'It's all one to me. I can make five codicils.'

Grayscale illustration of young and old man in a room. The old man sits in a chair with a cane. The young man stands in front of a fireplace.

This illustration depicts the wealthy, ailing Peter Featherstone threatening his nephew, Fred Vincy, with the power of his will and the potential to add "five codicils" to disinherit him. The scene is significant because it establishes the novel's recurring theme of the "dead hand", where the whims and legal documents of the deceased continue to exert a stifling, manipulative control over the lives and moral choices of the living. "'You neither want a bit of land to make a squire of you instead of a starving parson, nor a lift of a hundred pound by the way. It's all one to me. I can make five codicils if I like, and I shall keep my bank-notes for a nest-egg. It's all one to me'" (Book 1, Chapter 12).

Brock, Charles E. (1870-1938)

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

1908

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Brock, Charles E. (1870-1938), 'It's all one to me. I can make five codicils.', George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83534