Our Mutual Friend · Chapter
The Bird of Prey Brought Down explained
In the cold early hours, Lightwood, Eugene, and Riderhood search for Gaffer Hexam.
What happens
In the cold early hours, Lightwood, Eugene, and Riderhood search for Gaffer Hexam. They find his boat wedged with a towline trailing underwater. Mr. Inspector hauls in the line and recovers Gaffer's body, dead from an apparent accident. Riderhood is shocked, and the chapter ends with a haunting image of the corpse on the shore.
Themes in this chapter
Death and Mortality
Gaffer's sudden, violent death underscores the fragility of life and the grim reality of mortality on the river.
The River as Symbol
The Thames is portrayed as a menacing, predatory force that claims lives and conceals death, reflecting its symbolic role in the novel.
Characters to notice
- Eugene Wrayburn
Present at the search; shows fierce impatience with Riderhood and later recovers his composure.
- Mortimer Lightwood
Accompanies Eugene and Riderhood; assists in the recovery of Gaffer's body.
- Roger Riderhood
Leads the search; discovers Gaffer's boat and later reacts with shock when the body is identified.
- Gaffer Hexam
Found dead, drowned and entangled in his own rope; his body is recovered and laid on the shore.
- Mr. Inspector
Directs the recovery of the body; explains the likely cause of death.
Key passages
“Father, was that you calling me? Father! I thought I heard you call me twice before! Words never to be answered, those, upon the earth-side of the grave.”
The narrator imagines a haunting, unanswered call from a child to the dead Gaffer, emphasizing the finality of death.
This passage evokes the emotional weight of Gaffer's death and the theme of unresolved familial bonds.
“It was an awful sort of fishing, but it no more disconcerted Mr. Inspector than if he had been fishing in a punt on a summer evening by some soothing weir high up the peaceful river.”
Mr. Inspector recovers the body with professional calm, treating the grim task as routine.
Highlights the detachment of authority figures in the face of death, contrasting the horror of the situation with mundane imagery.