47 pages • 1 hour read
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
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Chapters 17-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Philanthropy, Professional and Unprofessional”
The narrative resumes six months later. Crisparkle meets with Honeythunder at his office in London. Neville and Helena are now of age, and Honeythunder is relieved to relinquish responsibility for them; there is no doubt in his mind that Neville killed Edwin. Crisparkle and Honeythunder argue, and the former storms out. Crisparkle goes to see Neville, who is staying in a small flat near to where Grewgious lives and works; Neville is studying law, and Crisparkle visits him regularly. Neville is sad, lonely, and ashamed that most people believe him to be a murderer: “I feel marked and tainted, even when I go out—as I do only—at night” (187).
Crisparkle encourages Neville to keep his spirits up; Helena will soon be coming to live with him in London. Crisparkle then goes to see Grewgious; the latter notices that Jasper is lurking nearby. They wonder if Jasper might be spying on Neville. Later that night, after Crisparkle has left London, Neville is returning to his home when a man named Tartar approaches him. Tartar and Neville chat, and the former explains that he used to serve in the Navy; Tartar lives in the same building as Neville.
Chapter 18 Summary: “A Settler in Cloisterham”
A man named Dick Datchery arrives in Cloisterham. He is looking for lodging and directed to ask Mr. and Mrs. Tope. While struggling to find the Tope home, Datchery encounters Deputy; Deputy is still wary of Jasper, because he remembers how Jasper once violently attacked him. Deputy gives Datchery directions, and Datchery meets with the Topes; they agree to rent a small lodging to him, but he will need to get approval from Jasper because Datchery’s lodgings are “an appanage or subsidiary part” (197) of Jasper’s home. Datchery already knows a bit about Jasper’s recent loss, and Mrs. Tope gives him more information.
Datchery meets Jasper; Mr. Sapsea is also there. When Datchery and Sapsea leave, they walk together, and Sapsea explains that although he is convinced that Edwin was murdered, there is not yet enough evidence to arrest anyone. Nonetheless, Sapsea is convinced that Jasper will eventually avenge his nephew. Datchery and Sapsea also run into Durdles and Deputy.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Shadow on the Sun-Dial”
On a beautiful summer afternoon, Jasper intrudes upon Rosa in the garden at the Nuns’ House. Rosa is alone since all of the other girls have gone home for summer vacation, and Helena has moved to London to be with her brother. She is very unhappy to find herself alone with Jasper since she has successfully avoided him ever since Edwin disappeared. Jasper confesses his love for Rosa: “[E]ven when my dear boy was affianced to you, I loved you madly” (206). Rosa becomes increasingly upset and makes it clear that she does not return his feelings.
Jasper alludes to the suspicions against Neville and hints that if Rosa doesn’t agree to marry him, he will ensure that Neville is found guilty of killing Edwin. This would be particularly painful since Rosa is close friends with Helena, who would be devastated if anything happened to her brother. Jasper leaves, telling Rosa, “I would pursue you to the death” (210). As he leaves, Rosa collapses and faints.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Divers Flights”
Rosa is terrified after her encounter with Jasper; she begins to wonder if he could be responsible for the death of his nephew. Rosa decides that she has to get away from Cloisterham and hastily takes the train to London. She goes to Mr. Grewgious’s office, where he also lives, and explains what has happened. Grewgious is furious with Jasper and reassures Rosa that he will get her rooms at a nearby inn, so that she can stay in London.
Early the next morning, Reverend Crisparkle arrives in London; he learned from the Nuns’ House that Rosa went to London suddenly and alone, so he has come to check on her. Crisparkle, Rosa, and Grewgious all talk together; Rosa trusts Crisparkle and openly tells him what happened between her and Jasper. Tartar knocks on the door to see Grewgious; it turns out that he is also an old friend of Crisparkle’s and once saved the Reverend from drowning. When Grewgious realizes that Tartar lives in the same building as Neville, he comes up with an idea. Rosa is eager to see Neville and Helena, but Jasper “sneaks to and fro, and dodges up and down. When not doing so himself, he may have some informant skulking about” (225). Therefore, Grewgious is afraid that if Rosa goes to see Neville and Helena, Jasper will either see her or get word of her whereabouts.
Grewgious proposes that Tartar accompany Rosa to the building as if she is going into his lodgings; no one will be paying attention to the entrance he uses. Once inside, she can easily meet with Helena in the garden or another shared space.
