Flush: A Biography

“Two points he had in his favor indeed, great personal beauty […] and he was genuinely devoted to dogs.”

Mr. Mitford is not a good person, but, in Flush’s eyes, he redeems his character through his devotion to dogs and his good looks. This quote is a humorous take on how dogs might evaluate humans, which mirrors how humans themselves prize dogs for their looks and devotion. 

“For as long as Wimpole Street remains, civilization is secure.”

Wimpole Street is an upper-class neighborhood in London, and this quote holds it as a symbol of security and the continuation of “civilization” as Victorian Londoners understood it—the continuation of the established social order. However, this sentence is ironic since it—like the rest of Flush—is in fact a critique of this same social order and the idea that civilization’s security depends on entrenched social hierarchies. Also, this neighborhood’s proximity to poorer neighborhoods like Whitechapel highlights the theme of Class and Wealth Inequities in Victorian England.

“Suddenly Flush saw staring back at him from a hole in the wall another dog with bright eyes flashing, and tongue lolling!”

When Flush first visits Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s room, he confronts a mirror for the first time. He stares at his reflection and develops his first inkling of self-awareness. He first thinks that his reflection as “another dog,” but he slowly understands what he is and what he looks likes and comes to realize that the dog in the mirror is himself. This is the first time Flush truly “sees” himself, which highlights the theme of The Importance of Self-Reflection and Connection in Identity Formation.

“For the first time he heard his nails click upon the hard paving-stones of London.”

As a dog, Flush’s experiences of London are sensorially different to those of humans. Elizabeth is carried through London in carriages or on her bathchair, and most people walk in shoes. However, Flush feels the hard stones of the pavement on his paws at the same time as he hears his claws tap against the hard surface. The sound of his claws and the touch of the pavement make his experience of the London streets very different from those who never come into physical contact with the world around them.

“But the dogs of London, Flush soon discovered, are strictly divided into different classes. Some are chained dogs; some run wild.”

The social classes of dogs in London are very fixed. The novel establishes the fixed order of canine social classes in England early, and this later provides a point of contrast to the more egalitarian dog society of Italy. Furthermore, an ironic point of difference between the dog social classes in England concerns the leash. The more privileged dogs are the more protected dogs; their owners chain them up. The free dogs belong to the lower classes, suggesting that the upper classes of the dog world do not enjoy only benefits and privileges. They also lose their freedom, paralleling them to people of the upper class—like Elizabeth—who are bound by social rules and restrictions.

“But suppose Flush had been able to speak—would he not have said something sensible about the potato disease in Ireland?”

Elizabeth entertains herself by projecting her political beliefs onto her dog. Flush, she imagines, could well have an informed opinion about the Great Hunger in Ireland if he were a human. Just as Flush views Elizabeth from the perspective of a dog, she enjoys imagining her companion as though he were human. Their interpretations of one another are grounded in love but based on misunderstandings.

“Very gently, very cleverly, without spilling a crumb, Flush removed the wing; swallowed it down and left no trace behind.”

Since Elizabeth is ill, her food consumption is closely monitored by her family to ensure that she is eating enough. In Flush, however, she has an unwitting co-conspirator. He enjoys being fed her meals, and the delicate way he eats from her plate allows Elizabeth to skip meals without scrutiny from her judgmental family. Flush and Elizabeth collude together to deceive the outside world, binding them closer together. 

“So Flush, as Miss Barrett read the little blotted sheet, heard a bell rousing him from his sleep; warning him of some danger menacing his safety and bidding him sleep no more.”

Elizabeth is a famous writer, yet Flush, her closest companion, knows nothing about her work. To him, her writing is just a black smudge on a page. Her letters—which play a pivotal part in her life since she first encounters Robert Browning through his letters to her—are nothing more than “little blotted sheets” to Flush. However, since Flush cannot connect with Elizabeth in this significant way, the closeness of their friendship is even more profound: The dog sees her in a way that is different to everyone else; while most people see a talented poet, Flush only knows her as a person who loves him.

“What was horrible to Flush, as they talked, was his loneliness.”

The arrival of Robert introduces a new problem into Flush’s life. For the first time, there is a rival for Elizabeth’s friendship. Flush experiences an intense form of loneliness, feeling as though he has been pushed aside in favor of a human. He cannot compete with Robert since the two humans develop an intimacy that he cannot comprehend and that is fundamentally beyond him.

“Mr. Browning brushed him off with a flick of his hand and went on talking.”

Flush feels an intense hatred for Robert, and this manifests in a series of attacks. These desperate attacks are everything to Flush, who cannot conceive of any other way of fighting back against his enemy. When he attacks, however, Robert swats him aside as if he were nothing. Robert barely registers Flush’s drastic action and desperation, illustrating the vast lack of understanding between them.

“He was with them, not against them, now; their hopes, their wishes, their desires were his.”

After making his peace with the relationship between Elizabeth and Robert, Flush finds himself in a new position. He is emotionally allied with them so strongly that he shares their hopes, wishes, and desires. He is a part of the relationship, rather than feeling as though he is on the outside. He surrenders his jealousy, knowing that he has no choice in the matter, but he finds a place in the relationship that he is happy to occupy.

