Our Mutual Friend

“We are all very much interested in the man from Somewhere.”

The gossip around the dinner table concerns the Harmon will but not the people involved. The mystery—not to mention the money—is the real concern, rather than any human or legal matter. The insulating effect of wealth and privilege allows the dinner party guests to treat the lives of others as abstract stories that have no consequence; they refer to the person at the heart of the case as simply “from Somewhere” rather than anywhere known or consequential.

“He was shy, and unwilling to own to the name of Reginald, as being too aspiring and self-assertive a name.”

Though ironic in tone, this description of Bella’s father’s discomfort with his legal name points to The Rigidity of Class and The Relationship Between Names and Identity. As a lower-middle-class person, he views himself as undeserving of an “aspiring” name like Reginald, which he further fears suggests he has ideas above his station.

“His name is Decline-and-Fall-Off-The-Rooshan-Empire.”

Newly rich, Boffin has ideas about what he should be doing with his time. As a working-class man, he never had time to read classic literature, but his new wealth has granted him this opportunity to educate himself (via Silas). His lack of knowledge, however, is revealed by his mistake in reading the title of the work. He mangles the title The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, showing his alienation from the kinds of cultural knowledge associated with his new social standing.