The Chimes A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year out and a New Year In — Inside the Classic

A Story Told in Quarters

The book is divided into four chapters, each called a 'Quarter'—a direct reference to the chiming of a bell. This structure is not arbitrary; it imposes a rhythmic, almost musical progression on the narrative. The first quarter establishes the setting and introduces Trotty's anxieties about poverty and worth. The second quarter moves into the supernatural, as Trotty ascends the bell tower. The third quarter presents a series of visions, and the fourth resolves his ordeal. Each section corresponds to a phase of the night, from dusk to dawn, and the chimes themselves mark transitions. Readers should note how the division into quarters affects pacing: the story builds slowly, then accelerates into hallucinatory sequences before a rapid conclusion.

Recurring Images of Height and Descent

Throughout the excerpts, vertical space is charged with meaning. Trotty is described as 'high, high, high, up there,' cut off from the earth and from 'all good people.' The steeple is a place of dizzying isolation, where the wind 'roars and whistles' and the tower 'shake[s] and shiver[s].' This vertical axis contrasts with the domestic safety of 'sitting snugly round the fire.' The descent, when it comes, is not merely physical but moral: Trotty must fall from his lofty perch of self-doubt. The text repeatedly emphasizes the distance between the bell tower and the ground, making the journey downward a return to human connection. This spatial imagery reinforces the story's concern with social hierarchy and the fallibility of judgment.

The Bells as Agents of Vision

In the second excerpt, the chimes produce a swarm of 'goblin' figures that act out human follies. These beings are not merely decorative; they perform specific actions: 'putting the hands of clocks forward,' 'loading himself with chains,' 'representing, here a marriage ceremony, there a funeral.' The bells thus become agents of revelation, showing Trotty the mechanical and often contradictory nature of human endeavors. The figures 'faint' and 'melt into air' when the chimes stop, suggesting that the visions are tied directly to the sound. This device allows Dickens to critique social institutions—marriage, elections, funerals—without direct commentary. The 'small hunchback' who lingers longest hints at the persistence of deformity or marginality in society's clockwork.

The Goblins' Silent Watch

After the swarm vanishes, Trotty sees 'in every Bell a bearded figure'—the goblins transformed into silent, hooded sentinels. They are described as 'mysterious and awful figures,' each with 'its muffled hand upon its goblin mouth.' This gesture of silence is crucial: the bells have spoken through their chimes, but now they impose a wordless judgment. Trotty is paralyzed, unable to 'plunge down wildly' or escape. The figures 'watch him with eyes that would have waked and watched although the pupils had been taken out.' This image of relentless, disembodied observation turns the tower into a courtroom. The silence is more terrifying than the earlier cacophony, forcing Trotty to confront his own worth without the distraction of sound.

The Chimes rewards attention to its structural and sensory details. The four-quarter division, the vertical staging of scenes, and the transformation of sound into vision all work together to create a compact moral fable. Readers may find it useful to track how each quarter shifts the balance between external action and internal revelation. The story's power lies not in plot twists but in the gradual accumulation of atmospheric pressure—the wind, the bells, the silent figures—until Trotty's crisis becomes palpable.

Trotty Veck heard the bells ring out what mattered most: the quiet dignity of ordinary lives. That same unhurried attention to place and people made me pause over Highways of Canadian Literature — A Closer Reading, a book that feels less like a study than a long, familiar walk home. Some nights, that’s the truest company.