SUMMARY OF 'OUR MUTUAL FRIEND' BY CHARLES DICKENS

Di bawah ini adalah ringkasan cerita dari novel tulisan Charles Dickens yang berjudul 'Our Mutual Friend'.

With much love and happyness,

Kusuma


SUMMARY

There was a wealthy old man who had a son named John Harmon. The son had been abroad for 14 years. One time, the old man died then most of the property goes to John but he can only get the money on one condition: he must marry a certain girl named Bella. The old man saw this girl once when she was only 4 years old. John returned to England by ship. On the ship, he met a sailor named George Radfoot. Then, John made a plan. He changed clothes with George to impersonate. The aim of this impersonation is to make an approach to know about Bella. Arriving in London, George took John to a house of a man called Rogue Roderhood to buy a sailor uniform. Actually, George wanted to kill John to get the property his father left for him. In the other hand, Rogue also wanted to kill John and blame that killing on George. By doing that, Rogue would get a reward. Because George wore John’s clothes, he was attacked by Rogue. George was dead, while John was drowning in the river after being knocked down. Fortunately, he could survive. Then he used Julius Handford as his name and stayed for a while in a hotel.
Later on, a man named Jesse Hexam and his daughter, Lizzie, found the body of George. Because George wore John’s clothes, so they assumed it as John Harmon’s dead body. Then, Charley, Jesse’s son, sent a message of ‘John Harmon’s’ death to Mr. Mortimer Lightwood and Eugene Wrayburn who were lawyers. Then they did an investigation. They suspected the stranger Julius Handford who suddenly disappeared as the murderer.
Because ‘John Harmon’ was dead, all his father’s money went to the old servant, Noddy Boffin. When Noddy and Mrs. Boffin moved to a bigger house, they also took Bella. They did it because they had sympathy on her that she had lost a husband and all the money too. When Mr. Boffin needed a secretary to handle his businesses, a man named John Rokesmith came and was accepted to be his secretary. John Rokesmith was actually the real John Harmon. He came to the house in order to investigate and know better about Bella. Mr. and Mrs. Boffin did not know that John Rokesmith was the real John Harmon.
So Bella had changed from a poor girl into a beautiful girl who joined the very best society, with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin. Meanwhile, while working as a secretary, John started to make an approach to Bella. One day, John expressed his love to Bella and asked her to marry him, but she rejected him because of his lower social status. Honestly, Bella also loved him. Mrs. Boffin saw this rejection. Then she saw John sitting lonely and sad by his fire. At that moment, when looking at John’s face, she realized that he was the real John Harmon. So the Boffins knew that John Rokesmith is John Harmon. Next, they made a plan. One day, Mr. Boffin pretended to dissipate John Rokesmith because he had been so cheeky to ask Bella for marry him. Finally, Bella realized that money had changed Mr. Boffin. She said to Mr. Boffin, “When I came here, I loved and respected you. But your money has changed you. I used to love money, but now I hate it. And I hate you too.”
Bella left the house with John Rokesmith. Bella had been happily married to John Rokesmith for more than a year. One day, they were walking happily along together. Suddenly they met Mr. Lightwood. Mr. Lightwood recognized John as Julius Handford, who was assumed as the murderer of John Harmon. Then he took John to the police station. There, John revealed his real identity as John Harmon to Mr. Lightwood. Being free from punishment, he took Bella to the Boffins’ house. There, he revealed his secret to Bella that he and the Boffins had pretended to her and explained that John Rokesmith and Julius Handford are the same man: John Harmon. Bella was surprised, but she did not change her feeling to John.