The American Part of Charles Dicken's "Martin Chuzzlewit"

I glossed over “The American Part” of Martin Chuzzlewit earlier because it warrants its own discussion. Charles Dickens obviously wrote this book on his return to England from his first tour of the United States. From the biographies of Dickens I’ve read, he was NOT impressed by the New World. And it definitely shows in Martin Chuzzlewit.

Penniless and without prospects, Martin Chuzzlewit and conveniently sudden sidekick Mark Tapley sail across the Atlantic to New York and then head westward to seek their fortune, eventually buying land in the developing town of “Eden”…due to its marshy description (and my extensive readings of Gene Stratton Porter novels), I imagined this to be in the Limberlost of Indiana. Perhaps I misunderstood the geography, but Martin and Mark never go south.

This is significant, because almost any American character that Martin and Mark talk to prove to be hypocrites, in the same breath lauding the values of freedom and upholding the need for slavery. Even the few self-proclaimed abolitionists they meet talk this way.

The United States that Dickens visited prior to writing American Sketches and Martin Chuzzlewit was definitely a sick nation, contaminated in every quarter by the pestilence of slavery. This does not mean, however, that every American at the time was pro-slavery! The history of slavery in America, and how it got so ingrained in society that it took a bloody Civil War to rip out (and the scars of it are still evident today), is all too complex for me to get into at length here. Suffice it to say that I think at least more than one person would have been vocal against it to Martin (and Dickens himself), especially in the North.

(I also take issue with the fact that a Victorian Englishman was criticizing the American “caste” system, when he knew very well that the English class system was woefully unequal, and even if “slavery” had been abolished (and really not too many years before the writing of his book), it was virtually still in effect as the upper classes of society subjugated their own race to similar dehumanization and servitude. Also, the slave trade had not been abolished in England all that long before the writing and events of this novel.)

The fact that Martin Chuzzlewit (of all people judges) the American characters on their treatment of slaves is hypocritical considering his treatment of Mark Tapley—although this guy is a voluntary traveling companion, and by all accounts more useful than Martin, he’s consistently treated as a servant (even after Martin proclaims them to be partners!) just because he’s of lower birth. In fact, any of Martin’s personal critiques of the USA are nullified by the fact that he’s such a horrible, selfish person himself. Even if America was EXACTLY as described, the reader can’t help but think that Martin deserves it, and when he instantly gets sick in Eden the reader seriously hopes that he will not recover.

Dickens’ consistent portrayal as Americans as self-centered (again with the Selfishness theme) gets tiresome after the first person he caricatures. But the repetition continues as every person Martin and Mark meet talks about Money, Freedom/Liberty, Foreigners Not Understanding How Awesome America Is, and introducing people as being One Of The Most Prominent People In America. And obviously Dickens did not have enough time on his American tour to nail down the regional accents. The closest he gets is using the word “catawampus”—and even then, I don’t think he quite understood how to use it, and he definitely misspelled it.

One thing I did think was hilarious about this section was that when Martin and Mark eventually get back to England, they act as if they have returned to Heaven itself. “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home” and all that, but anyone who’s read anything else by Dickens will say “What gives, Dickens? This is not the squalid smoggy London overrun by orphans and pickpockets you wrote about in Oliver Twist!”