Jesse "Gaffer" Hexam

Jesse "Gaffer" Hexam
Gaffer is a "waterside character" who makes his living by plumbing the depths of the dirty Thames river for corpses. As a widower, his only family consists of his daughter, Lizzie Hexam, and his son, Charley Hexam. A member of the lower class, Gaffer is out working more times than he's at home. He is admittedly uneducated and shows extreme resentment and distrust for any sort of formal schooling. To Gaffer, the only education worth having is that of his profession.

Chapter I
"Half savage as the man showed, with no covering on his matted head, with his brown arms bare to between the elbow on his shoulder, with the loose knot of a looser kerchief lying low on his bare breast in a wilderness of beard and whisker, with such dress as he wore seeming to be made out of the mud that begrimed his boat, still there was business-like usage in his steady gaze" (13).
 * Here, Gaffer is described as "half savage," a quality that is perhaps indicitive of his lack of literacy and formal educaiton. Also note that his "steady gaze" is "business-like." In other words, his only business and study is scanning the river for practical purposes.

Chapter II
"I was all in a tremble of another sort when you owned to father you could write a little" (36). "'I should be very glad to be able to read real books. I feel my want of learning very much, Charley. But I should feel it much more, if I didn't know it to be a tie between me and faher. -- Hark! Father's tread!'" (39).
 * Lizzie Hexam is telling her brother Charley Hexam that she was nervous that Charley revealed to Gaffer that he could write, as they both understand their father's deep-seated distaste for education.
 * Lizzie admits to Charley that she would also like to learn how to read, but knows that if she does so she will be disowned by her father because he needs her to help him with the boat.

Chapter III
"Taking up the bottle with the lamp in it, he helf it near a paper on the wall, with the police heading, BODY FOUND. The two friends read the handbill as it stuck against the wall, and Gaffer read them as he held the light.

... 'I can't read, not I don't want to it, for I know 'em by their places on the wall."

... 'They pretty well papers the room, you see; but I know 'em all. I'm scholar enough!' He waved the light over the whole, as if to typify the light of his scholarly intelligence, and then put it down on the table and stood behind it looking intently at his visitors" (31).
 * In this scene, Gaffer has sent his son to fetch Mortimer Lightwood, Esquire so that he might evaluate and assess the legal implications of Gaffer's most recent find in the river. Mortimer's associate Eugene Wrayburn comes with him. Gaffer shows both high class men all the handbills of missing persons on the wall, all of which are the original ads for bodies he has recovered that were once missing. It is perhaps significant to note that while the men are reading the handbills (for they are capable of doing so), Gaffer (who is incapable of doing so) is reading them.
 * Gaffer verbally verifies his uneducated status, though demonstrates great pride and ability in resourcefully navigating around his illiteracy. For instance, instead of knowing one bill from the next by being able to read, he knows each bill by their place on the wall and has specific memories tied to each one.  In a way, it could be concluded that Gaffer's brand of "literacy" is a bit more complex as it doesn't just involve words, but rather encompasses feeling, memory, and spatial positioning.

Chapter VI
"'Unnat'ral young begger!' said the parent again, with his former action. ... 'Let him never come a nigh me to ask me my forgiveness,' said the father, again emphasizing his words with the knife. 'Let him never come within sight of my eyes, nor yet within reach of my arm. His own father ain't good enough for him. He's disowned his own father. His own father therefore, disowns him forever and ever, as a unnat'ral young beggar.'

He had pushed away his plate. With the natural need of a strong rough man in anger, to do something forcible, he now clutched his knife overhand, and struck downward with it at the end of every succeeding sentence. As he would have struck with his own clenched fist if there had chanced to be nothing in it.

"'He's welcome to go. He's more than welcome to go than to stay. But let him never come back. Let him never put his head inside that door. And let you never speak a word more in his favour, or you'll disown your own father, likewise, and what you're father says of him he'll have to come to say of you. Now I see why them men yonder held aloof from me. They says to one another, 'Here comes the man as ain't good enough for his own son!'" (81).


 * This scene takes place shortly after Lizzie has sent Charley off to pursue his schooling with some money she has saved in secret. Having been just about to eat dinner after a long shift on the river, Gaffer has a knife in his hand and is making stabbing motions of emphasis during his rant. Such passionate gestures demonstrate his extreme antipathy for education, and it becomes evident in his speech that he believes it will divide him from his children forever. His reasons for believing so are somewhat unclear, though it can be inferred that he feels they might become ashamed of him for being uneducated and working such a lowly job. His pride is certainly at stake here, as he has built his entire life off of a living that education promises its subjects they will be able to transcend once they become learned. #Upward Mobility, #Class Disparity