Confusion figures to serve less often as a rhetorical strategy than other forms of muddle. Indeed misspeaking, the most common form of confused speech, is an accident--without purpose even if not without cause. When Susan Nipper transposes names to create "Mrs. Staggs, of Polly Toodle's Gardens" (DS 217; ch. 15), it would be ungenerous to impute to her a confusion extending beyond speech to the mind, particularly since her previous speech referred correctly to Staggs's Gardens. On the other hand, Mr. Toots's assigning Ned Cuttle's title to Sol Gills to create "Captain Gills" (DS 454; ch. 32) shows indirectly what he elsewhere reveals directly: "I think there's something rather weak in my--in my head, in short" (675; ch. 48). As these instances suggest, much of the confusion Dickens introduces into speech concerns mistaken identities. When Sairey Gamp refers to "Jonadge's belly," he notes her "appearing to confound the prophet with the whale" (MC 624; ch. 40). In Our Mutual Friend, which mounts a sustained attack on depersonalization, the party-host Veneering introduces Twemlow to Boots and Brewer, but doesn't know which is which. Podsnap wants to meet his host but mistakes Twemlow for Veneering. He declares himself "so glad of this opportunity," but on learning that he has introduced himself to the wrong person, he falls into the further confusion of "Ridiculous opportunity--but so glad of it, I am sure!" (8-9; bk. 1, ch. 2).
