Throughout the novel, London uses dialect to represent the speech of working class characters, while the speech of upper class, educated characters—like Humphrey, Maud, and even Wolf (who, although he grew up poor, is a well-read man)—is generally not represented using dialect. The characters whose dialects are the most pronounced are Thomas Mugridge, who has a Cockney accent, and Louis, who has an Irish accent.
Both Louis and Mugridge speak in dialect throughout the novel, but here is an example of Mugridge’s speech from Chapter 2, after he has just lent Humphrey a fresh set of clothes and notices him wincing at their rough texture:
"I only 'ope yer don't ever 'ave to get used to such as that in this life, 'cos you've got bloomin' soft skin, that you 'ave, more like a lydy's than any I know of. I was bloomin' well sure you was a gentleman as soon as I set eyes on yer."
The contrast between Humphrey and Mugridge’s social class—already stark because of Humphrey’s soft skin and sensitivity to rough fabrics—is made all the more pronounced by the difference between his and Humphrey’s dialects.
Though Wolf, Maud, and Humphrey do not speak in dialect, they speak about literature and philosophy, which is a sort of specialized language for the educated, and which makes the other sailors feel alienated. In Chapter 8, for example, Humphrey and Wolf discuss poetry, materialism, and idealism at the dinner table with the seal-hunters, who are unable to participate in the conversation:
That night […] we talked and talked, much to the disgust of the hunters, who could not understand a word.
Wolf invites Humphrey, who is at this point only a low-ranking cabin-boy, to sit at the dinner table with him because he feels Humphrey is the only person he has met who speaks the same language as him. In Chapter 8, Wolf expresses delight at Humphrey’s fluency in a language which, prior to meeting him, Wolf had only read in books:
“D’ye know, Hump,” he said, with a slow seriousness which had in it an indefinable strain of sadness, “that this is the first time I have heard the word ‘ethics’ in the mouth of a man […] At one time in my life […] I dreamed that I might some day talk with men who used such language, that I might lift myself out of the place in life in which I had been born, and hold conversation and mingle with men who talked about just such things as ethics. And this is the first time I have ever heard the word pronounced.”
Later, however, when Maud and Humphrey make the mistake of speaking in a specialized language that Wolf doesn’t have access to—that of the circle of upper class, literary people they both belonged to back home—it makes Wolf feel excluded and jealous, keenly aware of being poorer and less educated than they are. They leave him “stranded and silent in the midst of [their] flood of gossip […] listening curiously to [their] alien speech of a world he did not know.” He takes out his anger at being excluded on Mugridge, revealing his insecurity about his education and social class.
Throughout the novel, London uses dialect to represent the speech of working class characters, while the speech of upper class, educated characters—like Humphrey, Maud, and even Wolf (who, although he grew up poor, is a well-read man)—is generally not represented using dialect. The characters whose dialects are the most pronounced are Thomas Mugridge, who has a Cockney accent, and Louis, who has an Irish accent.
Both Louis and Mugridge speak in dialect throughout the novel, but here is an example of Mugridge’s speech from Chapter 2, after he has just lent Humphrey a fresh set of clothes and notices him wincing at their rough texture:
"I only 'ope yer don't ever 'ave to get used to such as that in this life, 'cos you've got bloomin' soft skin, that you 'ave, more like a lydy's than any I know of. I was bloomin' well sure you was a gentleman as soon as I set eyes on yer."
The contrast between Humphrey and Mugridge’s social class—already stark because of Humphrey’s soft skin and sensitivity to rough fabrics—is made all the more pronounced by the difference between his and Humphrey’s dialects.
Though Wolf, Maud, and Humphrey do not speak in dialect, they speak about literature and philosophy, which is a sort of specialized language for the educated, and which makes the other sailors feel alienated. In Chapter 8, for example, Humphrey and Wolf discuss poetry, materialism, and idealism at the dinner table with the seal-hunters, who are unable to participate in the conversation:
That night […] we talked and talked, much to the disgust of the hunters, who could not understand a word.
Wolf invites Humphrey, who is at this point only a low-ranking cabin-boy, to sit at the dinner table with him because he feels Humphrey is the only person he has met who speaks the same language as him. In Chapter 8, Wolf expresses delight at Humphrey’s fluency in a language which, prior to meeting him, Wolf had only read in books:
“D’ye know, Hump,” he said, with a slow seriousness which had in it an indefinable strain of sadness, “that this is the first time I have heard the word ‘ethics’ in the mouth of a man […] At one time in my life […] I dreamed that I might some day talk with men who used such language, that I might lift myself out of the place in life in which I had been born, and hold conversation and mingle with men who talked about just such things as ethics. And this is the first time I have ever heard the word pronounced.”
Later, however, when Maud and Humphrey make the mistake of speaking in a specialized language that Wolf doesn’t have access to—that of the circle of upper class, literary people they both belonged to back home—it makes Wolf feel excluded and jealous, keenly aware of being poorer and less educated than they are. They leave him “stranded and silent in the midst of [their] flood of gossip […] listening curiously to [their] alien speech of a world he did not know.” He takes out his anger at being excluded on Mugridge, revealing his insecurity about his education and social class.
