Montreal Dickens Fellowship Study Questions: “Our Mutual Friend"
December 2, 2025
Chapters 8-17
- The Boffins are portrayed as down to earth honest people. What do you think of Mrs. Boffin’s yearning for fashionable society?
- Dickens worked, in his teens, as a clerk for a law office. What attitude does he convey in describing Mortimer Lightwood’s practice and his clerk, Blight?
- This novel may be said to be highly theatrical because many of the characters “play a part: or assume another role. Consider John Harmon, Mr. Wegg and the Boffins. What roles do the Lammles assume to fool everyone? \
- Describe Rogue Riderhood in terms of the big bad wolf.
- What adjective would you use to describe Mr. Podsnap? Respectable? Pretentious? Narrow-minded? Pompous? Reactionary? Egocentric? Self-Satisfied?
- What do you think of Eugene Wrayburn’s attraction to Lizzie?
- The story set in the dust mounds and the description of Boffin’s Bower are quite original to us, although in Dickens’ time these yards of garbage were quite common. It is intriguing to imagine a treasure hunt of sorts in this setting. Comment on the fairy tale like quality of this unlikely setting for an adventure.
- Comment on Betty Higden’s (Dickens’s) indictment of the Poor Law.