Summary
After learning Riah has betrayed Lizzie, Jenny decides not to tell her friend. One day, Fledgeby unexpectedly turns up at the shop; he admits he got the location from Riah. He now wants to know where Lizzie is, and offers her a good business deal in exchange; after hesitating, Jenny agrees to meet him the following day at his home, which he takes as a sign she is going to provide him the information he wants. After Fledgeby leaves, Jenny ponders what sort of plot is going on. The next morning when she goes to meet him, a woman refuses to let her enter the apartment, saying that Fledgeby needs to finish his previous meeting first. After a time, Mr. Lammle comes down and hands Jenny a broken stick, identifying his name. She goes upstairs to find Fledgeby writhing in pain, having been beaten and had pepper forced down his throat. He explains that he was attacked by Mr. Lammle. Under the guise of helping him, Jenny inflicts further pain, and then leaves triumphantly.
Jenny goes directly to the pawn shop to see Riah. She confirms that Fledgeby has actually been the owner of the business this whole time. Riah explains that he was filled with self-loathing and shame at having misled her, and also felt that he was fueling negative stereotypes about Jewish people. He told Fledgeby that he was quitting his position. Jenny fills in the rest: angry with Riah for refusing to maintain the charade, Fledgeby planned to discover Lizzie’s location in order to torment Riah, possibly by seducing Lizzie. His visit to Jenny was in hopes of uncovering that location. Riah considers the idea of going to help Fledgeby but Jenny disagrees, and before they can decide, he receives a note from Fledgeby saying he considers their relationship ended.
Although Riah suggests that he will go seek out Lizzie, Jenny offers to let him stay with her instead. As the two walk home, they come across Jenny’s father, who has drunk himself into an especially bad stupor and collapsed. He dies a short time later. On the day of the humble burial, Lightwood arrives at the shop with a note from Lizzie: Wrayburn is dying, and asking for Jenny. Quickly, Jenny and Lightwood rush to his bedside, leaving Riah in charge of the shop. Wrayburn is drifting in and out of consciousness, but in a lucid moment, he makes Lightwood promise to never pursue Headstone for the crime, since he fears this will only harm Lizzie’s reputation. Jenny is also able to figure out that Wrayburn has been trying to express that he wants to marry Lizzie before he dies. Before this takes place, Lightwood goes to invite Bella to the marriage. When Lightwood comes to the house, Bella is surprised by her husband’s refusal to meet him or to accompany her to the marriage.
At the train station, Bella and the Milveys notice Headstone lurking about. Milvey remembers him, and after they strike up a conversation, Headstone mentions he has overheard the name Lizzie and wonders if there is any news. Reverend Milvey cheerfully reports that he is on his way to marry her. Headstone all but collapses at the news, but Bella and the Milveys carry on with their journey. Eugene and Lizzie are married, and he seems to be turning a corner towards recovery. A few months later, Bella gives birth to a baby daughter, but is alarmed to note that her husband seems more and more distressed.
One day while Bella and John are out shopping, they run into Lightwood who is astonished to realize Rokesmith is the same man who had introduced himself as Julius Handford. John openly owns this deception, and Lightwood tactfully explains that he also needs to find out whether John is implicated in the Harmon murder due to his strange deception and concealment. John invites the lawyer to come to his house the next day so that he can explain, and then goes home with Bella. Before John can tell Bella anything, Mr. Inspector shows up, accusing John of some involvement in the Harmon murder. John persuades Bella and the Inspector to go with him to the police station, and although Bella doesn’t understand what is happening, his identity is confirmed by two sailors from his ship.
The next day, John tells her that he has changed jobs, and that they will need to move houses. Bella confusedly goes with him to see what she thinks is their new house but is astonished when they arrive at the Boffin mansion. They are greeted warmly by the Boffins, who reveal the secret they have been hiding: they knew that John was John Harmon. The night after John first proposed to Bella, Boffin suddenly recognized him as the young boy he had once known. John confided that he was in despair that Bella would ever love him, and was planning to go abroad again without ever revealing his identity. Boffin proposed they draw out Bella’s inner goodness by him pretending to be greedy and selfish. As expected, she eventually chose John of her own free will and proved she was content to live without any money. Now that they all know that she is good and kind and unselfish, they can welcome her into her new life.
Meanwhile, Silas has been watching closely as the mounds were cleared away; he cannot claim his share of Boffin’s money until everything is accounted for. On the day that Bella and John return to the mansion, the last of the mounds is cleared away and Silas greedily anticipates claiming his money. He goes to see Venus, who is happy to announce that he is going to be married. Silas confirms their plan to meet with Boffin the next day to demand their payment, and reviews the document. However, when Silas arrives the next morning, Boffin is accompanied by John, who treats Silas rudely. Indeed, it quickly becomes clear that Venus, Boffin, Silas, and Sloppy are aligned against Silas. Silas is at first still confident in his triumph, but then horrified to learn that there was a third will, which was contained within the bottle Boffin retrieved.
This final will leaves everything to Boffin unconditionally, specifically disinheriting John. Boffin discovered this will after inheriting and hid it, because it was hurtful to the reputation of Harmon and his children. After learning John Harmon was still alive, he retrieved the document, and since it is dated later than the will Silas was so pleased with, it supersedes it. They have known about Silas’s plan since Venus betrayed him, but have dragged out the deception to maximize disappointment. Boffin has chosen to freely bestow the Harmon fortune on John, even though he is legally entitled to it. Silas now has nothing, and is tossed out into the street by Sloppy.
