Chapter 4: Whitechapel Summary and Analysis

Miss Barrett wrote to Mr. Browning about Flush's being stolen. She had forgotten to chain him to the carriage and when she returned to depart, he was gone. The year was 1846. London was a bustling and crowded city. Although there were many carriages about, most people were on foot. Mr. Thomas Beames was walking about that day and observed everything from the poorest to the poshest neighborhoods. In the Whitechapel neighborhood, "vice and misery had bred and seethed and propagated" (p. 80) for centuries. Thieves, prostitutes and beggars were the denizens of Whitechapel. Knowing that the neighborhood was dangerous and even unhealthy with cholera lurking about, Beames hurried through it.

Miss Barrett knew what she must do to get Flush back. She had to pay ten pounds to the gang leader, Mr. Taylor. If she did not pay, she would...