While an appropriate answer might be a hearty cry of 'shares!' or 'on the river Thames!', it might be worth it to go a little deeper into this question. You all know many of the characters of Our Mutual Friend, and now that we have a pretty good grounding in what they are like and what they do, the next question to be pondered is where are they going?
Luckily for us, there's a book!
And I am going to enlighten you as to some of the things that end up happening to the characters in this story. Some you will see coming. Some you might already have an idea of from Act II, and you will definitely start to see these things taking shape once we start reading through Act III. But for now, I will try to explain just some of the intriguing endings for some of these characters.
First and foremost is not probably all that surprising. John and Bella get married, quite before the end in fact, and have a baby soon after. However, she still doesn't know he's John Harmon. That is revealed later, which brings me to another thing. It turns out that Mrs. Boffin (and Mr. Boffin soon after) realizes that John Rokesmith is John Harmon very early on, quite as early as the end of Act II or thereabouts (and she had suspicions from even Act I, which explains that whole scene where she feels like she's seeing ghosts)! It is not until very near the end that all is revealed (Bella is shocked. I don't blame her.)
For those of you interested in the whole Lizzie story, I can assure you that it's got quite some developments coming soon! If you thought the end of Act II was crazy, that's nothing to what happens later. Eugene actually gets hit over the head by Bradley Headstone, falls in the river, but is saved by Lizzie (in a boat!), and nearly dies. He marries Lizzie on his deathbed....and then gets better. Happy ending after all, eh?
Speaking of Bradley Headstone, he and Rogue Riderhood have a fight, and fall in the river and drown. Kind of brutal, actually.
Poor Miss Peecher.
There is a lot of death in this play, as you may have noticed. Betty Higden for instance, travels for a time, but then sits down to die and is found by Lizzie, who is with her in her final moments. Mr. Dolls also meets his end during the story.
On a lighter note, it may interest (and perhaps surprise?) some of you to know that Pleasant Riderhood is none other than the lady who does not wish to regard herself in that 'boney' light. However, her and Venus sort it out near the end and settle down.
Georgiana does not marry Fledgeby (thankfully!) because Sophronia actually backs out of the scheme. Wegg attempts to blackmail the Boffins, but is foiled in true Dickensian and Boffinly fashion. Charley 'disowns' Bradley Headstone (probably contributing to the latter's slightly unbalanced state of mind). Jenny Wren and Sloppy hit it off very nicely and probably even get married eventually!
The final thing that I, in particular, think is just brilliant, is the final scene of the book. Society is discussing the marriage of Eugene and Lizzie-in disapproving tones. But Twemlow, wonderful man that he is, bravely defends them. He has come a long way from being confused about whether he is Veneering's newest friend or oldest friend, and now dares to challenge Society's views in a beautifully simplistic and honest way. He is truly a great character.
There are many more fantastic scenes in this book, and you should all really just read it! But I hope this has given you an idea of how things work out and even given you something to think about in relation to your characters.
