Summary
Headstone follows Wrayburn, believing he is going to see Lizzie. Both men pass through the lock where Riderhood works, opening the gates to grant passage to boats, and Headstone explains his plan to the waterman. Riderhood notices that Headstone seems to have copied his dress, so he decides to test him by putting on a distinctive necktie and waiting to see if Headstone imitates it. A few hours later, Headstone returns: Wrayburn is spending the night at an inn, and Headstone is going to wait for him to resume his journey in the morning. Headstone spends the night at Riderhood’s home, and then tracks Wrayburn the next day. He returns to report that he has seen Wrayburn and Lizzie together, and as he shares this information, his nose starts to bleed. Riderhood encourages Headstone to rest and after the schoolmaster falls asleep, Riderhood confirms that he has copied the distinctive necktie.
Mr. and Mrs. Lammle come to call on the Boffins, and Boffin gives them money as thanks for having informed him about Rokesmith’s courtship of Bella. He outright rejects the idea, however, of Lammle ever replacing him as the new secretary. Before the Lammles can leave, Georgiana bursts into the room: she has been distressed to hear about them selling their goods, as she still considers them her beloved friends and has never learned why her father forbade her from seeing them. She offers them money and a necklace, and even attempts to mention giving them property. After she leaves to get back to her family undetected, Mr. Boffin assures them he will see the gifts returned, and Mrs. Lammle thanks him for having been discreet. Mr. Lammle is angry with her for not trying to keep the gifts, since they are about to go abroad with the money the Boffins have given them.
That evening, Boffin meets Venus and they go together to meet Silas for their reading. Venus warns him that Silas has been giving signs he is going to demand money from Boffin at the next opportunity. When they arrive, Silas notes to Venus that Boffin seems worried, and Venus says that he has already revealed the news about the late will. Silas demands first that Boffin dismiss Sloppy, which he does, and Sloppy leaves in astonishment. Silas then tells Boffin that in exchange for the secret being kept, he is to hand over two-thirds of his total estate, including any profits from the sale of the dust mounds. Silas also demands that Rokesmith be fired and Boffin clarifies that he has already dismissed the secretary. Boffin admits he has to give in to the demands, but asks to see a copy of the document.
The three men walk to Venus’s shop, where Silas humiliates Boffin while having him read the will. Silas says that he will be keeping Boffin under constant surveillance, but Boffin objects that he does not want his wife to know about the diminishment of their fortune. Silas says he will be discreet, and then continues to taunt Boffin as he makes his way home.
Bella and her father sneak off without telling any of her family members, and travel to Greenwich, where Bella and John are married. Afterwards, Bella sends a letter to her mother to break the news, making it seem as if her father knew nothing about it. Bella and John move into their new home, which is modest but cozy; Mr. Wilfer returns home to find his wife and daughter very unhappy with the news of Bella’s marriage. Lavinia however is distracted by her own engagement and a few weeks later, Bella is permitted to visit her family home. Her happiness is so evident that even her mother is relatively supportive. As Bella and John walk home from the visit, he asks if she would like to be rich and she insists that she is totally satisfied with their life. As time passes, Bella happily devotes herself to housekeeping and her father visits them regularly. John does bring up the subject of whether or not she wishes they had more money, but she always insists she is happy. Eventually, Bella reveals that she is expecting a child.
On a pleasant summer evening, Wrayburn visits Lizzie near the mill where she works. While he is undeniably courting her, she remains shy with him. She also asks whether it was true when he claimed he ran into her by chance as she was walking home the previous night, and he admits he had deliberately sought out her location. They argue about whether it is possible for the two of them to ever be together, with Lizzie insisting that it is not. She begs him to leave her alone, telling him that if he doesn’t, she will have to run away yet again. He reluctantly agrees to return to London the following morning, and to try to stop pursuing her.
After Lizzie leaves, Eugene wanders along the riverside feeling sorry for himself. Suddenly, he is attacked from behind, brutally beaten, and tossed into the river. Fortunately, Lizzie has not gone far away and is disturbed by strange sounds she hears. When she realizes that someone has been attacked and is close to drowning, she rows out a nearby boat and hauls the body in, horrified to realize it is Eugene. Showing great strength and courage, she manages to get him to the inn where doctors are called.
At dawn, Headstone turns up at Riderhood’s cottage. Riderhood encourages him to sleep, observing him closely and coming to the conclusion that he must have attacked Wrayburn that night. Headstone sleeps for a long time, and when he wakes up, Riderhood tells him that he has heard news of Wrayburn’s attack and the fact that Lizzie was the one to find him. As the two men eat together, Headstone accidentally cuts his hand and manages to get blood on Riderhood’s clothes. Headstone leaves the cottage in the early evening, and Riderhood follows him, having lied and told the schoolmaster that he was expected to stay on duty for several days.
Riderhood secretly watches Headstone throw the clothes he has been wearing into the river, and disguise himself by dressing in clothes he has chosen to imitate Riderhood. He decides not to follow him any further and returns home; he fishes something out of the river, presumably the bundle of clothes Headstone has tried to hide. Headstone makes his way to London. He is tormented by regrets that he did not carry out his plan more effectively. The next day, Charley comes to visit him at the school and tells him about the attack. He warns Headstone not to confide in him because he would feel obligated to turn his mentor in. Charley bitterly criticizes Headstone for having created a situation in which Charley might be believed to be mixed up in the crime. Charley announces that he is done with both Headstone and Lizzie forever, and is going to carry on with his plan of pursuing social respectability.
