Bleak House illustrations
Hablot Browne (Phiz) provided all 40 illustrations, etched on steel, for Bleak House published in monthly parts Mar 1852 to Sep 1853.
To help set the dark mood of the novel Browne incorporated a technique called "dark plate" on ten of the illustrations. The dark plate technique involved using a ruling-machine (operated by an assistant) which cut a close-spaced criss-cross pattern of lines into the plate, thus creating an overall dark cast on the resulting print.
The illustration depicting Tom-all-Alone's, the slum that is home to the crossing-sweeper, Jo, is perhaps the most striking example of the dark plate technique. (from Victorian Web)
for the illustrations, visit https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/index.html
Question for discussion
Is their one particular character you would like to talk about?
Some critics have said that we don't find character development in Dickens' novels. True or not?
I might argue that we find character revelation more than development (which by the way is a characteristic of the mystery novel).
Cast of characters—John Jarndyce
John Jarndyce: cheerful, benevolent, generous philanthropist, perhaps too trusting, who knows the world, and in particular the Court of Chancery that is hearing the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and has yet to determine a verdict.
In its wake, he becomes guardian of Ada Clare and her cousin Richard Carstone, both of whom are potential heirs in the case. When life's unpleasantries threaten to intrude on the world he has created at Bleak House, the wind blows from the east. He also befriends Esther Summerson, making her his housekeeper, and companion to Ada and Richard.
He inherited the case of Jarndyce and Janyce from his uncle Tom who went mad and shot himself because he couldn’t stand the suspense of the suit, which promised a large inheritance but instead bankrupted him in legal fees before its resolution.
Mr. Jarndyce learned from his uncle’s mistakes and understands that lawsuits like Jarndyce and Jarndyce encourage people to develop false hopes. He tries to dissuade his young cousin Richard from becoming involved in the case and instead tries to persuade him to pursue a profession.
He sympathizes with the poor and supports charitable causes, although some are misguided—like Skimpole and Mrs. Jellyby.
He cannot bear to be thanked, however, and hurries away rather than meet with any gratitude for his many acts of kindness. He always considers the needs of those he helps and makes sure that, when he offers his help, it is practical and really benefits the person it is designed to help.
He falls in love with Esther Summerson but allows her to break off their engagement and actively arranges her marriage to Mr. Woodcourt, whom he knows she loves more and will be happier with.
Cast of characters—Esther Summerson
The novel’s protagonist and 1st person narrator, she thinks she's an orphan but is actually Lady Dedlock's daughter; she gave birth to Esther before marrying Sir Leicester Dedlock. Esther’s father is Captain Hawdon (Nemo), whom Lady Dedlock had a brief affair with. Lady Dedlock thinks Esther died at birth but was really raised in secret by her sister, Miss Barbary.
Esther is a naturally loving child who seeks acceptance and friendship. Miss Barbary is cruel to her, however, and Esther’s childhood is lonely until her aunt’s death. Miss Barbary blames Esther for her mother’s “sin”—an illegitimate child—and for the fact that Miss Barbary broke off an engagement (with Mr. Boythorn) to raise Esther.
This sense of shame and guilt for her own existence makes Esther insecure, and as an adult, she is always shocked and grateful when people care for her as much as she cares for them. Esther is the ward of Mr. Jarndyce and the companion of Ada and Richard. Throughout the novel, she is noble and selfless, putting the needs of others before her own. She is also modest and does not expect praise or reward for her acts of kindness.
She is a homemaker, good with children, and some say represents the ideal feminine figure throughout the novel, in contrast to poor homemakers such as Mrs. Jellyby.
Although virtuous and understanding, she is not naïve, and sees through selfish characters like Mr. Skimpole, who pretend to be charitable but who are, in fact, only out for themselves.
Esther is rewarded when Mr. Woodcourt proposes to her. Her name, Summerson, is associated with youth, beauty, and warmth.
Cast of characters—Ada Clare
Ada Clare is a ward of the court in the lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and close friend of Esther Summerson. She is an orphan, taken in by Mr. Jarndyce, like her cousin Richard, as well as Esther. Ada is young and optimistic, beautiful, and quickly finds an attraction with Richard; they become engaged and later marry.
