Our Mutual Friend, Chapter 1 summary

What happens

1. Lizzie rows while her father searches the currents of the Thames with practiced attention.
2. A reddish stain frightens Lizzie before her father reaches over the stern and brings back money.
3. The boat tows a corpse, and Lizzie refuses to change seats because she cannot bear sitting near it.
4. Her father reminds her that the river supplies their livelihood and provided her childhood necessities.
5. Another scavenger approaches, calls Gaffer his partner, and offers to bring the dead man aboard.
6. Gaffer rejects their partnership over the man’s theft from a living sailor, then orders Lizzie to row home.

In this chapter

What to notice

Gaffer treats death as ending ownership. This reasoning lets him defend taking a corpse’s money while denouncing his former companion’s theft.

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