Tom Pinch

[PNOTESBD at cnsvax.uwec.edu]

David asks for any thoughts on Tom Pinch in _Martin Chuzzlewit_--the latest
Masterpiece Theatre offering.  In reading Dickens original along with the
dramatization (Screenplay by David Lodge & Co., btw), I was struck by the
very clear Elect/Preterite separation of the characters: Tom Pinch being
clearly a preterite soul manipulated by the master hypocrite Pecksniff.
Moreover, as in other Dickens novels, the amoral forces of fraudulent
business is well displayed. 

Duffy