“Our Mutual Friend” is one of the most sophisticated and sadly the last novel by Charles Dickens with a rare combination of social insight and psychological analysis.
The main focus of the novel is on the significance of money in an individual’s life but also stresses on the fact that one should never ignore human values in the face of money.
The story starts with the death of a rich misanthropic miser in London who leaves a great fortune for his son John Harmon who stays in South Africa. John Harmon can get hold of this amassing fortune only on one condition. He has to marry Miss Bella Wilfer; a girl whom he has never met before. While John is on his way to London, he goes missing unexpectedly.
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The property is now handled over to Mr. and Mrs. Boffin who served John’s father and who are the best person to handle the money. They start using the wealth in helping the needy in and around London. They also adopt Miss Wilfer even though Mr. John is missing and start treating her like a princess and as a matter of fact the heiress of the entire estate. They also provide employment to the needy and lead a happy and respectable becomes visible.
John Hamron was actually saved from drowning and the individual who saved him was considered to be the one who actually conspired the drowning. Hexam, the accused man is banned by his fellow friends and is excluded from The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters. His son also leaves the place but his daughter is extremely committed to her father and thus stays with Hexam in the toughest phase of his life. But Hexam himself is so frustrated of the allegations that he drowns in the river thus leaving his daughter Lizzie alone.
John now returns to London and Mr. and Mrs. Boffin happily return him the property as a result of which John is now happy. Miss Bella Wilfer is on the other hand dismissed by John because she is in love with a worker of John. But John’s fathers will says that he has to marry Bella to acquire the property. Both of them get married but the conditions are such that John misuses all the money and now both he and Bella have to survive in poverty. They both have a miserable life because they have never experienced poverty before. She now stays in poor conditions and conceives very early. Soon, John realizes his mistake and with the help of Bella and Mr. and Mr. Boffin, he starts working tremendously hard and soon acquires a massive fortune. “Our Mutual Friend” has a happy ending as prominent in most of Dickens novels. An apt balance between money and human life has been portrayed by Dickens.