Concetti Chiave
- "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens explores the lives of various social classes with a mix of irony and genuine indignation.
- The novel features a twilight narrative tone, highlighting dramatic realism and deep societal issues.
- Dickens critiques the corrupting power of money, the flawed English school system, and the prevalence of societal masks.
- The narrative immerses readers in the harsh reality of 19th-century London while celebrating friendship and honesty as positive values.
- The plot revolves around identity change, starting with the mysterious disappearance of John Harmon and his connection to different worlds.
Our mutual friend by Charles Dickens - Analysis, commentary and storyline
“Our mutual” friend by Charles Dickens was published in monthly installments during 1894.
The novel tells the stories of men of all social classes, through a style of an impressive concrete, with a filter that combines the irony (veiled or overt) to a sincere indignation.
However, unlike other novels, “Our mutual friend” is characterized by a twilight narrative register, marked by deep furrows in their dramatic realism.
Charles Dickens deals with various issues, such as the condemnation of the corruptible power of money (which is able to change people), the English school system, the description of a series of human masks.
In fact, Charles Dickens describes a cruel reality that leads the reader to breathe the unhealthy air of nineteenth-century London and the writer also celebrates the only positive values of friendship and honesty.
The common thread that unites “Our mutual friend” to the other novels of Charles Dickens is the outrage over a hypocritical society, false and based on appearances and on conventions.
The plot is based on a sort of change of identity. Everything starts from the mysterious disappearance of John Harmon when he was returning from abroad to receive the inheritance from his father. John Harmon came back but he is dead (is truly his body?) and he'll become the link between different worlds.