Chapter 21 Summary: “A Gritty State of Things Comes On”
After admiring Tartar’s immaculate lodgings, Rosa goes into the garden to meet with Helena. The two young women are very happy to see one another. There is some discussion about whether or not to tell Neville that Jasper is spying on him, and they decide not to. Helena does suggest that Tartar befriend Neville and begin to spend time with him. Helena hopes that Jasper might approach Tartar if he sees the two men spending time together, and that they can potentially trap Jasper as a result. Helena also reassures Rosa that she is not to blame for Jasper’s actions, and that she doesn’t blame Rosa for refusing his offer, even though accepting it might have protected Neville: “you know how I love you, darling […] but I would sooner see you dead at his wicked feet” (233).
Rosa returns to Grewgious, who explains that, since she will be staying in London indefinitely, she will need somewhere to stay and a female companion. Grewgious decides to ask Miss Twinkleton (a teacher from the Nuns’ House) to come to London to stay with Rosa. Since Rosa and Miss Twinkleton will need somewhere to stay, Grewgious decides to rent furnished rooms from Mrs. Billickin (a cousin to Grewgious’s clerk, Bazzard). A few days later, Miss Twinkleton arrives, and she and Rosa move into Mrs. Billickin’s lodgings. Rosa quickly grows bored and lonely there, and Miss Twinkleton and Mrs. Billickin frequently argue.
Chapter 22 Summary: “The Dawn Again”
Back in Cloisterham, Crisparkle and Jasper avoid one another. While Crisparkle hates Jasper for making Rosa uncomfortable, he does not suspect that Jasper could be implicated in Edwin’s disappearance. Jasper leaves Cloisterham to go to London for a few days; as soon as he arrives, he visits the opium den that he frequents (the same one depicted in the first chapter of the novel). The elderly woman expresses surprise because she has not seen Jasper for many months; he explains that he has been consuming opium on his own.
As the opium begins to take hold of him, Jasper explains to her that when he was previously frequenting the opium den, there was an action he was considering taking; whenever he consumed drugs, he would fantasize about this action such that “I did it over and over again. I have done it hundreds of thousands of times in this room” (250). When Jasper finally carried out the act he had been fantasizing about, he found it disappointing. Eventually Jasper leaves the opium den, and the elderly woman follows him. She sees the place where he is staying, and then asks the owner of the lodgings what time Jasper will be returning to Cloisterham. Once she has this information, the woman travels ahead of him, arriving in Cloisterham before he does. She lurks at the station, and when Jasper arrives, she follows him.
The woman momentarily loses sight of Jasper and can’t tell where he went; she catches sight of Datchery (whose lodgings adjoin Jasper’s). Datchery tells her that Jasper lives upstairs and will be participating in cathedral services the next day; he is interested that she doesn’t want to interact with Jasper directly. The woman asks Datchery for money; she tells him that she has been in Cloisterham once before, on Christmas Eve, and that a young man named Edwin gave her a generous amount of money.
The woman leaves, and Datchery later walks to the graveyard, where he finds Deputy throwing stones. Datchery confirms that Deputy has also seen the elderly woman who will be spending the night in town; Deputy has learned that she is named Princess Puffer and will be attending service at the Cathedral early in the morning. Datchery clearly has some interest in these events. The next morning, he goes to the service and sees Princess Puffer watching Jasper from behind a pillar. After the service, Datchery confirms with Princess Puffer that she recognizes Jasper. Datchery also adds a mark to a “tally-system” of chalk marks.
Chapters 17-22 Analysis
The use of a six-month time gap allows the plot to progress and also shows that Edwin’s disappearance has long-reaching consequences for a variety of characters. In the serialized installments in which Dickens first published the novel, Chapters 17-22 (some editions may divide this portion into a total of 23 chapters) comprise Installments 5 and 6 out of a planned total of 12, and therefore were planned as roughly the midpoint of the text. The chapters after the time jump reflect a tonal shift: Rather than the sinister and foreboding mood cultivated before Edwin’s disappearance, this section introduces a more traditionally Dickensian style of seemingly disparate plotlines (which will presumably eventually come together) and a plethora of minor characters. This section also expands the almost claustrophobic focus of the Cloisterham setting to include more scenes and plotlines set in the urban sprawl of Victorian London (which also increases the possibility of intersecting plotlines and a wider cast of characters).
