Note 7 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.
Though sometimes dismissed as disastrous, they have recently been vigorously defended by Robert L. Patten. In terms of the education theme, it should be noted that these stories, however crude, do have a thematic relevance which parallels one of Sam Weller's functions: they introduce to Mr. Pickwick a dark reality he is trying to ignore. The first story, Dismal Jemmy's "Stroller's Tale", explicitly makes the point that only illusion makes life bearable; the second story, "The Convict's Return", is the antithesis of the familial bliss celebrated at the Wardles' party, at which it is told; the third, "The Madman's Manuscript", presents such bleak reality that Mr. Pickwick dives into bed to escape from it; and so on. It is true that the "reality" in these stories is often ludicrously exaggerated, but so are Sam's bleak similes. The exaggeration functions as a corrective to Mr. Pickwick's illusory view of a world of roses and grateful beneficiaries.
Last modified: 1 May 2001