She is a loyal friend to Esther, and the two women become extremely close. As her relationship with Richard progresses, Ada helplessly watches him descend into a mad obsession with Jarndyce and Jarndyce. She tries to help, but cannot talk Richard out of his involvement with the court. She is loyal, however, and marries him despite his impoverished condition when court fees drain his meager income.
She has faith that Richard will find a profession, even when it becomes clear that he's not serious about that pursuit. Richard eventually dies in Ada’s arms and, several months later, she gives birth to his son. Although Ada grieves for her young husband, she does not allow his death to make her bitter and, instead, pours her love into their child.
Cast of characters—Richard Carstone
Richard, like Ada, is a ward of the court in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, as well as Ada's cousin and eventually husband. He is under the guardianship of John Jarndyce, who tries to set him up in a profession.
An orphan, Richard is also a relative of Tom Jarndyce, plaintiff in Jarndyce and Jarndyce who shot himself after the drawn out trial drove him mad. Throughout the novel, Richard, too, is driven mad by his role in the Chancery suit.
A friendly, lively, passionate young man, Richard is also a dreamer; he's not particularly ambitious and has no strong interest in a profession, trusting that he will inherit. He is easily swayed and goes along with whatever Mr. Jarndyce suggests. Although well liked by his employers, they all remark that he lacks discipline.
This trait, coupled with his carelessness with money, leads Richard to give up all three professions he takes on, and eventually drives him towards Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Richard is naïve and idealistic and believes that the case will make his fortune once it is solved.
As Richard degenerates into madness, stubbornly ignoring the warnings of others, his hopes turn into bitter delusions. He begins to believe that Mr. Jarndyce is his enemy and against him in the lawsuit. He falls victim to a predatory lawyer, Mr. Vholes, who encourages his false hopes.
Richard is also associated with Miss Flite, an old woman driven mad by Chancery, who names one of her caged birds after him.
Cast of characters—Lady Dedlock
Lady Dedlock, wife of aristocratic nobleman Sir Leicester Dedlock, is extremely bored in her fashionable London townhouse. She is considered a cold, haughty woman, and rumor has it that she is not of noble birth and that Sir Leicester married her despite this.
Although the height of the fashionable world, she seems impervious to society, her social status, and even life. She also appears permanently bored. Sir Leicester Dedlock is much older but wealthy, and worships her, but she has kept a secret from him, and the world, for nearly twenty years.
Hortense is Lady Dedlock’s French maid--secretive, vindictive, and ruthless. When Lady Dedlock takes a new attendant, Hortense is enraged and jealous; she later disguises herself as Lady Dedlock in an attempt to frame her for the murder of Tulkinghorn.
Sir Leicester Dedlock is wealthy, quiet, and dull. He has all the unspoken arrogance of privilege. His devotion to Lady Dedlock is almost as much as his devotion to his position. After her death, Sir Leicester suffers a stroke and retires to his country home.
Cast of characters—Captain Hawdon (Nemo)
Captain Hawdon is Lady Dedlock’s ex-lover and the father of Esther Summerson, whom Lady Dedlock gave birth to illegitimately and in secret.
Captain Hawdon was once an officer in the army, attended by George, who now runs a shooting gallery near the court and who becomes involved in the Dedlock mystery when Mr. Tulkinghorn, Lady Dedlock’s lawyer, blackmails him into providing a sample of Captain Hawdon’s handwriting in an effort to discover her secret.
It is not clear what happened to Captain Hawdon since his days in the army, but George implies that he went into debt and ruined himself and was often suicidal over the failure he considered himself to have become. Although George believes that Captain Hawdon is dead, he has, in fact, changed his name to Nemo and taken work as a law writer for Mr. Snagsby, who runs a stationer’s shop near the Chancery court.
Under the guise of Nemo, Captain Hawdon lives in Krook’s shop. Although he is poor and addicted to opium, he's also clearly a kind man, once noble and optimistic.
He often gives money to Jo, the homeless urchin who sweeps the streets outside of Chancery.
Nemo is known in the area as a mysterious man, who works all hours and is rumored to have sold his soul to the devil. He eventually dies of an opium overdose before he can learn that Lady Dedlock had a child or that Esther Summerson, his daughter, is alive.
