Mrs Gamp 🔒 Members

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Age and build

fat and old

“She was a fat old woman, this Mrs Gamp” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

very little neck

“Having very little neck, it cost her some trouble to look over herself, if one may say so, at those to whom she talked” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

Face and hair

red and swollen nose

“The face of Mrs Gamp—the nose in particular—was somewhat red and swollen” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

moist eye with remarkable power of turning up white

“a moist eye, which she had a remarkable power of turning up, and only showing the white of it” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

smell of spirits

“it was difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a smell of spirits” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

Dress

very rusty black gown, worse for snuff

“She wore a very rusty black gown, rather the worse for snuff, and a shawl and bonnet to correspond” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

dilapidated articles worn on principle to invite gifts

“In these dilapidated articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out of mind, on such occasions as the present” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

umbrella with circular patch

“The umbrella with the circular patch was particularly hard to be got rid of” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 29)

Voice and speech

husky voice

“a husky voice” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

characteristic speech pattern with dropped g's and dialect

“You may well say second nater, sir,’ returned that lady” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

rambling, digressive manner of speaking

“Mrs Harris,” I says, at the very last case as ever I acted in, which it was but a young person, “Mrs Harris,” I says, “leave the bottle on the chimley-piece” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

Signature words

Mrs Harris

“Mrs Harris,” I says, at the very last case as ever I acted in” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

wale (vale)

“living in a wale—to be contented” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 25)

creetur (creature)

“a poor woman, and that the money is a object” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 25)

nater (nature)

“You may well say second nater, sir” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

dispoged (disposed)

“let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

to the pint (to the point)

“what I have to say is TO the pint and purpose” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

Gait and mannerisms

coming sidling and bridling into room

“came sidling and bridling into the room” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

frequent curtseying

“Mrs Gamp curtseyed again” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

turning up eyes and showing whites

“her eyes—either in the sadness of her reflections upon life and death, or in her admiration of the liquor—were so turned up, as to be quite invisible” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

taking snuff

“Mrs Gamp solaced herself with a pinch of snuff” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 25)

Strengths

experienced in nursing births and deaths

“Like most persons who have attained to great eminence in their profession, she took to hers very kindly; insomuch that, setting aside her natural predilections as a woman, she went to a lying-in or a laying-out with equal zest and relish” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

professional coolness in emergencies

“Mrs Gamp, whose professional coolness was not so easily disturbed, an eligible opportunity for concentrating the whole resources of her powerful mind and appetite upon the toast and butter” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 46)

shrewd and observant

“That’s a woman whose intellect is immensely superior to her station in life. That’s a woman who observes and reflects in an uncommon manner” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 25)

Flaws

habitual drinker

“If it wasn’t for the nerve a little sip of liquor gives me (I never was able to do more than taste it), I never could go through with what I sometimes has to do” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

dishonest and mercenary

“a little less liquor, and a little more humanity, and a little less regard for herself, and a little more regard for her patients, and perhaps a trifle of additional honesty” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 52)

invents phantom friend Mrs Harris

“a fearful mystery surrounded this lady of the name of Harris, whom no one in the circle of Mrs Gamp’s acquaintance had ever seen; neither did any human being know her place of residence, though Mrs Gamp appeared on her own showing to be in constant communication with her” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 25)

rough and insensitive to patients

“You want a pitcher of cold water throw’d over you to bring you round; that’s my belief, and if you was under Betsey Prig you’d have it, too” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 46)

Traits

has a face for all occasions

“Mrs Gamp, who had a face for all occasions, looked out of the window with her mourning countenance” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

defensive about her professional reputation

“I am not a Rooshan or a Prooshan, and consequently cannot suffer Spies to be set over me” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

sentimental and theatrical

“Mrs Gamp had tottered out first, for the better display of her feelings, in a kind of walking swoon; for Mrs Gamp performed swoons of different sorts, upon a moderate notice” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 51)

quick to take offense

“that high-minded woman being sensitively alive to any invasion of her professional province” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 46)

Lines in their own words

on her late husband

“When Gamp was summoned to his long home, and I see him a-lying in Guy’s Hospital with a penny-piece on each eye, and his wooden leg under his left arm, I thought I should have fainted away” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 19)

on her independence

“I am but a poor woman, but I’ve been sought after, sir, though you may not think it. I’ve been knocked up at all hours of the night” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 40)

on her modest needs

“I’m easy pleased; it is but little as I wants; but I must have that little of the best, and to the minute when the clock strikes” (Martin Chuzzlewit, part 49)