Regarding the issues of education and class, the characters in Our Mutual Friend are clearly ensconced into distinct categories of literate vs. illiterate and elite/superior vs. ignoble/inferior. However, to the modern reader, these distinguishing characteristics seem perplexing. A reader today might assume that a person who possesses an education and/or the ability to read would naturally be of a higher social status than one who does not. Not so in OMF. At times, the reader is confronted with a character whose proficiencies and skills do not match the presumed position within society. The most obvious character who corresponds with this image is Silas Wegg. Described as a "literary man with a wooden leg" (58), Wegg's financial means stem from the sale of small fruits and his own private services. From his establishment on a street corner bearing a cluster of personal effects, a reader might see him as what is called a "panhandler" or simply a bum...but certainly not a person of high intellect or education. Yet this is the very man solicited by Mr. Boffin, a member of the "upper class" (however newly acquainted with it he may be), to read to him. Boffin, preoccupied with his new financial situation, cares not for the instruction of reading, but merely wishes "to take it easy" (58) while he listens to narration. A third character of importance in consideration of education and class is that of Mr. Podsnap. While an entire chapter is dedicated to him and the idea of Podsnappery--which the reader assesses to be an existence of prosperity, propriety, and pretense--Podsnap's capacity for knowledge is questionable. The reader is treated to a laughable confrontation between Podsnap and a foreign guest at a Podsnap gathering. Podsnap ridicules the Frenchman for his pronunciation of words and condescendingly informs him of how to speak the English language, yet the reader might observe that there is no mention of Podsnap's own education or schooling. Yes, he can speak his own language and may seem intelligent to a man who does not speak that language. And in a book in which the emphasis on education is considerable, the lack of reference to Podsnap's education may be due to the lack of education itself. Of course there are many more characters in OMF where these issues arise, but I have chosen to focus on the few that I found most interesting and perhaps controversial due to the observations upon which I have elaborated.