is able and willing, so he does. It was also possible for family members, or even servants, to reside with the prisoner. However, Mr. Pickwick sets about to discharge Sam. Pickwick believes it is absurd for a prisoner in debtor’s prison to employ a manservant. Pickwick informs Sam that he will continue to pay his salary, and that he may make himself useful to Winkle, Snodgrass or Tupman, and that should he, Mr. Pickwick ever be freed from prison, he would surely take Sam on again. He insists however, that it is not right for Sam to be hanging around the prison on Pickwick’s account. Sam forcibly expresses his disapproval of Pickwick’s position and storms away – the most disagreeable parting we’ve ever encountered between our two friends. Earlier in the chapter, we are reintroduced to the rascals Jingles and Trotter who are fellow residents in Fleet prison.
Chapter 43 – In which Sam arranges to go to prison himself so that Mr. Pickwick cannot send him away. Sam in collusion with his father, borrows a bit of money from his father and then immediately refuses to pay. Sam’s father has him before the court and Sam is sent to debtor’s prison. There is a comical scene when Sam reappears in Fleet. Pickwick is delighted hoping to mend the bitter parting from the day prior. Sam in a rather roundabout way tells Pickwick that he is a fellow prisoner and will not be released until and unless Mr. Pickwick is released. Mr. Pickwick is for once in his life stupefied, and the reader is touched by the determined loyalty and sacrifice of Sam Weller.
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