Gwynplaine and David Dirry-Moir

Gwynplaine and Lord David Dirry-Moir are first brought together by David’s public defense of Gwynplaine, then divided by the same speech when David takes offense at its reference to their mother. Their encounter turns apparent solidarity into a disclosure of brotherhood—and makes that kinship the stated ground for a duel rather than a reconciliation.

An Unexpected Defender

After the peers mock Gwynplaine’s speech in the House of Lords, David addresses the young lords in his elaborate embroidered dress and plumed hat, one hand feverishly fingering the sword at his waist. He condemns the peers for combining against one man and distinguishes the confused, poorly delivered parts of Gwynplaine’s address from the truths it contained. In particular, he invokes Gwynplaine’s remarks about the lepers at Burton Lazars as undeniable fact. David’s defense does not depend on pretending the speech was polished: he acknowledges its disorder and bad taste while insisting that those failures do not excuse the audience’s jeering.

David’s support also recognizes the reversal in Gwynplaine’s status. He calls the return of an inheritance to its heir a beautiful sight, describing the transformation from insect to eagle and from clown to Lord Clancharlie. He further argues that Gwynplaine is not responsible for his laugh and that misfortune should not be made an occasion for mockery. His defense thus links the peers’ treatment of Gwynplaine’s appearance to their contempt for the man who has entered their order. David presents himself as willing to oppose his own class on this point, even if Gwynplaine’s words have been badly delivered.

From Public Solidarity to Private Grievance

Gwynplaine emerges from the shadow and approaches the man he had known as Tom-Jim-Jack, now recognizing him as Lord David and as his defender, perhaps something closer. He thanks David but says that the matter is his own. The gesture interrupts David’s confrontation with the peers and shifts the scene from a public dispute over Gwynplaine’s speech to a personal exchange between the two men.

David responds that he has a grievance of his own. He recalls Gwynplaine’s reference to a woman who had loved Lord Linnæus Clancharlie and later loved Charles II. Gwynplaine confirms the statement. David says that Gwynplaine has insulted his mother. What had been part of Gwynplaine’s address about the woman’s history therefore becomes, for David, a personal offense. The scene gives no reconciliation between David’s defense of Gwynplaine and his anger over this reference: both positions stand together, and the change in tone is abrupt.

The Disclosure of Brotherhood

When David names Gwynplaine’s mother, Gwynplaine says that this confirms the relationship he had suspected. David answers plainly that they are brothers. The disclosure recasts their encounter: the defender whom Gwynplaine had approached with gratitude is also his brother, and the woman at the center of their dispute is their mother. Their kinship is confirmed in the same exchange that turns the argument into a confrontation.

David does not treat brotherhood as a reason to withdraw his grievance. Instead, he strikes Gwynplaine and argues that brothers are equals and therefore capable of fighting one another. His claim makes equality the hinge between recognition and violence: the newly established family bond supplies the standing on which he bases a challenge. Gwynplaine’s startled conclusion that they must be brothers is answered not with an embrace or an account of their shared past, but with the blow.

A Duel Instead of Reconciliation

David says that he will send his seconds and that the two men will fight the following day. The promised encounter is framed as a duel between equals, following David’s insistence that one can fight one’s equal and that a brother is such an equal. The passage establishes the challenge and its stated timing, but does not show the duel taking place or reveal its outcome.

The relationship is therefore defined here by a double reversal. David first stands against the peers who ridicule Gwynplaine, defending the substance of his speech and the man’s right not to be mocked for his misfortune. Once Gwynplaine’s reference to their mother becomes personal, David turns against Gwynplaine without retracting that defense. Their brotherhood adds a new meaning to their encounter but does not settle the grievance; at this point in the narrative, recognition produces a demand for combat, leaving the relationship suspended between kinship and conflict.