Ancient Guides to Service

The closing text in number 462 of All the Year Round is titled “Ancient Guides to Service.”¹ This anonymously authored article is framed as a meditation on English etiquette of past and present. It is highly didactic and reads similarly to a religious tract, with proclamatory language like “Let him. . .” (285), “He is to. . .” (285), and “He must not. . .” (285). This text functions similarly to “A Pair of Horse-Pictures” within All the Year Round. It calls attention to the absurdity of class divisions in English society by emphasizing the performativity and constructed nature of class. In this text, class is largely performed in the dining area, where artificial rules dictate how to “carry the cup” (286), “cut [the] bread” (286), and “wipe the mouth” (287) in order to visually place one’s self within a social hierarchy.

Just as the concluding pages of a novel inspire the reader to reflect on the totality of the story before it, the last text in the periodical necessarily asks the reader to recall the first. As such, the position of “Ancient Guides to Service” within All the Year Round contributes greatly to the way that Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone can be read within All the Year Round. “Ancient Guides to Service” undercuts performances of class within the story’s discourse and marks them as artificial and constructed. For example, Mr. Betteredge’s instinct to translate Mrs. Yolland’s speech (Collins 125) is a deliberate performance of power that is intended to mark Betteredge as superior to the lower-class female in the scene.

Notes

1: For a full version of this article, consult Dickens Journals Online, http://www.djo.org.uk/indexes/articles/ancient-guides-to-service.html

Works Cited

“Ancient Guides to Service.” Dickens Journals Online. U Buckingham. n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.

“Ancient Guides to Service.” All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal 29 Feb. 1868. 284-288. Print.

Collins, Wilkie. “Chapter XV.” The Moonstone. Ed. John Sutherland. New York: OUP, 2008. 199-132. Print.