is driven to contemplate drowning herself and her child, thus committing the mortal sins of murder and suicide. The chimes' intention is to teach Trotty that, far from being naturally wicked, mankind is formed to strive for nobler things, and will fall only when crushed and repressed beyond bearing. Trotty breaks down when he sees Meg poised to jump into the river, cries that he has learned his lesson and begs the Chimes to save her, whereupon he finds himself able to touch her and prevent her from jumping. At the end of the book, Trotty finds himself awakening at home as if from a dream as the bells ring in the New Year of the day Trotty originally climbed the tower. Meg and Richard have chosen to wed, Will discovers that their kind landlady is the old family friend he was in search of and thus presumably he and Lilian will now be all right, and all of their friends have spontaneously chosen to provide a wedding feast and celebration. The author explicitly invites the reader to decide if this "awakening" is a dream-within-a-dream. The reader must choose between the harsh consequences of the behaviour of the upper classes in Trotty's vision, or the happiness of the wedding. Main characters Toby "Trotty" Veck, the protagonist, a poor elderly messenger or "ticket-porter." Margaret "Meg" Veck, Toby's 21-year-old daughter Mrs. Anne Chickenstalker, the local shopkeeper Alderman Cute, a Justice of the Peace Mr. Filer, a political economist in the Utilitarian mould Sir Joseph Bowley, a rich paternalist MP Will Fern, a countryman Lilian Fern, Will's orphaned niece Major themes This is a campaigning story like its predecessor A Christmas Carol, written with the intention of swaying readers towards Dickens's moral message. The chimes represent time, and the main themes of the story are summarised in the three wrongs they accuse Trotty of committing: Harking back to a golden age that never was, instead of striving to improve conditions here and now. Believing that individual human joys and sorrows do not matter to a higher power. Condemning those who are fallen and unfortunate, and offering them neither help nor pity. 'Who turns his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind; abandons them as vile; and does not trace and track with pitying eyes the unfenced precipice by which they fell from good—grasping in their fall some tufts and shreds of