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more touching by the contrast to their violent husbands. All these rather
marginal characters are somewhat incidental to the main plot, however,
and the real way out of the responsibility crisis lies somewhere else.
The people who show us what great parent should be like belong to my
third group the substitute parents. Where natural parents fail,
others fill the gap and sometimes this results in a totally reversed
situation.
Some characters are obvious candidates. The numerous references to John
Jarndyce as a father, acting in a fatherly way to those that have
been put or taken into his trust do not need any further comment
(Ch 6, 112, Ch 13, 232, where Ada says 'my father's place can never
be empty again', Ch 17, 291, Ch 35, 548 and finally Ch 64, 914).
Nor need we say more about Charley Neckett, who indeed is as good as
a mother to the other children (Ch 15, 262-3;,Ch 31, 495).
But there are other quite clear examples, though not all of them are
as explicit. Jo, for instance, elicits parental feelings in several
characters: Nemo 'was very good to me, he was!' (Ch 11, 200);
Mr Snagsby also looks after him, leading his wife to rather more
farfetched suspicions than his activities warrant; and even Guster
pats him on the shoulder, gives him something to eat and inquires
after his father and mother (Ch 25, 417)Caddy not only looks after
Peepy, her brother, but also after her father and Prince's; and
another interesting case of reversal of roles is that of the child
that Ada bears and that, she hopes, will bring his or her father
back from the fatal track he is taking.
The second very important substitute parent, beside Mr Jarndyce, is
Esther. She replaces Mrs Jellyby in looking after Peepy; she keeps
house for Mr Jarndyce, being called, among other names, Mother Hubbard;
she is confided by the Pardiggle children Ch 8. 155) and by Caddy
(Ch 14, 241); she calls Ada her child (Ch 51, 755). She is even a
mother to herself, chiding herself time and again for misconduct and
urging herself on towards better behaviour.
The conclusion that can be drawn is clear. The two characters who in
the novel stand most prominently for stability and responsibility,
Jarndyce and Esther, show this to a great extend in parent-child terms.
Where parents fail, they take their place in their own quiet way.
And that is how society as a whole will survive.
