184 Quiz Answer

Answer: One of Charles Dickens's best-known characters, Wilkins Micawber is a melodramatic, basically kind-hearted and rather foolish gentleman, a friend of young David Copperfield.

(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "H" is for History)

Here’s this week’s Berownial quiz question.

In my study of history, one institution that always fascinated me was the debtors’ prison.

This setup, a jail for folks who can’t pay their debts, has been around since ancient times.  In 19^th-century England, it was a big deal.  It shows how something quite illogical, something that makes little sense, can stay in existence for centuries.

I mean, look at it this way.  Time-travel with me back to about 1850; good Queen Victoria is on the throne, which is quite appropriate since it was the Victorian era.

Let’s say that in London there’s a chap who is having a rough time, financially.  His credit card is maxed out, etc., and he doesn’t know where his next tuppence is coming from.  He is, in short, a debtor.

So in he goes, into the lockup.  What’s illogical, of course, is that while he was outside he could at least work to pay off his debt; inside he can do nothing but sit there.  So he does, sometimes for years.

To top things off, he is charged for his room and board while he is in the cooler – and of course he can’t pay for that either.

As a humanitarian gesture the authorities would at times allow the families to join the debtors, so you’d have a father, the missus, and several little kiddies all crammed into one small cell.

The writer Charles Dickens knew all about this system.  His father, who had the same last name, was arrested and sent to debtors’ prison when his son was twelve years old.  The disgusting aspect of these jails is often described in Dickens’s novels.

All of which brings me to one of my favorite fictional characters.  I think many of us have met him in real life.  He’s the one who is great with rhetoric; he’ll stand there and orate about the state of the country and its future, and he’s eager to tell of the projects he’s working on that are going to make wads of dough, but he’s never been able to hold a steady job or make a tolerable living.  He’s always trying to borrow money or figuring out ways to avoid creditors.

But, funny thing is, I sort of like the guy; he’s entertaining and he doesn't pout - he somehow he manages to stay good-humored.  (I have to admit I want him to stay out of debtors’ prison.)

In addition, he never gives up hoping.  He assures his wife: “Something will turn up.” 

What’s his name?

(Also submitted to Sunday Scribblings.)