He is buried in a pauper’s grave in a slum called Tom-all-Alone’s, and Lady Dedlock returns to visit his grave in secret, where she dies of exposure.
Cast of characters—Miss Barbary
Miss Barbary is Lady Dedlock’s sister and Esther Summerson’s aunt. She is a hard, judgmental woman, who despises her sister because she gave birth to an illegitimate child. Esther claims that her aunt (whom she originally believes to be her godmother) is a “good woman” but so good that she cannot stand sin in others. Miss Barbary also resents Esther because she breaks off an engagement to Mr. Jarndyce's friend, Mr. Boythorn, in order to raise Esther in secret to hide Lady Dedlock’s shame.
Miss Barbary is a hypocrite, however, and arrogant because she believes she is without sin. Actually, she is cruel to Esther as a child and blames her for her mother’s sin, but these traits come back to haunt Miss Barbary and she is struck down by a stroke while Esther reads a passage from the Bible which suggests that no one is without sin. She dies soon after.
Cast of characters—Mrs. Jellyby
A wealthy woman, Mrs. Jellyby, mother of Caddy, Peepy, and the other Jellyby children. is a philanthropist obsessed with a project she has developed to build links to the coffee trade with a remote region in Africa. She is so distracted by this project that she neglects her family and bankrupts her husband gathering money for this cause.
Mrs. Jellyby’s house is in chaos and her children are dirty and uneducated. She represents both the frantic efforts of middle-class Victorians to contribute to social causes (even at the expense of their own homes and regardless of whether these causes really help the poor) and Britain’s colonial efforts abroad, which Dickens felt were a waste of money and squandered resources abroad that could support the poor in Britain.
Her fanatic philanthropy is almost a type of madness and prevents her from seeing the damage she does to her family. She is totally disinterested in her daughter’s wedding and does not listen to anybody else when they talk. Her philanthropic efforts abroad ultimately fail, and Dickens uses Mrs. Jellyby to suggest that charity should begin at home.
Cast of characters—Miss Flite
Miss Flite, a poor, mad old lady, rents a room above Krook’s shop and spends her day awaiting a judgment on her Chancery suit. She immediately takes an interest in Richard and Ada as wards in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and becomes friends with Esther and Mr. Jarndyce. She is also close to Gridley, who also has a case in Chancery and who, like Miss Flite, spends his days in the court.
She has gone mad waiting for her verdict. A kindly and affectionate woman, her friends tolerate her delusions and humor her when she says she expects a judgment soon, but—as with all Chancery cases—it is unlikely hers will ever be satisfactorily resolved.
Her father, brother, and sister all went mad and died while they oversaw the lawsuit. She inherited the case from them, and though she resolved to stay out of it, felt helplessly drawn to court. She believes that Chancery exercises a sinister magic force over its victims.
Her story also foreshadows Richard’s descent into madness as he waits for a verdict. Often quite lucid in her madness, she recognizes that Chancery suits send people mad because they force them to put their lives on hold. She keeps a number of caged birds in her room to represent the hopes, dreams, youth, and beauty of Chancery’s victims who waste away while they wait for their cases to end. She plans to release them on “judgment day,” referring both to the end of the case and to the biblical apocalypse.
Cast of characters—Mr. Tulkinghorn
Mr. Tulkinghorn is Sir Leicester Dedlock’s lawyer and holds a grudge against Sir Leicester’s wife, Lady Dedlock; he suspects she is not truly of noble birth.
Mr. Tulkinghorn specializes in working with wealthy clients, and is consequently privy to the secrets of many rich and powerful people.
A cruel, merciless individual, Mr. Tulkinghorn sadistically delights in having power over others; he loves to collect secrets, as this gives him social currency and power over the upper classes, his superiors and employers. He despises the gentry, but also despises members of the lower classes, such as Lady Dedlock, whom he views as a social climber because she married into wealth.
He is associated with a rat and a crow throughout the novel, which suggests he is an unpleasant and sinister man. He disguises his cruel motives under a veneer of respectability and discretion.
Sir Leicester trusts Mr. Tulkinghorn completely and thus never suspects his cruelty to Lady Dedlock, whom he tries to blackmail when he discovers that she had an illegitimate child (Esther) before her marriage.
