Note 4 to Chapter 2 of the author's Dickens and the Rhetoric of Laughter which Clarendon Press published in 1972. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author and of the Clarendon Press, which retains copyright.
The only real exception is Sam Weller, who compartmentalizes the aggressive sexuality of the entire final society. But it could be argued that just as Sam's cynicism is no longer necessary, so his sexuality makes him fit rather uneasily into the final society. At any rate, the separation of sex from the centre of that society is complete. Sam, by containing all of it, manages to suggest the traditional generative aspect of comic endings (all those little Wellers running around) without disrupting the gentle tone of the society.
Last modified: 1 May 2001