Jasper’s role as the antagonist continues and in fact becomes more explicit. Prior to Edwin’s disappearance, Jasper mostly attempted to conceal his malevolence, but with his nephew out of the picture, Jasper openly expresses his desire for Rosa. He reveals his solipsism and utter lack of care for her and her consent, since Rosa begs him to stop: “I do not wish to hear you, sir” (205). Jasper also shows that he is delusional: He claims, “so long as you were his, or so long as I supposed you to be his, I hid my secret loyally” (206). Jasper’s status as a villain is heightened by his open threat and manipulation of Rosa. He admits that he would falsely pin Edwin’s murder on Neville in order to coerce her into pursuing some sort of relationship with him. This manipulation provides additional evidence to the theory that Jasper knows Neville didn’t harm Edwin (and may even have been responsible for the crime himself).
Rosa’s reaction to Jasper’s overtures adds significant nuance and depth to her character. She is in a very vulnerable position alone in the garden with Jasper, but she still stands up for herself, both by rejecting his advances and by contradicting his narrative: “you know that you made my life unhappy by your pursuit of me. You know that you made me afraid to open [Edwin’s] generous eyes” (208). Moreover, Rosa shows significant independence and courage when she makes her way to London unassisted; for a privileged and sheltered young woman at this time, traveling alone was likely not common, and the narrator explains that, before she flees, “it was the first time she had ever been even in Cloisterham High Street, alone” (214). Especially early in the novel, Rosa is often presented in somewhat infantilized terms, and her name even alludes to a fragile, traditionally feminized depiction, presenting her even as a bud rather than a fully blooming rose. After Edwin’s disappearance, and the end of her betrothal, Rosa has more autonomy, which gives her the opportunity to become more resourceful and independent.
In addition to her outward actions, Rosa’s inner thoughts show that she is intelligent and observant. Rosa is the first character shown explicitly reflecting on the possibility that Jasper may have killed his own nephew: “a half-formed, wholly unexpressed suspicion tossed in [her mind]” (212). With all of the context and clues that readers have access to via omniscient narration, this suspicion is entirely justifiable, but within the world of the novel, the community of Cloisterham seems completely unable to consider this possibility. The narrator explains, “the dreadful suspicion of Jasper which Rosa was so shocked to have […] appeared to have no harbor in Mr. Crisparkle’s […] Mr. Grewgious took no pains to conceal his implacable dislike of Jasper, yet he never referred it” (247). Rosa is left wondering, “am I so wicked in my thoughts as to conceive a wickedness that others cannot imagine” (212), but this dawning suspicion may have been intended to set the stage for Rosa to play a more active role in the investigation into Edwin’s disappearance.
While the core cast of characters from the first section of the novel remains oblivious to Jasper’s potential involvement in Edwin’s disappearance, the new minor characters introduced in this section—Tartar, Datchery, and Princess Puffer—may have been intended to play a more prominent role. Datchery certainly has some interest in Jasper and the events surrounding Edwin’s disappearance; the “tally-system” of chalk marks hints at some kind of scorekeeping. Datchery’s mysterious arrival in Cloisterham alludes to the earlier arrival of the Landless siblings as similar outsiders, and it implies that he may also function as a disruptive force in the plot. Princess Puffer also has the ability to shed additional light into the mysterious events of Christmas Eve, since she has known Jasper for a significant amount of time and has had access to him when he was in a vulnerable and altered state, when he might have revealed information he wasn’t intending to.
On June 8, 1870, Charles Dickens spent several hours working on the manuscript for Edwin Drood; later that day, he had a serious stroke and died the next day. He did not leave any conclusive information about his intentions for the remainder of the plot. Because of the serial form in which the novel was published, Dickens didn’t have the opportunity to revise the entirety of the manuscript. When he was working on previous novels, Dickens was also known to have adapted plotlines based on reception and reader response to the early installments, which indicates that even if he had plans for the plotline of Edwin Drood, he might have changed those during the course of serialization. However, the incomplete resolution of the novel, especially given the centrality of the mystery, has given rise to much speculation. In 1914, a group of Dickens scholars, writers, and literary critics including G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw staged a live “mock trial” in which they reenacted a “Trial of John Jasper for the Murder of Edwin Drood,” weighing the evidence and providing witness testimonies to consider if Jasper killed his nephew.
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