The Morality of Fiction-Making in Our Mutual Friend

Abstract:"The Spirit of Fiction," an anonymous article published in All the Year Round on 27 July 1867, focuses on the natural propensity of human beings to attach a certain moral value to everything one experiences, hears or reads. According to the article, this disposition significantly affects the way we perceive reality, making the line between "fact" and "fiction" indistinct. Taking this argument into account, the present paper aims to elucidate the intricate relationship between these two concepts in Our Mutual Friend. In the novel, Dickens also foregrounds their ambiguous borderline, emphasizing that a blind adherence to an individual interpretation of reality can result in moral paralysis. Through the course of Boffin's pious fraud, Bella Wilfer's flexible perception of the world proves to be an essential virtue, which ultimately overcomes the self-destructive egoism represented by Podsnap.