The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In
The chimes’ story follows the life of a 60-year-old working-class man who comes to believe that the working class is wicked and that the poor people are condemned to a life of despair. On New Year’s Eve, spiritual beings appear to him and convince him that all is not lost, and give him a new perspective on life.
The Chimes presents the following perspectives: poverty, oppression of the poor, and despair due to indigent lifestyle. In terms of poverty, the book highlights the penurious state of Toby Veck. He is a working man in his 60s. Although he has been working for all his life, he is still poor and barely provides for his family. Poverty also comes out when he is disturbed when he finds out that his daughter and her fiancée are planning to get married. He worries about the financial implications of her wedding and fears not being able to finance it. (Dickens)
In terms of the poor’s oppression, the working class looks down upon Mr. Veck, her daughter, Meg, and her daughter’s fiancée, Richard. The local magistrate, Mr. Ademan Cute, and some other wealthy men ask Mr. Trotty about his financial lifestyle. It is clear that Mr. Cute and his counterparts consider them inferior to them, and they let this known to Meg and her fiancée. Their bias is so strong that Meg and Richard question why they should get married, yet they are poor. (Dickens)
The wrongs that the goblins accuse Mr. Veck of doing sum up the themes represented by this book. They accuse him of living in the past, believing that human sorrows and tribulations are insignificant to a higher power and neglecting people who have despair.
The theme of living in the past is apparent when the goblins say, “a cry that only serves the present time, by showing men how much it needs their help when any ears can listen to regrets for such a past.” (Dickens) Mr. Veck continuously longs for a golden past that never was. Instead of looking forward to changing the present time, he cries and laments about a past where he perceives that things were better.
The theme of lack of belief in a higher is apparent when Mr. Veck believes that the working class and the wealthy elite are the ones who control everything. The goblins say, ‘‘who hears us make response to any creed that gauges human passions and affections, as it gauges the amount of miserable food on which humanity may pine and wither” (Dickens). The author uses goblins’ characters to convince readers that Mr. Veck is wrong, and a higher power exists.
The theme of neglecting people who have despaired comes out when Mr. Veck does not offer Meg and Richard encouragement after they are discouraged from the wedding by Mr. Cute. The goblins say, “Who turns his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind; abandons them as vile; and does not trace and track.” (Dickens) It is also apparent when Mr. Veck dreams that he died, leaving his family in despair and eventually condemning his daughter to death.
The exigency that the book presents is poverty and justice. In terms of poverty, the book presents a working man above the age of 60 who is poor. There is also a wide gap between the rich and the poor. Mr. Veck and his family are presented as having little food to eat and share. This should not be the case because he has been working all his life. In terms of justice, the book laments the lack of justice when Richard is regularly apprehended for petty crimes.
Work Cited
Dickens, Charles. “The Chimes, By Charles Dickens.” Gutenberg.Org, 1844, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/653/653-h/653-h.htm.