Using Your Talents: Don't Be Mrs. Jellyby, Be Esther Summerson or Tom Pinch

I used someone else’s podcast on “resounding gongs or clashing cymbals” as a jumping-off point of where one should be focusing one’s efforts in the world… with a shift into some Lenten themes. Yes, there’s a heavy Christian flavor to this one, but it’s also a sneaky way for me to encourage you to consume Dickens in the form of excellent miniseries production (yes, really). And a finish up with saying if we must have Daylight Saving Time, why not use that “extra” hour of daylight in the evening to build community? Nudge nudge.

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Episode Links

Pillar Podcast

Bonus episode for paying subscribers: Resounding gongs or clashing cymbals

Bonus: Resounding gongs or clashing cymbals

Mrs. Jellyby

The Week in Meep: Dick Button, a Swan, and Mrs. Jellyby

Movember 2023 Wrap-up: Thanks, Caritas, and Encouragement

Quoting from the 2025 post:

Mrs. Jellyby is one of a network of charitable do-gooders, under the heading of Christian missionary work bother one of the main characters, Mr. Jarndyce. She and the others were a thinly veiled critique of various members of the charitable societies who had bothered Dickens once he was rich and famous.

Mrs. Jellyby focused on an African tribe, and her mission is described thusly, from Chapter 4, “Telescopic Philanthropy”:

We were to pass the night, Mr. Kenge told us when we arrived in his room, at Mrs. Jellyby’s; and then he turned to me and said he took it for granted I knew who Mrs. Jellyby was.

“I really don’t, sir,” I returned. “Perhaps Mr. Carstone—or Miss Clare—”

But no, they knew nothing whatever about Mrs. Jellyby. “In-deed! Mrs. Jellyby,” said Mr. Kenge, standing with his back to the fire and casting his eyes over the dusty hearth-rug as if it were Mrs. Jellyby’s biography, “is a lady of very remarkable strength of character who devotes herself entirely to the public. She has devoted herself to an extensive variety of public subjects at various times and is at present (until something else attracts her) devoted to the subject of Africa, with a view to the general cultivation of the coffee berry—AND the natives—and the happy settlement, on the banks of the African rivers, of our superabundant home population. Mr. Jarndyce, who is desirous to aid any work that is considered likely to be a good work and who is much sought after by philanthropists, has, I believe, a very high opinion of Mrs. Jellyby.”

Note, the concept was they would take some of the “superabundant home population” — aka that “excess population” Scrooge notes in “A Christmas Carol” — ship them over to Africa, and then have those poor people work in African missions.

….

That is, she wants to ship off 50 — 200 poor families from England to Africa, supposedly to make their living by growing coffee (and Mrs. Jellyby herself consumes a great deal of coffee to power her letter-writing campaigns). They are also supposed to evangelize the people already living there to Christianity.

Other “charitable” people appear, whether they are involved in the Africa scheme or not. Similarly, they abuse the responsibilities they have to their families and neighbors to supposedly do good to a larger sphere. In general, they engender resentment in their children and sometimes despair in their spouses (though, in some cases, the spouses are on board and completely smug about it all.)

….

The African king wanted to sell all the missionaries (all who survived the tropical diseases) into slavery for his personal benefit. After Mrs. Jellyby sighs, she moves on to women’s suffrage as her next cause, which wouldn’t be successful in the UK until well after her death. In the meantime, she has a disabled granddaughter she could have done much to help… but no, she has decided that it’s better to keep on writing letters.

….

But that is not nearly as grand as the “telescopic philanthropy” that is completely futile, as Mrs. Jellyby does not understand anything whatsoever about the people in Africa, what they want or need.

Mrs. Jellyby could have been more effective by helping both her family and the poor who surrounded her in London, where she lived. What Esther Summerson was able to accomplish among different people directly contrasts with the futility of Mrs. Jellyby’s pile of messy letters.

If Mrs. Jellyby had ordered her responsibilities properly, by her capabilities and knowledge, she could have done so much more good.

Dickens Adaptations

Esther Summerson from the BBC adaptation of Bleak House, 2005

Bleak House

2005 miniseries, Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock, Charles Dance as Mr. Tulkinghorn

IMDB listing: Bleak House

Amazon listing: Bleak House

Mrs. Jellyby at home, Furniss, 1910 — original caption: “Mrs. Jellyby's dress didn't nearly meet up the back. The room was strewn with papers and nearly filled by a great writing-table covered with similar litter. But what principally struck us was a jaded, unhealthy-looking though by no means plain girl at the writing-table.”

Martin Chuzzlewit

1994 miniseries, Tom Wilkinson as Pecksniff, Pete Postlethwaite as Tigg Montague/Montague Tigg, Paul Scofield as old Martin

IMDB listing: Martin Chuzzlewit

Amazon listing: Martin Chuzzlewit

Tom Pinch at the Brass and Copper Founder’s, Harry Furniss, original caption: I have nothing more to say,” said Tom, much flushed and flustered, now that it was over, “except to crave permission to stand in your garden until my sister is ready.” Not waiting to obtain it. Tom walked out.

USCCB: Works of Mercy

Corporal Works of Mercy

• Feed the hungry

• Give drink to the thirsty

• Shelter the homeless

• Visit the sick

• Visit prisoners and ransom the hostage

• Bury the dead

• Give alms to the poor

Spiritual Works of Mercy

• Instructing the ignorant

• Counseling the doubtful

• Admonishing the sinner

• Comforting the sorrowful

• Forgiving injuries

• Bearing wrongs patiently

• Praying for the living and the dead

DST Post

Here Comes the (little) Killer: Daylight Saving Time