Character Analysis
Mr. Wardle
Like Tony Weller, Mr. Wardle can be compared to Mr. Pickwick. Wardle, too, is benevolent, hot-tempered, responsible, fat, and old; but he is also coarser and more aggressively masculine than Mr. Pickwick. He enjoys sports and hunting, which Mr. Pickwick indulges in only when Wardle is present. He is also accustomed to giving orders, a thorough country squire.
As a character Mr. Wardle is overshadowed by his estate at Dingley Dell. Manor Farm is capacious, full of the good things of life. It has huge festive gatherings, plenty to eat and drink, storytelling, singing, recitation, dancing, sporting activities, card games, romance — something for everyone, in fact. The place is conceived as a hospitable refuge from the knockabout world of the road and the chicanery of London. The reader enjoys this idyllic spot, where life unfolds slowly and naturally. At the beginning of the novel Trundle is courting Isabella Wardle; in the middle they are married; and by the end Isabella is pregnant. Dickens has created in the Wardle home a kind of earthly paradise.