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Jonas at the Alehouse
Harry Furniss
1910
14.5 cm high by 9.2 cm wide
Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, TheCharles Dickens Library Edition, Chapter 47, "Conclusion of the Enterprise of Mr. Jonas and his Friend," facing VII, 768.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"A fine night, master!"said this person. "And a rare sunset."
"I didn't see it," was his hasty answer.
"Didn't see it?" returned the man.
"How the devil could I see it, if I was asleep?"
"Asleep! Aye, aye."The man appeared surprised by his unexpected irritability, and saying no more, smoked his pipe in silence. They had not sat very long, when there was a knocking within.
"What's that?"cried Jonas.
"Can't say, I'm sure,"replied the man. [Chapter 47, "Conclusion of the Enterprise of Mr. Jonas and his Friend," 748: the picture's original caption has been emphasized]
The chief plot threadin this novel is the growing rift between the large-scale swindler Montague Tigg (who has created himself as "Tigg Montague," Director of the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Life Insurance Company) and Jonas Chuzzlewit, whose involvement in the investment scheme has been conditioned by Tigg's knowing about Jonas's having poisoned his father, Anthony. With the other plots moving towards resolution, Dickens now introduces the murder of the financier from the perspective from and with a deep appreciation of the psychology of the murderer himself With the other plots moving towards resolution, Dickens now introduces the murder of the financier from the perspective from and with a deep appreciation of the psychology of the murderer himself.
In the original series of monthly illustrations,Hablot Knight Browne does not deal directly with Tigg's murder, perhaps because Dickens's treatment of the plan, its execution, and aftermath is from Jonas's perspective, and perhaps, too, because the text is laden with psychological insight that does not particularly lend itself to illustration.Dickens's strategy of showing the psychological damage that the deed does to the murderer is reminiscent of his handling Bill Sikes' murder of Nancy in Oliver Twist. Probably at Dickens's instigation, Phiz jumps from Mr. Jonas Exhibits his Presence of Mind (see below), depicting Jonas's initial attempt on Tigg's life, directly to a pair of comic illustrations for events in the May 1844 instalment, Chapter 46, Mr. Moddle is Led to the Contemplation of his Destiny and Mrs. Gamp Makes Tea (see below), leaving the melodramatic material of the forty-fifth chapter unrealised. In the 1872 Household Edition, Fred Barnard also avoids showing the murder directly, focussing instead on Jonas's immediate reaction in Done!, in which Jonas, having already murdered his blackmailer, is shown "parting the leaves and branches on the other side of the woods, near where the path emerged again." Barnard leaves the actual murder scene to the reader's imagination, electing instead to realise shows the highly dramatic moment when Jonas, momentarily elated by having acted on his atavistic impulse, bursts forth from the Darwinian jungle, tearing through the young boughs so violently "that he cast into the air a shower of fragments."
Just as in the final numbers of Oliver Twist the murderer of Nancy, the brutal Bill Sikes, becomes unnerved by the casual talk of a mountebank in the Seven Bells at Hatfield, The Flight of Sikes after the Murder (Chapter 48), so here Jonas (wearing the linen smock-frock of a peasant) seems far more apprehensive than in his last appearance, On the Road to Salisbury (Chapter 43). Although his drinking companion is not the least affected by the sudden noise from within the rural alehouse with its vines picturesquely climbing the latticed window of the old, wooden porch, Jonas looks left, as if expecting pursuit. This is a far cry from the Satanic figure who confidently snarls at Montague Tigg in Jonas Chuzzlewit and Montagu Tigg (Chapter 38). However, by the time that the reader encounters this illustration, positioned in the following chapter, Martin, Mark, and John Westlock are already putting the pieces of Jonas's secret together with the help of Lewsome, who provided Jonas with the poison to use on his father, Anthony.
Left: Phiz's realisation of Jonas's first attempt on Montague's life, Mr. Jonas Exhibits his Presence of Mind (Chapter 42, April 1844). Centre: Phiz's other light scene for these chapters featuring the readers' favourite comedienne, Sairey Gamp, Mrs. Gamp Makes Tea (Chapter 46, May 1844). Right: Sol Eytinge,Jr.'s realisation of the comic thread involving Moddle, reluctantly engaged to Charity Pecksniff, and his landlady, Mrs. Todgers, Mrs. Todgers and Mr. Moddle (1867).
Above: Barnard's realisation of the scene in which, having murdered Tigg, J onas, disguised as a rural labourer, bursts from the Wiltshire woods, Done! (1872).
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Created 6 February 2016
Last modified 23 January 2020