Short Fiction · Chapter
Part I: The Attempt explained
The narrator recounts their attempt to assist Julius Mackenzie, a struggling literary man with a wife and four children, by securing him work on a manuscript for a learned doctor.
What happens
The narrator recounts their attempt to assist Julius Mackenzie, a struggling literary man with a wife and four children, by securing him work on a manuscript for a learned doctor. They visit the office of a periodical where Mackenzie works, but the editor warns that Mackenzie is unreliable. The narrator then arranges with Mrs. Grimes of the Spotted Dog to provide Mackenzie a room to work in, despite reservations about using her bedroom. Mackenzie accepts the job but faces difficulties with his home life and drinking. The narrator advances him money through Mrs. Grimes and worries about the safety of the valuable manuscript.
Themes in this chapter
Economic Hardship and Charity
The narrator's attempt to help Mackenzie navigate poverty and unstable employment, contrasted with the practical charity of Mrs. Grimes.
Ambition and Failure
Mackenzie's literary ambitions are thwarted by his circumstances, and the narrator fears the learned doctor's work may also lead to disappointment.
Characters to notice
- Julius Mackenzie
A distressed scholar with a wife and four children, seeking literary work; described as a drunken blackguard by the editor, but the narrator attempts to befriend him.
- Mr. Grimes
Husband of Mrs. Grimes, who reluctantly agrees to let Mackenzie work in their bedroom.
- Mrs. Grimes
The landlady at the Spotted Dog who offers her bedroom for Mackenzie to work in, showing practical kindness.
Key passages
“I have a wife and four children, which burden forbids me to free myself from all care with a bare bodkin.”
Mackenzie says he cannot escape his troubles through suicide because he has a family to support.
Mackenzie's opening lament about his responsibilities.
“That be blowed, said our brother. Mackenzie's doing as well here as he'll do anywhere. He's a drunken blackguard, when all's said and done.”
The editor dismisses Mackenzie as a drunkard and warns the narrator not to interfere.
The editor's harsh assessment of Mackenzie's character.
“We're travelling among wild Injeans all our lives, and a bedroom aint no more to us than any other room.”
Mrs. Grimes says her family lives so roughly that privacy is meaningless, so offering her bedroom is no big deal.
Mrs. Grimes's pragmatic view of domestic space.