# Chapter XXI explained — The Pickwick Papers

> Chapter companion for The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

## What happens

In this chapter, an old man recounts a grim tale of vengeance and suffering set in the Marshalsea debtors' prison. The story follows a man named Heyling, who relentlessly pursues legal ruin against an old debtor, refusing any mercy. Interspersed is the tragic story of a family destroyed by imprisonment: a mother and her sickly child visit the prison daily until the child dies, followed by the mother's death, leaving the father utterly alone.

## Themes in this chapter

### Prison and Suffering

The chapter vividly depicts the physical and emotional toll of imprisonment, including the death of a child and the mother's decline.

### Justice and Injustice

Heyling uses the law as a tool of vengeance, highlighting the cruel and unjust application of legal processes.

## Character check-ins

### Heyling

The vengeful client who pursues legal persecution of an old man, refusing any leniency.

### Jack Bamber

The old man who tells the tale of the queer client and the Marshalsea prison.

### Mary

The dying wife of the imprisoned man, who begs to be buried far from the prison.

## Key lines

> Put every engine of the law in force, every trick that ingenuity can devise and rascality execute; fair means and foul; the open oppression of the law, aided by all the craft of its most ingenious practitioners.

Use every legal tactic, honest or dishonest, to oppress and ruin the debtor.

_Heyling's ruthless instructions to his attorney._

> The child had sat at his parents’ feet for hours together, with his little hands patiently folded in each other, and his thin wan face raised towards them.

The child would sit quietly at his parents' feet, looking up at them with a pale, thin face.

_Describes the child's silent suffering in the prison environment._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters/xxi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_pickwick_papers_se/chapters