Headstone has been tormented, both by the fear of getting caught and the horror of the fact that his crime actually served to bring Eugene and Lizzie together. One day, Riderhood turns up at the school, and threateningly implies that Headstone ought to come and see him. A few days later, Headstone walks to Riderhood’s cottage, where Riderhood explains that he knows that Headstone took precautions in order to be able to pin the murder on him if he needed to. He retrieved the incriminating clothes Headstone tried to hide and now wants to blackmail Headstone for money in exchange for not turning him in. Headstone tries to protest that he has no money, but Riderhood insists that he is not going to let the schoolmaster out of his sight until he gets what he wants. Headstone wanders around, with Riderhood following him closely. Abruptly, Headstone seizes Riderhood and wrestles with him, and then pulls the other man into the river with him, where they both drown.
John and Bella settle happily into their new life, generously rewarding and helping anyone impacted by the concealment. Sloppy and Jenny start up a friendship, and Wrayburn gradually but steadily recovers. The Veneerings give a dinner party, which Lightwood attends, and the topic of Wrayburn’s surprising marriage comes up. Many of the high society individuals are disdainful that Wrayburn would marry a working-class woman, but Twemlow bravely stands up for the couple, insisting that individuals should freely choose to marry those they love.
Analysis
This section is largely concerned with rewarding the characters who have shown moral virtue in the novel, and punishing those who have schemed and betrayed others. Fledgeby suffers physical pain as well as indignity when he is beaten by Mr. Lammle and then further tormented by Jenny. While Mr. Lammle’s assertiveness in physically attacking the man who has plotted against him is in keeping with his character, Jenny’s infliction of additional pain is more surprising. She slyly parodies the idea of the gentle, submissive, and helpful female figure by seeming to tend his wounds, but actually exacerbating the pain he will feel. Jenny also shows how sharp and calculating her mind is by piecing together the complicated web of lies Fledgeby has spun. Riah is redeemed as a character who finally finds the strength to stand up for what is right, and is rewarded by finally being freed from his servitude to his cruel master. Riah’s justification for why he finally acts is an interesting meditation from a man who is keenly aware of the prejudices against him. He notes that any unethical action he engages in will be held out as an example of how all Jewish people are corrupt; as a member of a marginalized group, his failings are seen to be collective rather than individual.
While Wrayburn still hovers close to death, he is finally able to marry Lizzie. Much like John Harmon before him, Wrayburn emerges from the river waters physically close to death but emotionally and morally reborn. He can see clearly that the most important thing is taking care of the woman he loves; assuming he dies from his injuries, the marriage will give Lizzie moral and legal rights as his widow. He also looks out for her interests by having Lightwood swear not to pursue Headstone, even though both lawyers know he is guilty of the crime. Once he is married, Wrayburn’s convalescence speeds up: he now has something to live for, and much like Bella, he becomes a more serious and thoughtful character after his marriage. However, Dickens is shrewd enough to show that such a marriage would not be widely supported. The novel’s final scene takes readers full circle, back to a gossipy dinner party at the Veneering house. While most of the snobbish high society characters predictably show horror and disgust at Lizzie’s background, Twemlow stands up for the couple. While a minor character, he has persistently been shown to be moral and just; Mrs. Lammle specifically chose him to intervene for Georgiana, and here he shows that he will stand up for what is right.
Because the attack on Wrayburn paradoxically ends up being the means of bringing him and Lizzie together, Headstone has to live with the knowledge that his plan has failed in the most devastating way possible. His reaction to the news that Wrayburn and Lizzie are going to be married makes him almost pitiable, as does his response to Riderhood’s attempt at blackmail. The scenes in which Riderhood stalks the schoolmaster parallel the earlier scenes where Headstone would follow Wrayburn around at night, but now Headstone is the prey rather than predator. What Riderhood does not recognize is the danger of tormenting a man who has nothing to lose. Headstone’s final act brings death to the two most explicit villains of the novels, locked together in this warped partnership.
Likewise, as another important villain figure, Silas is also brought to justice in the novel’s final section. Because he has not engaged in acts of physical violence like Riderhood and Headstone have, he comes to a less violent end. Appropriately, Silas has to deal with the shame and humiliation of returning to the exact social position he has tried so hard to escape. The offer to purchase a new stall for him to sell from is more a cruel mockery than a kindness. Silas has been outwitted by failing to see that others might possess more integrity than he does. It did not occur to him that Venus might do the right thing and tell Boffin about the plot, nor did it occur to him that Boffin might have been concealing a document that could have definitively secured his position just in order to avoid shaming those he cared about. Silas is flung out the door and treated like a piece of rubbish, both symbolizing the way his low origins will prevent him from ever rising, and parodying how he tried to use the rubbish and garbage of the dust mounds to build himself up.
The reveal that Silas’s plot has been foiled is carried out in the context of a bigger discovery: Bella’s realization of her husband’s true identity, and the news that he and the Boffins have carried out an elaborate deception. This plot line has been disconcerting to some critics and readers: even if it was for her own good, everyone Bella cares about has been lying to her, and she has been allowed to suffer greatly while mistakenly thinking that Boffin has become cruel and corrupted. Within the world of the novel, however, Bella is shown to have total faith and trust in her husband, and to love him no matter what might be revealed about his past. Because Bella has proved herself to no longer be motivated by wealth, she can now be rewarded with lots of money. The conclusion of Bella and John beginning a life of luxury and opulence together reflects the novel’s complicated representation to wealth: for characters like the Boffins, and John and Bella, money cannot harm them because their hearts are pure and true.
