"The great mass never reasoned or thought at all, but were stimulated by their own headlong passions, by poverty, by ignorance, by the love of mischief, and the hope of plunder. . . . In a word, a moral plague ran through the city."
In the previous installment, John Willet got the shock of his life, and as you can see, Dickens gave us some interesting insights into mob psychology. For someone who wasn't a fan of the doctrine of original sin, Dickens could take a very dark view of human nature and its capacity for evil, even this early in his career.
(Also, there was a terrific illustration of Gashford sitting on a roof, with a cat staring at him suspiciously from behind. I wanted to share it here, but alas, I can't find it on the Web.)
This week, read chapters 55 and 56.
Leave a Reply