63 pages • 2 hours read
Charles DickensBarnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1841A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
The stranger wanders the streets of London searching for a place to spend the night. He comes across Sim leaving Stagg’s house as the former jokes about Miggs. The stranger tells Stagg he wants a place to stay the night and can pay for it, and falls asleep by the fire as soon as Stagg agrees.
Chapter 19 Summary
Edward stops by the Vardens’ to ask Dolly to carry a letter to Emma, as he knows she is going to the Warren. Martha has a fit when Gabriel says they could all go to Chigwell if she didn’t have such a disdain for the Maypole. After more of Martha’s “hysterics,” she finally agrees to go to Chigwell and the whole family sets off in a coach with Dolly looking as beautiful as ever. Joe is happy to see Dolly once they arrive and watches her as she heads out toward the Warren.
Chapter 20 Summary
Dolly gives the letter from Edward to Emma. Emma takes her time reading it and writing a reply, so Dolly amuses herself by looking at her own reflection in the mirror. Dolly thinks Emma should try to make Edward jealous, but Emma tells Dolly she should be honest with Joe about her feelings for him. As she is leaving, Dolly runs into Mr. Haredale, whom she has always been afraid of. Though he mentions he knows she is carrying a reply to Edward, he does not ask her to stop and instead asks if she wants to stay at the Warren as a companion to Emma. Though Dolly finds no fault with this idea, she begins to cry, uncertain of what Haredale means by this.
Dolly is distracted on her walk back to the Maypole and is not paying attention as she knows the road well, but suddenly a man jumps out of the bushes before her.
Chapter 21 Summary
Dolly is briefly relieved to see that the man who accosted her is Hugh, whom she recognizes, but in a moment she is afraid of him again. Hugh grabs her and Dolly cries for help as Hugh threatens her and anyone she tells. Joe hears her cries and goes to Dolly as Hugh hides again, but Dolly lies about who attacked her and what happened, afraid of what Hugh will do.
When they are close to the Maypole, Dolly notices that her bracelet and the letter from Emma she had been holding are missing. When they return to the inn, Joe gets Hugh to help him look for the robber and Dolly’s letter. Hugh asks Dolly about what she saw in front of everyone, and again she lies about what she saw and asks Joe not to go with Hugh to look for her things. The men are unable to find Dolly’s things and she writes an account of what happened to Emma, which Joe plans to deliver the next morning. The Vardens return to London later in the day with Joe escorting them through the most dangerous part of the road.
Chapter 22 Summary
Joe speaks with Dolly and puts his hand on hers as he escorts the Vardens. Old John has sent Hugh after Joe to escort him back, terrifying Dolly. Martha and Miggs attend to Dolly, who swoons on the couch as soon as she gets home, with both lamenting Mrs. Varden’s lot in life. Miggs learns what happened with Dolly and exaggerates the story when recounting it to Sim, who begins to hate Joe even more.
Chapter 23 Summary
While at the Maypole, Mr. Chester left his riding crop with Hugh and told him to return the “lost” object if he heard any news about his son and Emma. Hugh gives Chester the letter he took from Dolly, which Chester burns. Chester sends Hugh away knowing he has his full submission, as he has made Hugh aware that he can easily have him charged for the robbery without Chester’s own name being tarnished.
Chapter 24 Summary
Mr. Chester receives a letter the next morning requesting a meeting from Sim Tappertit, who is so sure of himself that he does not realize when Chester is mocking him. Sim tells Chester about how Dolly is a go-between for Edward and Emma, and that his speaking to Mrs. Varden should stop Dolly from going out again. He also tells Chester about Joe’s involvement with the couple, claiming that Joe has also mocked Chester behind his back, and leaves just after asking Chester to, “Put Joseph Willet down, sir. Destroy him. Crush him. And be happy” (251).
Chapter 25 Summary
The Rudges make their way to the Warren—Mary entering her hometown of Chigwell for the first time since Barnaby was born—to speak with Geoffrey Haredale, an old friend of Mary’s. Since her husband’s death, Mary and Barnaby have been granted an annuity from the Haredales, but knowing that her money is being taken by the stranger, she refuses to accept the annuity any longer. The Haredales try to dissuade her from this decision, or to at least get her to tell them why she has made it, but Mary is secretive about her reasoning and says she must leave her house and move somewhere unknown to them the next day.
Chapter 26 Summary
Haredale speaks with Gabriel Varden about his recent interaction with Mary, and Gabriel tells him the secret he has been keeping about seeing the stranger at Mary’s house. Though Haredale briefly wonders if the stranger is somehow associated with the murders of his brother and Mary’s husband, Gabriel reassures him that Mary would never do something like that.
The two go to visit the Rudges, but instead find Mr. Chester is the only one at their house. Knowing that the Rudges helped facilitate the relationship between Edward and Emma, Chester “bought them off” (269) to stop them from being go-betweens for the couple. As they were intending to leave regardless, the Rudges left their house earlier that day and departed to an unknown place.
Chapter 27 Summary
Mr. Chester gives Mr. Haredale the key to the Rudges’ former home and leaves, knowing he has wounded Haredale more by being kind and courteous than he would have by drawing his sword on him. Chester heads to the Vardens’ to speak to Martha about the Vardens’ role in his son’s relationship. He persuades Martha that he wants to separate the couple not for Ned’s sake, but for Emma’s, saying his son has no heart. He also compares their relationship to that of Joe and Dolly, suggesting to her that she should keep an eye on it so Dolly does not see Emma as an example and become entangled with a man like Joe.
