Quote 1
"In the meantime, sir," said Mr. Chillip, "[Mr. and Miss Murdstone] are much disliked; and as they are very free in consigning everybody who dislikes them to perdition, we really have a good deal of perdition going on in our neighbourhood! However, as Mrs. Chillip says, sir, they undergo a continual punishment; for they are turned inward, to feed upon their own hearts, and their own hearts are very bad feeding." (59.139)
David runs into his old doctor, Mr. Chillip, by accident at Gray's Inn in London once he returns from Europe. Mr. Chillip has news of the Murdstones. Mr. Murdstone has remarried and he and his sister have bullied his poor wife into completely obedient idiocy. But Mr. Chillip also reports that the Murdstones are not popular. They respond to this unpopularity by damning everyone who doesn't like them. Still, the Murdstones have isolated themselves, and have nothing to do but think about their own hearts. While the Murdstones have not been punished by any kind of law for their abuses, their social isolation has brought about a kind of prison. They are trapped with each other and their own bad natures, which Mr. Chillip seems to think is punishment enough. What do you think – is this enough justice for the Murdstones? How might you have ended their narrative thread?