The Quincunx, lifting the curtains...
The novel is heavily structured around the number 5 and its pattern of representation on a die (the meaning of the title): it has five parts (each one representing one branch of the family descending from Henry Huffam: the Huffams, the Mompessons, the Clothiers, the Palphramonds and the Maliphants), each of its parts consists out of five books and each book has five chapters. Moreover, each family branch has as its emblem a quincunx of roses each of which has a bud and four petals so another quincunx. B.T.W. it turns out that a quincunx of the five quincunx emblems is key to obtaining the last "Will" of Jeoffrey, Henry's son, which everybody is after. Moreover, the perspective of each of the chapters corresponds to the color of bud or petal in the family emblems: white for the protagonist, black for an omniscient narrator (in the styles of the puppeteers Mr Pentecost and Mr Silverlight, representing randomness/order, self-interest/altruism..., and they even discuss writing a book together) and red for a third person (miss Quilliam in the Mompesson part, Mary's diary in the Clothier part and mr Escreet in the Palphramond part). Furthermore, many of the names feature either a Q (Fortisquince, i.e. strong-15?!, Quilliam, Quiggs) or relate to the number 5 in a different language (Phumph-red, Sanc-ious, Pente-cost). The central date in the novel (the 5th of May 1811, when Mary Huffam married Peter Clothier, her father John was murdered [~p.652] and her son John, the protagonist, was presumably conceived although there was not really any opportunity for that) clearly shows this structuring as well. Christmas day (December 25th, i.e. 5x5) features prominently as well giving the novel some interesting religious overtones (additionally to having John and his mother Mary as main characters, and doubts about the protagonist's conception?!). According to jewish symbolism 5, namely, refers to the divination of man and to the letter H (which incidentally should have been the form of the Huffam mansion that was never completed) which features twice in the Tetragrammaton (JHWH) as well as the letter added by Him to form AbraHam's new name. Abraham, moreover, was the name of the Huffam family's arch-enemy in the novel (and his son Silas afterwards, characters in the tradition of the 'greedy Jew'), which he then changed to Nicholas, a reference to the devil ('old Nick').
The main line of the novel is John growing up and slowly finding out about his family history and all the complex connections it has to the Huffam inheritance, one of the biggest and oldest estates in England. It is being owned by the Mompessons but each of the four other family branches can inherit it under various circumstances. Noteworthy is that John and Huffam are the middle names of Charles Dickens and that both are born on the 7th of February 1812, although in the novel this can only be deduced from references to various contemparary events namely the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo by Wellington on the 19th of January of that year, as well as the introduction of the Parish Act then, the Ratcliff highway murders the previous December and the great comet of the same year.
The precise chronology of the novel is implicit as well: the first chapter takes place in November 1814, two weeks after Mary send a copy of the "Codicil" (the secundary document deciding the inheritance after the Will mentioned) to the Mompessons (when John was about two, and seven years before Mary visited the Mompessons in 1821). Then in the second chapter a break-in occurs at Mary's and John's with far-reaching consequences, later found out to be perpetrated by 'black Barney' (Digweed). This took place in the summer of 1816 as deduced from the indicated timespans to the first visit of Mr Barbelion, the Mompesson's attorney, to Mary in December 1819 (as noted in her diary, although she later tells the Mompessons that this was some three to four years before her visit to them). Not long before this visit (and its implied cause) John meets Henrietta (who is about his age) at the border of Mompesson park. And some years before (probably in 1817, the year after the break-in as it was a consequence of that) Mary's lawyer Sancious had convinced her to invest her little capital in a fraudulent building speculation which later became her ruining. Another (smaller) contribution to her ruin was her servant Bisset's betrayal of Mary as a consequence of Babelions visit. Then on Christmas day 1822 Mary and John are visited by Mrs Digweed and her son Joey who ask for help. Later it is revealed that Barney, Joey's uncle and in service of Sancious, told him to go there. This 'coincidence' seems to be the only one with positive consequences... Next, somewhere in 1823 Barbelion visits Mary again (where she accuses him of kidnapping John who has only escaped from the garden) and in July of the same year John is actually kidnapped (but barely escapes) by an "extremely tall man" (Hinxmann from the mental asylum of Ashburner where Peter Clothier is locked up by his family) and a young woman who later turns out to be his cousin Emma Clothier. Not long afterwards (September 1823) Mary decides to flee to London with her son where upon arrival their luggage (the last of their possesions) is stolen. In the following two years Mary and John become poorer and poorer, meet Isbister (one of the 'body snatchers of Bethnel Green', an old companion of Barney) in their search for Mrs Digweed, and then find miss Quilliam, the old governess of Henrietta who John only met once when his mother visited the Mompessons. Because of their poverty Mary has to pawn a locked with a picture of her and Peter, and this brings the Clothiers on their track again. More bad luck arrives when in July 1825 through a dumb misunderstanding Mary and John do not sell the Codicil to the Mompessons as intended (their last resort in their poverty as the Mompessons would certainly destroy it, as well as the Will which they already possess as turns out later) but flee to Jemima (the widow of Martin Fortisquince, Mary's old protector [p.95]) who is now in league with Sancious and later turns out to be an heir under the Codicil as well. Together they quickly cheat Mary of the Codicil, which is sold to old Clothier (who directly presents it in Chancery but only profits from it when Mary and John are dead), and send the bailiffs after her for old debts. She ends up in jail and John at the 'school' of Quigg far in the north, but actually a farm to get rid of unwanted boys. There John meets Stephen Maliphant (who later turns out to be the heir under the Codicil after old Clothier) but he soon dies as a result of maltreatment [p.470]. In October 1825 John barely manages to escape before undoubtedly having suffered the same fate, and is able to get back to where he grew up; there he entrusts Sukey (their old maid) with a copy of his baptismal record and finds the record of marriage of his great-grandparents thus confirming that it actually took place. Back in London he tracks down his mother who had to go working as an escort-lady to get out of jail, but she dies within a day [p.542]. John finds Mary's diary in which she has told many things about her past and which provides important dates for the chronology. However, some pages in the middle are missing leaving the central mystery of John's biological father open. John, again searching for Mrs Digweed, gets to black Barney (who is employed by Sancious), is received well but does not really trust Barney and is able to escape in part because of a failed 'Christmas Fakement'. In desperation he goes to Mr Escreet (an old servant of his family, although his mother had forbidden him that) living in the house where also his grandfather John as well as 'uncle' Martin lived for a long time, where his mother grew up and where John sr was killed. Subsequently it is refered to as his "grandfather's house." However, John jr is turned away and almost dies of cold and exhaustion in the snow in front. Joey, on orders from Barney to follow him, suddenly shows up and almost drags him to the Porteous' house on Christmas day 1825. There John tells his story to a very friendly Emma, but almost too late finds out she's his cousin and Porteous is only his aunt's maiden name which his uncle Daniel has taken up. John is almost poisoned and actually imprisoned after being presented in Chancery to establish his identity and his uncle requesting a guardianship over him. Subsequently he is assigned to the madhouse where he meets his (legal) father Peter and learns his story, but shortly afterwards (February 1826) Peter dies [p.793]. Now John is able to escape because the Digweed family picks him up in the coffin meant for Peter. They then also take care of him, and the next two years John "works the sewers" (scavaging for coins) with father and/or son Digweed until a final accident (in which he and Joey nearly drown) puts an end to this in October 1828. In the meantime John has learned some old family history from Mr Escreet (who presumed addressing John sr), and knows of the last Will of his great-great-grandfather which would immediately resolve the inheritance in his favor but has been kept in a safe by the Mompessons all these years. Mr Digweed (having old connections to the Mompessons that aided the first Barney-connection to Mary and John years before) actually helped to build the safe and this has brought them to burgle the house on the 23rd of June 1828. They fail because they can't decifer the lock and Mr Digweed gets seriously injured (he consequently dies about half a year later [p.]). Yet, immediately after the October accident, John gets to work as a knife-boy for the Mompessons in order to have another try at the Will. There he meets Henrietta again and befriends her (and his) 'great-aunt' Lydia who tells a lot of old family history thus filling some important gaps yet opening up some new ones. One of those is the real fate long ago of her child whose existence is merely implied. In January 1829 Percival Mompesson dies [p.1000] sending the houshold in turmoil and threatening John's undertaking. Then on the evening Lydia dies [p.1028] they find the 'key' to the safe (the quincunx of quincunxes pattern), in the night John is able to steal the Will (leaving Assinder, the Mompessons' steward who was secretly working for old Clothier, to die [p.1036]) and the next morning, his 17th birthday, he is a free man, has some money and his inheritance literally in his own hands. He turns to Henry (Stephen's half-brother who he shortly met after Stephen's death) for legal help as he is a lawyer and presumably friendly. Yet Henry cheats John of the Will and betrays him to old Clothier who tries to drown John but instead dies himself [p.1072] (all within one day!). Believing the Will destroyed, John lives by himself for half a year from Lydia's money until in October 1829 Henry tracks him down and reveals he has the original Will. Yet John refuses to buy it from him and so Henry instead goes to the Mompessons (his 'friends' for years), deceives them as well, elopes with Henrietta, marries her for the inheritance (as John is presumably no legitimate heir anymore, Henrietta Palphramond now inherits under the Will) but gets shot right away by a furious David Mompesson, the current owner of the estate [p.1141]. David flees to Calais to avoid his conviction, but the estate is threatened to be ruined by falling to the Crown. With the big key found in Henry's posession recognised as being of his "grandfather's house," John goes straight to Mr Escreet where he overhears Sancious and Jemima (who are now married) bringing Escreet the news of the death of his great-grandson Henry, and getting him to open the safe containing the Will. Taking