Mr. Tulkinghorn is a bully and a coward underneath, however, and uses his connections in the legal system to protect himself. He is very afraid of George—a soldier who comes to him about an outstanding debt—and threatens Mademoiselle Hortense with prison before she has committed a crime.
Despite his respectable façade, he is not a noble man and will work with clients who are deeply corrupt, like the debt collector Mr. Smallweed, if this gets Mr. Tulkinghorn his own way.
He is extremely good at manipulating people and often persuades people to act for him so that he can evade responsibility for these actions.
In spite of himself, Mr. Tulkinghorn admires Lady Dedlock because she meets his cool façade with an equally stoic one when he threatens to reveal her secret. At the end of the novel, Mademoiselle Hortense, who wishes to frame Lady Dedlock, murders Mr. Tulkinghorn.
Cast of characters—Mr. Guppy
Mr. Guppy, a young clerk in Mr. Kenge’s office, is an ambitious, self-interested social climber, who cares a great deal about his appearance, his reputation, and advancing his social status. Throughout the novel, he is a figure of ridicule and comic relief.
He meets Esther when she comes to London and suspects her relation to Lady Dedlock after he sees a portrait of Lady Dedlock at her husband’s country house, Chesney Wold. He therefore proposes to her and, when she rejects his offer, makes a dramatic show of being heartbroken. He constantly feigns disappointment to his friends, Mr. Jobling and Bart Smallweed, but only hints at what happened without telling the full story.
When he thinks the bundle of letters he found in Krook's store is evidence that Lady Dedlock is Esther's mother, he tries to blackmail her. Although he pretends he wants to help Lady Dedlock conceal her secret, he really wants leverage for himself, thinks Esther will be grateful he found her mother, marry him, and improve his social connections.
However, seeing Esther after her illness, her face now scarred by smallpox, he is embarrassed and denies his previous attentions to her. However, when the truth comes forth at the end of the novel, he suddenly wants to marry her again.
Cast of characters—Krook
Krook, Mrs. Smallweed’s brother, is an old drunk who keeps a rag and bone shop in back street behind the court of Chancery. Illiterate, he cannot read the heaps of legal documents piled within the shop. He tries to teach himself to read by spelling out individual letters in chalk on the walls of the shop and asking people to read the words back to him. However, he never makes any real progress towards literacy and is constantly drunk on gin.
Krook, a sinister and implicitly threatening old man, keeps a bad-tempered cat who claws on command. He spies on his tenants and closely questions people who visit the shop. It is unclear how much Krook knows about the lawsuits in the documents that populate his shop, but he is clearly a greedy, miserly old man who wishes to keep these secrets to himself, and gather new ones, even if he does not understand what they mean.
His proximity to the courthouse has earned him the nickname the “Lord Chancellor,” and he is a parody of the Chancery court and the confusing jumble of papers which the real Lord Chancellor presides over.
Because of the amount of gin he drinks, his breath is ripe with alcohol fumes that steam from his mouth, a description that identifies him as a fairy tale villain, like a dragon or a wolf. He unknowingly guards the treasure which reveals the key to Esther's identity: the letters from her mother, Lady Dedlock, to her father, Captain Hawdon, also Krook’s lodger, Nemo.
Krook is also associated with a dragon in the manner of his death—spontaneous combustion—disputed in Dickens's time. It suggests that Krook is consumed from the inside out by a fire caused by the gin he drinks and perhaps his own smoldering greed. Mr. Guppy and Mr. Weevle discover his ashes.
Cast of characters—Mr. Boythorn
Mr. Boythorn, a close friend of Mr. Jarndyce, is also Sir Leicester Dedlock's neighbor; the two of them are feuding over the ownership of a pathway between their properties. He was also once engaged to Miss Barbary, Esther Summerson’s aunt; she declined his proposal when she took in Esther.
He is extremely boisterous and aggressive, but gentle and kindhearted underneath. Despite this feud, Mr. Boythorn is noble and keeps the dispute between Sir Leicester and himself. He does not criticize Lady Dedlock for his dislike of her husband and is generous with his friends. He insists that Esther stay at his house after her illness to recover.
