Pickwick Papers

The primary goal of the Pickwick Club is to travel and observe cultures far from home. Although this goal is fairly ironic given that the Pickwickians never travel beyond a few counties from London and mostly engage with people similar to themselves, they nonetheless learn from their experiences while traveling. Domestic travel gained popularity in England at the end of the 18th century, and thus the old-fashioned Pickwickian travels to towns in Kent and to destinations like Bath were somewhat common at the time. Despite their relative nearness, the places the Pickwickians travel are typically country settings very different from their residences in the bustling city of London. Although the people they meet along their journeys, such as Wardle and the Dowlers, run in similar social circles as the Pickwickians, their acquaintance nevertheless expands, and they form new friendships and relationships the more they travel through England, creating an increasingly tangled web of connections as they go.

One of the most notable elements of the Pickwickians’ travels is that they face new and novel predicaments wherever they go. After one of their misadventures, Pickwick even exclaims, “Is it not a wonderful circumstance [...] that we seem destined to enter no man’s house without involving him in some degree of trouble?” (315). While not all of the trouble the Pickwickians encounter leads to a learning experience, much of it does or at least requires the travelers to question their morals or outlook on the world. For example, when the Pickwickians visit Eatanswill and are caught in the midst of political turmoil between the Blues and the Buffs, they must consider the effects of the town’s extreme partisanship and can see from an outsider’s perspective how it hinders progress in Eatanswill.

Other predicaments, such as Pickwick’s being caught while drunk on a stranger’s property or being assumed to have started a duel and thus being brought to Nupkins’ home for judgment are characteristic of both the comedic nature of The Pickwick Papers and the Pickwickians’ penchant for being thrown into circumstantial turmoil during their travels. Although these experiences as a whole depict the hilarity and chaos of the group’s travels, the characters, particularly Pickwick, take what they learn back with them to London and consider it in making future decisions. Much like the antique stone Pickwick brings back from his travels, his journeys make him more enlightened and empathetic. Although he chased Jingle throughout England and wanted to bring him to justice, Pickwick’s experience in diverse settings and with different people lead him to see Jingle in a new light at Fleet Street Prison. As is the goal of the Pickwick Club, its members become more enlightened and experience more of the world as they travel.