it out, Sancious cries victory but Escreet in a confused reenactment of John sr's murder, stabs him to death [p.1166] despite John warning him having sensed what was going to happen. John accompanies Jemima outside who is in shock yet has the Will in hand. There Barney almost kills John, but is stopped by Jemima (who had actually ordered it in order to inherit under the Codicil); she then also gives John the Will as she already gave up on the inheritance by stopping Barney. (Escreet will die in a madhouse only a few months later [p.1173]). B.T.W. from Henry tracking down John to this suddenly conclusion only took a few days?! However, now John is uncertain how to proceed; still he accepts being legally represented by Barbelion who invites John to visit Hougham and the estate just over half a year later in June 1830. John finds out that the estate is already slowly being ruined, moreover worthless because of all the financial claims that burden it. Yet the immense Clothier inheritance is practically his for the asking as the Porteous family (the only other heirs) had to flee to Portugal to avoid prosecution as well (on behalf of Vulliamy, old Clothier's former clerk). That, together with the Will lifting many financial claims on the estate, can restore the estate to its glory as well as repair many injustices done to the people around, which is the suggested outcome at the end. Thinking it over and walking around the estate, John meets Henrietta one last time, who is living there among the ruins and cattle since the death of her husband. Moreover, she is implied to be pregnant from David (Lydia earlier said she was in love with somebody, Henrietta had begged David to take her with him in his exile, and John states he can't take responsibility for someone "tainted with Mompesson blood"). Before it was stated (in terms very unclear then) that later her baby is going to die [p.] and she will then join David in his exile in Calais.
In saying farewell (the last line of the book) John very circumspectly reveals who his biological father is: "Henrietta stood on the place where Lydia's lover was killed by my grandfather's sword." Lydia had told she was in love with John Umphraville, who was killed by an agent of Jeoffrey Huffam [p.1011]. Jeoffrey Escreet (his illegitimate son) fits the physical description, moreover both he and Henry state that in shooting Henry (Escreet's great-grandson), David has avenged John Umphraville. Lydia also suggested a connection between Escreet and Martin Fortisquince's mother as she separated from her husband right after John Umphraville's death and took the statue that saved Escreet with her. And a few months later Martin was born... Other indications that Martin is John's biological father: after the missing pages in Mary's diary (where she revealed to John his father) she stops calling Martin 'uncle' and there have been various hints at an earlier affair between Mary and Martin which could even have caused the rift between Martin and John sr; the affair then presumably would have rekindled after John sr's death (offering her consolation?!) when Mary went to live in the house where Martin was born and where he visited her regularly until John was born. Although his birth was about 9 months after Mary's marriage to Peter, it was stated in his baptismal record that John was a small, sickly child i.e. prematurely born. That same record suggests that Martin wanted to acknowledge his fatherhood before Mary put Peter's name instead. And suggestively, as an apparent misconception, the house of Escreet is consistently being referred to as John's "grandfather's house."
There is another subtle suggestion that would not only make John's legal and biological descent from his father's side differ, but also those from his mother's side. John sr is named after John Umphraville and Lydia took a liking for him, so much that she stole the Will from her brother and gave it to John. Could he be her lost son adopted by Umphraville's sister and friend? It is clear from the Will's date (June 18, 1770; it was made shortly after John's birth) that he was born less than a year after Umphraville's death. (The Codicil b.t.w. is from 1768) There is an ever more subtle and shocking suggestion that Mary's mother (who is never mentioned at all) was actually Eliza, Umphraville's sister and the legal mother of John sr?! She namely was a lot younger than her husband James (seduced by him when she was barely more than a child) and had very loose morals (...). She is further suggested to have died young, but could she simply have been send away because of the scandal, someone who was anyhow not acceptable to Jeoffrey, her father-in-law? Because when Mary dies she calls for her mother and an old poor lady "Lizzie" responds "as if to a long lost child"?! And Lizzie had claimed to be a noblewoman once...
In my eyes this would complete the irony of the "sixth that breaks the pattern of five" as the author stated. Legally, old Jeoffrey Huffam was John's great-great-grandfather both from his father's as from his mother's side. But biologically this would be only great-grandfather (via Escreet) or even great-great-great-grandfather (via Lydia)?! And it would add to other ironies such as that the estate which everybody is after for sixty long years turns out to be worth nothing and that which secures John Huffam's wealth in the end is the Clothier inheritance which was only amassed to ruin the Huffams?! Noteworthy as well is that both the Mompessons as the Clothiers (as well as Escreet's descendant Henry?) lose their property through a criminal act. Finally, that the first elopement where James Huffam got married and John Umphraville killed and which arguably was the start of all the fuss, is mirrored in a second elopement where Henry (the descendant of the killer) gets married ánd killed, and which ends all complications...
Comments
Post a Comment