Analysis
In this section, Headstone’s loathing of Wrayburn finally comes to a violent climax. Headstone’s crime is driven by his passion: in a vivid moment of grotesque symbolism, he cannot speak about the experience of seeing Wrayburn and Lizzie together without blood abruptly gushing from his nose. The bleeding reflects how his rage and hate can no longer be contained, and need to find release in violent action. It is not clear whether Headstone believes that once Wrayburn is dead he will have a chance of marrying Lizzie himself, or whether he simply needs to ensure that his rival does not end up with the woman he loves.
Headstone’s crime is not spontaneous; his actions leading up to the attack make it clear that he is considering alibis and how best to protect himself. He makes preparations to frame Riderhood if necessary, presumably planning to exploit Riderhood’s low-class and criminal associations, which would make him a more believable murderer than a quiet schoolteacher. His subtle plans of imitating Riderhood’s dress and conniving to get blood on Riderhood align him with various other characters such as Silas, the Lammles, and Fledgeby, who scheme, plot, and lay traps to betray those around them. However, Riderhood is one of very few characters who is a match for the cunning of his enemy. He picks up on what Headstone is doing and counter-plots against him. Riderhood is pointedly not distressed by the knowledge that Headstone is going to try to kill Wrayburn, but he makes sure to protect himself by ensuring he has something to blackmail Headstone with. When he fishes the bloody clothes out of the river, his actions parallel Silas retrieving the second Harmon will to use against Boffin: this is a novel where nothing ever seems to quite disappear or stay hidden.
Despite Headstone’s thoughtful planning, his actual attack is hasty and unsophisticated. Headstone seems to be primarily a man of intellectual action, not brute physical force, and even in his rage, he manages to severely injure but not kill Wrayburn. By chance, Lizzie happens to hear the noise from the attack and her natural integrity and courage prompt her to see if she can help, rather than simply looking to protect herself from possible danger. Lizzie rowing out to retrieve Wrayburn, dragging him ashore, and then carrying him to the inn are a feat of physical and moral courage. It is impossible to imagine Bella or Georgiana Podsnap doing the same thing; as well-bred, delicate young women, they have been raised to be physically and emotionally fragile. Yet Lizzie, because she has always had to engage in hard physical labor and grotesque situations, is able to rise to the occasion at the moment of greatest need. She was shown at the start of the novel to be deeply disturbed by the ethics of her father’s work; when she engages in a parallel action of dragging a body ashore but with the aim of saving rather than harming, she symbolically redeems herself from her shameful past.
Headstone’s reaction to his crime is a brilliant study of guilty psychology. His action does not bring him any sense of peace or calm, but instead makes him even more paranoid and tormented. He is afraid of getting caught, and as more time passes, his fear intensifies rather than subsides. He also has to live with the knowledge that he did not fully execute his task, and cope with the frustration and regret of not being more successful. Perhaps most poignantly, his one confidante and supporter, Charley Hexam, abandons him. Charley is shrewd enough to know that Headstone is almost certainly connected with the attack and his response reveals him as perhaps one of the coldest and most self-serving characters in the novel. Charley doesn’t really seem to care that Wrayburn might die, or what this heartbreak would mean for his sister. His anger is directed towards the impact this crime might have on his own prospects; all he cares about is securing his own respectability and position in the world. He cuts ties with both his sister and his trusted friend and mentor because he cannot risk them jeopardizing his plans. In his remarks, Charley also shows that he is going to participate in the practice of marrying for money and social gain. Since other characters in the novel have experienced negative consequences from this approach, Charley’s future does not look bright.
As Headstone’s plan reaches its climax, so does Silas’s plot against Boffin. While he is not as violent, he is shown to be nearly as cruel and equally driven to crush the man he has come to loath. Silas does not simply reveal to Boffin that he is in possession of a document that could strip the Golden Dustman of his fortune, but he also gloats and humiliates Boffin throughout the process. Silas gets as much pleasure from hurting Boffin as he does from the prospect of the fortune he is going to acquire.
Amidst these cruel and dark plot lines, the life of John and Bella as a married couple provides a brief burst of happiness. Bella comes to exemplify the Victorian ideology of the “angel in the house”: a woman whose life revolves around providing physical and moral comfort to her husband when he retreats from the difficulties of public life. Dickens does take the opportunity to poke fun at housekeeping as a source of labor and effort, and an area in which the pampered Bella must educate herself. This section serves to develop the transformation in character Bella has achieved since leaving the Boffin house and becoming a wife and soon-to-be mother. She is now patient, generous, thrifty, and concerned with the happiness and well-being of those around her; despite her origins as a spoiled and selfish girl, Bella now presents as an ideal of Victorian womanhood who acts like the perfect wife to her actual husband, and a kind of surrogate wife to her father. For the first time, Mr. Wilfer can enjoy a comfortable and peaceful domestic life, since his own home life has always been miserable.