Chapter 28 Summary
When Chester returns home, he finds Hugh asleep on his stairs. Hugh has brought him the letter Dolly wrote to Emma that Joe was supposed to deliver, but John prevented Joe from interfering and gave it to Hugh instead. Chester takes the letter and sends Hugh away, thinking about how all of his deeds of the day should shortly ruin the relationship of his son.
Chapter 29 Summary
Chester goes to the Maypole with the purpose of meeting Emma on her usual morning walk, which Hugh had told him of. He convinces Emma that he has seen a letter Ned has written to her in which he jilts her and implies he was unfaithful. Haredale enters as Emma runs away crying, and tells Chester he regrets the bond he formed with him once Chester tells him what he told Emma and sees how heartbroken she is.
Chapter 30 Summary
Old John continues to escalate his emotional abuse of his son, spurred on by his Maypole cronies, particularly Tom Cobb. One night, when Joe has had enough, he beats Tom and then barricades himself in his room, knowing he must leave the Maypole forever.
Chapter 31 Summary
Joe leaves the next morning and walks to the Black Lion pub in London, where he meets an exuberant sergeant who tries to sign him up for the military. Joe says he will return to enlist that night but goes to see Dolly first. He tells her that he has decided to go abroad, angering her as he would not fight to be with her. Dolly is cold to him and Joe leaves with the military the following morning.
Chapter 32 Summary
Edward has been dismissed by Emma and is sure someone has persuaded her of something untrue. He meets with Chester, who tells him that Emma was likely a fortune hunter and realized he did not have the fortune she thought. Edward implies that he plans to leave his father and do something against his wishes, so Chester dismisses him and starts the rumor that he is to be pitied, as Edward was disobedient. The narrative skips forward five years.
Chapters 18-32 Analysis
Childhood Versus Adulthood is a major theme in Barnaby Rudge, as several young characters struggle with what it means to be an adult. Joe is emotionally abused by his father, who not only belittles him in front of his friends but encourages others to see Joe as a child. Old John’s constant refrain when Joe has something to say is, “hold your tongue,” and the narrator points out that “[w]hen Mr Willet, in his differences with his son, had exhausted all the questions that occurred to him, and Joe had said nothing at all in answer, he generally wound up by bidding him hold his tongue” (139), showing how little John values his input. Though Joe has been an adult for years and others perceive him as such, his father always sees him as nothing but an impetuous child.
Just older than Joe is Barnaby, who is 22 at the beginning of the novel but, even after the narrative skips forward five years, is considered a child not only by his mother but by nearly everyone else around him. After describing Barnaby’s youth, the narrator refers to his adulthood as “[h]is older childhood” and that, in growing into a man and retaining his intellectual disability, “his childhood was complete and lasting” (254). Like Joe, the fact that Barnaby is an adult is ignored yet, unlike Joe, this is specifically due to the stereotypes associated with his intellectual disability. Other characters in the younger generation, such as Edward, Emma, and Dolly, are also frequently treated like children, being told what to do by their elders and thought of as incapable of making their own decisions, yet Barnaby’s “childhood” is certainly the most poignant.
The conflicts surrounding childhood and adulthood also point to a broader motif within Barnaby Rudge: antagonism between fathers and sons. The antagonism between Joe and Old John Willet primarily stems from John’s inability to see Joe as a competent adult and the emotional abuse Joe suffers because of this. After Joe beats Tom Cobb, he assumes his father is going to do something awful to him and is surprised when no one comes to find him in his room. The antagonism between the Willets in part leads Joe to run away from home, seeing life and possibly death as a soldier as preferable to his life at the Maypole.
There is also great animosity between John and Edward Chester, particularly after Edward learns what his father has told Emma and Haredale. Despite doing so with a smile, Chester mistreats Edward even more than Old John mistreats Joe, ruining his son’s chance at a happy future to secure his own image and comfort. These repeated instances of dueling father-son duos further highlights the absence of other characters’ fathers, such as those of Barnaby and Hugh, who are both revealed dramatically toward the end of the novel. It also sets up moral dichotomies that Dickens examines throughout the novel. Though Joe and Edward are portrayed as good and heroic and Old John and Chester (later Sir John) as the opposite, Dickens breaks down what is and isn’t redeemable about these cruel fathers as the novel progresses.
Dickens’s representation of the Gordon Riots and the circumstances leading up to them is complex and nuanced. However, one thing he critiques emphatically in regard to this historical moment is the way in which overzealous religious fanaticism has the power to corrupt. As the anti-Catholic sentiment expressed by certain characters swells throughout the novel—especially in the chapters set in 1780—Dickens shows how the seeds of religious fanaticism are planted in the chapters set in 1775.
The most devout characters in the novel are also the most insincere and often use their piety to express something wholly unrelated. Martha Varden reads religious books when she wants to prove a point to Gabriel, and the narrator remarks, “Mrs Varden was most devout when most ill-tempered. Whenever she and her husband were at unusual variance, then the Protestant Manual was in high feather” (58). Chester uses this to his advantage when he tries to dissuade her from her family’s involvement with Edward and Emma’s relationship, and the conniving Miggs both mirrors Martha’s “devotion” and praises Chester’s. Religion is not at the forefront in these early chapters as it is in the later ones, yet Dickens begins to foreshadow the connection between corruption and religious fanaticism that drives his depiction of the Gordon Riots.
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