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Character Role Analysis

The Veneerings

The Veneerings don't really serve any purpose in this book apart from telling us what's been going on with the plot. Dickens uses their dinner parties to 1) make fun of the upper class, and 2) recap what's been going on with the book's multiple storylines, which can be tough to sort out.

It's during the Veneerings' dinner conversation that we find out about Lizzie Hexam's disappearance from London, as well as the murder of John Harmon. Without these dinner parties, it would be really tough to keep this book's plot straight in our heads.