informs her that she will soon be a welcome fixture at the Boffin household.
During this encounter, Bella is reading a book about money, not love. It is at this
point that Rokesmith informs Bella that he is Boffin’s new secretary. A further
foundation for the novel is set in Chapter 1 of Book 2 when Charley Hexam points
out Eugene Wrayburn to Bradley Headstone and expresses his dislike for Wrayburn. Wrayburn’s affections for Lizzie Hexam are also made known to Headstone. Throughout the course of the novel it transpires that Wrayburn’s obligations in regard to Lizzie Hexam extend beyond merely legal obligations to moral obligations, evidenced by the way in which he offers her the opportunity to be educated and to escape the vicious cycle into which she has been plunged by her upbringing.
In Chapter 6 of Book II, Lightwood and Wrayburn go into partnership in the Temple. Dickens comments on the brand new furnishings with the inscription on the door looking recently painted, stating that “the Temple ... would soon get the better of all that” (p336). In this way Dickens perpetuates the portrayal of the dull nature of the legal profession that he so successfully established in Bleak House.
Although Wrayburn and Lightwood show slightly more promise for the future of the profession than earlier legal characters in respect of their personalities and sense of social responsibility, Dickens is not prepared to completely relinquish his portrayal of the dull and oppressive nature of the profession in general.
The unexpected visit of Charley Hexam and Bradley Headstone to Lightwood and Wrayburn’s chambers, in which Hexam asks Wrayburn to discontinue contact with his sister, leads Wrayburn to revert to a legalistic offer to Lightwood upon their departure: “If as a set-off (excuse the legal phrase from a barrister-at-law) you would like to ask Tippins to tea, I pledge myself to make love to her” (p347). The way in which Wrayburn barters with his partner for the prospect of a romantic relationship shows a playful and knowing use of legalistic language. A further example of this is when Wrayburn is interrogated by Lightwood as to whether he is in fact in communication with Lizzie Hexam. Wrayburn verifies the allegations of Charley Hexam and Headstone by replying, “I concede both admissions to my honourable and learned friend” (p348). Wrayburn’s use of legal language can be contrasted with the legalistic terms in which Guppy couches his relationship with Esther Summerson in Bleak House. Guppy is trapped by legal language and appears unable to think outside its confines.
In Chapter 7 of Book II, Wegg expresses disgruntlement about the way in which Boffin has inherited the Bower. He speculates about the possibility of discovering evidence which might incriminate Mr Boffin, the person who has profited by the
murder of Harmon. It is a well-established principle that a murderer cannot inherit from his victim. 43 The rules of the law of succession are thus manipulated in a sophisticated way by Dickens to show the ulterior motives of Wegg and
foreshadow the malicious intent he bears towards Boffin throughout the novel.
During this chapter, Venus speculates that Harmon probably made a number of wills and codicils, which may revoke the will under which property has devolved to Boffin. This in fact comes to fruition in Chapter 7 of Book III when Silas Wegg reveals that he has located a will that postdates the proved will, leaving Little Mound to Boffin and the rest and residue to the Crown. Wegg and Venus
immediately recognise the potential of this document as a tool to blackmail Boffin, who has “GROWN TOO FOND OF MONEY” (p565). Through his use of the codicil, Dickens continually notes that the law of succession is an area of some uncertainty in that the testator’s last intention governs the disposition of assets.
In a comment equally applicable to the doctrine of precedent as the law of
succession, Tambling states that “the impossibility of a final interpretation ... is the way in which the law secures power”44. Dickens demonstrates that it is not only the law but the novelist who can secure power from a flexible plot device such as the law of succession, using it to create changing fortunes and engineer the moral changes in his characters through the use of codicils in the Wegg/Venus subplot.
The status of women in Victorian society (and in particular their legal
disempowerment) to which Dickens refers in Oliver Twist and Bleak House, is pursued in Our Mutual Friend in Chapter 8 of Book II in which Bella is described as “an acquisition to the Boffins” (p361). Bella never has any proprietary rights whatsoever in the Harmon estate and, after the proclaimed death of John Harmon, is reduced to accepting the charity of the Boffins, to whom the legacy has been bequeathed. Bella is well aware that her material prospects depend upon the marriage she makes: “to get money, I must marry money” (p375). Such legal and financial disempowerment can only be countered by sexual politics, Bella stating upon her betrothal to Rokesmith in Chapter 16 of Book 111 that “My will is his law” (p672).
43 Certoma, G.L. The Law of Succession in New South Wales Law Book Company Sydney 1992 p69
44 Tambling, Jeremy (Editor) Bleak House (Contemporary Critical Essays) St Martins Press New
York 1998 pl2
The social status of members of the legal profession is questioned by Philip Collins in his essay “The Trained Teacher and Social Mobility”45. Collins points out that Headstone’s envy of Wrayburn is exacerbated by his underlying social notion that he should not be usurped in matters of romance by an “indolent young briefless barrister” (p61). In Dickens and Crime, Collins suggests that
Headstone’s “sexual jealousy”46, the motive for his attempt on the life of Eugene Wrayburn, is exacerbated by class-feeling, for Headstone is a precarious new arrival in the middle class, while Eugene is, effortlessly and insolently, a gentleman”47.
Dickens’ outlook of the legal profession generating work for itself, as described in Bleak House, changes somewhat in Our Mutual Friend. Adhering to the idea of the legal profession as a business, Dickens makes it clear that supply and demand are as much features of the legal profession as any other business in Victorian England. This topic again touches upon the delicate relationship between lawyers and their clients and the dependency of lawyers upon a client base in order to survive in the commercial world. In Our Mutual Friend the dearth of work for certain members of the legal profession becomes evident when Mortimer Lightwood confesses to his friend Eugene Wrayburn that, “I have been, Eugene, upon the honourable roll of solicitors of the High Court of Chancery, and attorneys at Common Law, five years; and - except gratuitously taking
instructions, on an average once a fortnight, for the will of Lady Tippins who has nothing to leave - 1 have had no scrap of business but this romantic business”
(p61), referring of course to the Harmon affair. Wrayburn empathises with Lightwood’s position: “And I ...have been called seven years, and have had no business at all, and never shall have a n y.... And if I had, I shouldn’t know how to do it” (p61). At this stage of the novel, Lightwood and Wrayburn appear to be surviving as a struggling breed of gentlemen lawyers who are able to survive on their inheritances and the pretence of maintaining professions. The realistic employment situation for Lightwood is in fact so desperate that his aptly-named