# Postscript explained — Our Mutual Friend

> Chapter companion for Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens.

## What happens

In this postscript, Dickens addresses readers directly, revealing that he intentionally suggested John Harmon's survival and identity as John Rokesmith. He defends his storytelling methods, discusses the challenges of serial publication, and comments on the Poor Law's administration. He also recounts surviving a railway accident in 1865, noting that Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, Bella Wilfer, and Mr. Riderhood were among those unharmed.

## Themes in this chapter

### Charity and Hypocrisy

Dickens criticizes the Poor Law's administration, highlighting the hypocrisy and inhumanity in its enforcement, and defends his portrayal of the deserving poor.

### Death and Mortality

Dickens reflects on his near-death experience in the railway accident, closing with 'The End' as a metaphor for life's finality.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Boffin

Mentioned as being in the railway accident with Mrs. Boffin, both unharmed.

### Mrs. Boffin

Mentioned as being in the railway accident with Mr. Boffin, both unharmed.

### Bella Wilfer

Noted as being unharmed on her wedding day during the railway accident.

### Roger Riderhood

Mentioned as inspecting Bradley Headstone's red neckerchief while he lay asleep, unharmed in the accident.

## Key lines

> When I devised this story, I foresaw the likelihood that a class of readers and commentators would suppose that I was at great pains to conceal exactly what I was at great pains to suggest: namely, that Mr. John Harmon was not slain, and that Mr. John Rokesmith was he.

Dickens anticipated that some readers would think he was trying to hide what he was actually hinting at: that John Harmon survived and is John Rokesmith.

_Dickens defends his narrative choice to subtly reveal Harmon's survival._

> I believe there has been in England, since the days of the Stuarts, no law so often infamously administered, no law so often openly violated, no law habitually so ill-supervised.

Dickens asserts that the Poor Law is the worst-administered, most violated, and least supervised law in England since the Stuart era.

_Dickens criticizes the Poor Law's administration and its inhumane effects._

> On Friday the Ninth of June in the present year, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin (in their manuscript dress of receiving Mr. and Mrs. Lammle at breakfast) were on the South Eastern Railway with me, in a terribly destructive accident.

Dickens recounts being in a severe railway accident on June 9, 1865, with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, who were dressed as if receiving the Lammles at breakfast.

_Dickens shares a personal experience of survival, linking it to his characters._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters/postscript
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_mutual_friend_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/our_mutual_friend_se/chapters