Tom Pinch is an example of a really good person in Charles Dickens. In Martin Chuzzlewit, Pinch at first seems weak and basically, a deluded push-over in the household of the completely evil, deceit-filled Pecksniff.
But, Pinch becomes one of the heroes of Dickens by being consistently good, truthful, and standing up for what is just. He does not get "his girl" in the end, but is invited to live with his sister and her husband, one of Pinch's good friends.
He does not get poetic justice. Another quiet hero in Dickens is Joe Gargery in Great Expectations, possibly my favourite character in all of Dickens's characters, numbered between 989 and 1,2oo by various critics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dickensian_characters
Joe Gargery is another truthful, good and humble man. He know his place.
Both Tom and Joe are protectors. One can rely on their steady goodness and selfish-less decisions.
Too often in today's world, people want poetic justice, as in Joe getting a sweet wife, Biddy, or Little Dorrit and Arthur Clennam marrying. But, Tom Pinch tells his sister that a higher justice, that is, Divine Providence, rules the hearts and heads of men who are good and worthy, not poetry. Dickens may have been talking to himself.
Those of us who have faced cancer and other illnesses understand that there is a divine justice, a Providence, ordering and inspiring us in our common, daily lives.
Rebellion and pride bring unnecessary hardships. Suffering cannot always bring happiness, but it must bring redemption to the Tom Pinchs of this world.
Too often, I have wanted poetic justice in exchange for the good, moral decisions which I made, shaping my life and moving me from the bad, to the mediocre, to the good. I have wanted the quiet, peaceful, stable life which many women have. This has been denied to me. One must stop and ask Divine Justice for insights and clarity into the soul, which helps one follow Him in all circumstances, with hope.
Recently, Divine Providence showed me that I have been selfish all my life. One must atone for such selfishness and think of others, think on Christ and His Suffering.
To move from the bad to the mediocre to the good and, finally, to the perfect, is extremely difficult.
This movement of the will is borne on grace and sustained by the Eucharist.
Like Joe and Tom Pinch, all of us men and women have to face the truth of ourselves, our surroundings, our status, our souls. Once we do this, then do we really begin the journey into the Heart of God. I like to think that Dickens at the end, who could create such good characters, had this goodness in his heart despite a difficult and not so moral life. What is within the heart may surprise people.
Only God knows the heart, and He allows Divine Justice rather than poetic justice to reveal hearts to the weary world.
27 Jan 2012
Some people's minds, and maybe their hearts, are like the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit, my favorite book-read it at least four times and maybe five. Their minds are full of anxiety, useless information, fluff. They only want ...
25 Apr 2013
View from the Bridge. Posted by Supertradmum. This is the new "Iron Bridge", not the one in Little Dorrit, my favourite book. A complete replica of the old one was made for the 2008 television series. Email ThisBlogThis!
13 Jun 2012
This transportation of the imagination lies in a masterpiece, such as Dante's Divine Comedy, Dickens' Little Dorrit, or E. M. Foster's Howard's End. Few book or poems can carry us into the mind of the maker, who creates for us ...