Chapter 1
ON THE LOOK OUT
In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no
need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance,
with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark
bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an
autumn evening was closing in.
The figures in this boat were those of a strong man with ragged
grizzled hair and a sun-browned face, and a dark girl of nineteen or
twenty, sufficiently like him to be recognizable as his daughter.
I have explored this opening elsewhere on this blog because it evoked a gloom which seems to approach allegory. The atmosphere evoked by the combination of elements seems mythical because these elements are conjured out of telling detail. So we encounter, an ‘autumn evening’ alongside ‘Southwark Bridge’ and the ‘strong man’ and the ‘dark girl.’ Note the cumulative effect of these details. It feels as if the scene is primaeval and that the anonymous ‘figures’ are engaging in an activity that requires the veil of the ‘evening’ to function. they are archetypes as well as themselves.
When I reread the opening recently, I also noticed the strange way that Dickens describes the bridges. When we notice something peculiar as readers, then we should always seek the source. Dickens alerts us to the material composition of the London and Southwark Bridges. Why does he do this I wonder? Is he reminding us of an age when life was driven by basic needs? So he informs us that Southwark Bridge is ‘of iron’ and that London Bridge is ‘of stone.’ Do you note the formality of his expression? It reads as if taken from some biblical story. And as the two human beings are related, yet not named. they stand for something elemental too. This world is only precariously Victorian, at heart is seems primaeval and thus the grotesque quest on the river frames the entire narrative with the themes of unfinished business; with mortality; with secrets that are compelled to resurface. The Thames has become the River Styx, the carrier of the dead!