“Yes, and washed in it too, for the landlord only allowed water to be turned on twice a week.”

Just a short walk away from Wimpole Street, several of the urban poor live in abject poverty and do not even have access to water. It highlights the stark disparities in social class: While the residents of Wimpole Street live in luxury, the poor do not even have access to basic resources. It highlights the theme of Class and Wealth Inequities in Victorian England.

“The whole of that life and its emotions floated away, dissolved, became unreal.”

When Flush is kidnapped and locked away in the dark room, his understanding of the world begins to change. The longer he is away from Elizabeth, the more he comes to fear that his memories may not be real. His canine imagination begins to view his old life as a dream in contrast to his current reality. The old world vanishes, replaced by his current suffering. Only the image of Elizabeth endures, illustrating her importance in his life.

“Wimpole Street was determined to make a stand against Whitechapel.”

The rich men of Wimpole Street decide to take a stand against the poor people of Whitechapel by refusing to give in to ransom demands for kidnapped pets. Flush gets caught in the crossfire, as even Elizabeth’s father, Mr. Browning, decrees that the life of one dog is a worthy sacrifice to show their poor neighbors that they will not give in to their demands for money. This sentence highlights Class and Wealth Inequities in Victorian England. While Mr. Browning and the other residents of Wimpole Street take what they believe to be a principled stance against crime, they ignore the fact that the very cause of the crime is extreme poverty and desperation.

“They were in a world where cows are herded under the bedroom floor, where whole families sleep in rooms with broken windows.”

When Wilson and Elizabeth visit Whitechapel to bargain for Flush’s return, they are exposed to poverty within London. Though they live just a short distance away, Whitechapel feels like another world to them, reminding them of the Class and Wealth Inequities in Victorian England.

“She drew off her gloves and for a moment he saw a gold band shine on one of the fingers of her left hand.”

When Flush returns to Elizabeth after his kidnapping, he notices the new gold band on her finger, but he cannot determine its meaning. Flush lacks the ability to comprehend the significance of the band; he does not know that it represents a marriage. The gold band signifies Elizabeth’s secret wedding and impending escape from her father’s house, which readers will understand even though Flush doesn’t; this is an instance of dramatic irony.

“For it was the barbarous custom of railways in those days to make dogs travel in boxes.”

To the passengers, putting dogs in boxes seems to be the most sensible and comfortable way to travel. To the dogs, this custom seems barbarous. Since the novel is written from Flush’s perspective, the railway is condemned for robbing him of the experience of the train ride for the benefit of the humans.

“But here in Pisa, though dogs abounded, there were no ranks.”

In Italy, Flush discovers a new kind of living. Here, the dogs are not organized into strict social orders. This egalitarian mode of life is a critique of England’s rigid social classes, hinting at the way in which it could be done away with for the betterment of all, both human and canine. The novel uses the social order of dogs to emphasize the absurdity of humanity’s social orders.

“He goes out every day and speaks Italian to the little dogs.”

Writing about Flush in her letters, Elizabeth delights in the idea that he is speaking in Italian to his new canine friends. She is projecting the human understanding of language onto the dog, just as Flush projects his canine understanding of the world onto her. Elizabeth uses Flush’s life as a blank slate onto which she can project her desires; similarly, the novel uses Flush’s life as a mirror through which to observe Elizabeth.

“He himself felt as if he were being pushed up against the wall to make room for something that he could not see.”

The arrival of the Brownings’ son is a confusing time for Flush. He does not understand that the marriage has produced a child; instead, he only recognizes the changes in routines and behavior that signify an imminent change in the household. Changes have typically been unpleasant for Flush, so he is wary of any change to the household routine and feels increasingly pushed aside for a reason he cannot understand.

“We can but note that to Flush Italy, in these the fullest, the freest, the happiest years of his life, meant mainly a succession of smells.”

The sensory and emotional experiences of a dog are very different from those of a human. The emphasis on “smells” highlights Flush’s primary way of experiencing the world as a dog. To Flush, the times with the best smells are the happiest in his life. Both he and Elizabeth experience their time in Italy as “the fullest, the freest, the happiest years” since they are both free to live their lives on their own terms. The “succession of smells” alludes to the variety and richness of life in Italy that both Elizabeth and Flush enjoy.

“No, it was to decipher messages conveyed by the legs of tables.”

When the humans hold seances to communicate with the spirit world, they use tools such as tables and crystal balls. These tools are ways to bridge the gap in understanding between one world and another. For Flush, however, humans remain as unknowable when they are shaking tables as when they are talking to one another. He cannot decipher their messages, whether written in letters or turning tables.

“But so tables will if you lean hard on one side.”

Amid the fashionable interest in the seances, the humans get together and collectively delude themselves into believing that they are talking to the dead. The tables lean to one side through shared human effort, not due to the intervention of the dead. The humans are demonstrating a collective desire to communicate with an unknowable world, echoing Elizabeth’s desire to understand Flush. Such an understanding, however, remains elusive.