Barnaby Rudge · Chapter
Chapter 77 explained
The chapter depicts the executions of the rioters, focusing on Hugh's defiant final moments, Barnaby's childlike acceptance, and Dennis's desperate pleas for mercy.
What happens
The chapter depicts the executions of the rioters, focusing on Hugh's defiant final moments, Barnaby's childlike acceptance, and Dennis's desperate pleas for mercy. It also reflects on the injustice of the punishments, noting that the weakest and most miserable suffered the most, while the crowd's attention was drawn to the spectacle.
Themes in this chapter
The Spectacle of Death
The chapter portrays executions as public spectacles, with crowds gathering for a 'parting look' and the condemned becoming objects of curiosity.
Social Injustice and Class
The narrative highlights that the poorest and weakest rioters suffered the harshest punishments, while the instigators escaped, illustrating class-based injustice.
Guilt and Retribution
Hugh's curse on his father and Dennis's desperate pleas reflect themes of guilt and the retribution that follows the riots.
Characters to notice
- Hugh
Faces his execution with defiant courage, cursing his father and showing care for Barnaby and his dog.
- Barnaby Rudge
Approaches death with a strange happiness and childlike pride, unafraid and smiling.
- Mr. Dennis
Prostrates himself in terror, begging for mercy and claiming his identity as the hangman should spare him.
- Grip
Mentioned as Barnaby's parting with him shocks the minister, highlighting Barnaby's innocence.
Key passages
“His arm fell downward by his side; he turned; and moved towards them with a steady step, the man he had been before.”
He lowered his arm, turned, and walked toward them with a firm stride, resuming his former demeanor.
Hugh's composed acceptance of his fate.
“It was a most exquisite satire upon the false religious cry which had led to so much misery, that some of these people owned themselves to be Catholics, and begged to be attended by their own priests.”
It was a bitter irony that some of those executed, who had been part of the anti-Catholic riots, were themselves Catholics and requested Catholic priests at their death.
The narrator's commentary on the hypocrisy of the riots.
“They would have given him the body of his child; but he had no hearse, no coffin, nothing to remove it in, being too poor—and walked meekly away beside the cart that took it back to prison, trying, as he went, to touch its lifeless hand.”
The authorities would have returned his son's body, but he was too poor to afford a hearse or coffin, so he walked quietly beside the cart carrying the body back to prison, reaching out to touch his dead child's hand.
The tragic poverty of the victims' families.