Six Dickens eccentrics

Charles Dickens liked to create eccentric pairs within his novels by contrasting one benevolent with one unscrupulous caricature. In his first novel, Pickwick Papers, good-hearted Samuel Pickwick is set off against deceitful Alfred Jingle. In Dombey and Son, produced mid-point in his writing career, compassionate Captain Ned Cuttle is distinguished from cunning Major Joseph Bagstock. In his last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, humanitarian Nicodemus Boffin counterposes corrupt Silas Wegg. These characters are humorously portrayed through their appearance and speech, as well as through the farcical situations in which Dickens places them. They also become metaphors for human qualities, such as greed, naivete, pride and compassion, thereby clarifying Dickens's serious themes.