Mr. Boythorn enjoys sparring with Mr. Skimpole, with whom he disagrees on everything, and even continues his fight with Sir Leicester, long after his interest has waned and after Sir Leicester has had a stroke, because he does not want Sir Leicester to feel patronized or that Mr. Boythorn thinks he is incapable of participating in this battle.
Cast of characters—Mr. Skimpole
Mr. Skimpole, a friend of Mr. Jarndyce, is a playful, entertaining gentleman of leisure. He is not poor, but is always in debt and constantly borrows money from Mr. Jarndyce and other acquaintances, whether they can afford it or not.
He hates to take things seriously and is totally irresponsible. Although he does not care for anyone but himself, his friends and acquaintances are disarmed by his cheerful, charming manner and do not immediately recognize this.
Mr. Skimpole does not feel it's his job to help or guide anybody, and he claims that he cannot keep track of his debts or finances because he cannot count or understand money. However, he often accepts bribes and avoids his friends as soon as they become poor, usually from furnishing his expenses.
He also plays a part in bankrupting Richard Carstone; he accepts a bribe from Mr. Vholes, the predatory lawyer who preys on Richard’s frail mental state, to introduce him to Richard, and he encourages Richard to keep spending money even when Richard is nearly ruined.
Although Esther wants to give Skimpole the benefit of the doubt, believing he is innocent and unaware of the consequences of his careless actions, she is skeptical of his character and loses patience with him after his poor treatment of Richard.
Mr. Skimpole never takes responsibility for his actions and, in fact, angrily attacks Mr. Jarndyce and calls him selfish when Jarndyce finally withdraws his charity.
Cast of characters—Jo, sweeper
Jo the Roadsweeper: a minor character, Jo acts as a catalyst for Esther and her past. He remembers her father ‘him as wos wery good to me, wery good to me indeed, he wos.’ (Ch.47), and Lady Dedlock discovers from him where Esther’s father is buried. He is also a witness in the murder investigation. However, Dickens’ use of Jo is much broader than this. Jo also represents child poverty, a big problem in Victorian society.
Tulkinghorn: the Dedlocks' lawyer. Tulkinghorn is cold, secretive, and ambitious. He detests Lady Dedlock, and once he discovers she has a secret, he investigates to wield power over her.
Inspector Bucket: indefatigable Inspector Bucket is cordial with everyone, which is also how he gets information out of them. He has a way of wagging his forefinger: By piecing together his information, like a jigsaw puzzle, Bucket is finally able to uncover the murderer.
Cast of characters—Mr. Woodcourt
Mr. Woodcourt is a young surgeon, son of Mrs. Woodcourt, and eventual husband of Esther. A generous and loyal young man, he dedicates his life to his career and spends his time as a doctor caring for the poor rather than the rich.
He has little interest in wealth and takes a low-paying post at a poor hospital in Yorkshire at the novel’s end. He is in love with Esther throughout the novel, although she denies this to herself, and his love for her remains strong when he returns from a voyage overseas and finds that her face has been scarred during a bout of smallpox.
Mr. Woodcourt proves that he does not love her for her looks alone but for her kind and generous spirit. His name suggests that he is a solid man who “courts” Esther loyally and will remain by her side.
He is also a loyal friend to Richard Carstone, whom he befriends at Esther’s request, to try and help Richard during his time of depression. Mr. Woodcourt is an effective surgeon because he makes his patients feel heard and puts them at ease.
Cast of characters
George: Mrs. Rouncewell’s wayward son, and a soldier, who runs a shooting gallery. Takes in Phil
Rosa: Lady Dedlock’s protégée (substitute child?), who is in love with Watt Rouncewell.
Charley (Charlotte Neckett): the oldest of three orphaned siblings she becomes Esther’s beloved maid.
Mr. Vholes: Richard Carstone's shyster lawyer (volpe is Italian for fox)
Questions for discussion
Critics have long regarded Bleak House as Dickens’s most formally complex novel, since it blends together a number of different genres: mystery/detective fiction, romance, satire, and perhaps epic. It is also, for readers today, historical fiction, although it was not at the time Dickens wrote.
Compare the way the novel conforms to each of these genres. Which genre do you think dominates Bleak House?
Does the novel transcend these categories altogether?
Questions for discussion
In addition to a multiplicity of genres, Dickens includes a multiplicity of themes as social commentary. These include:
The legal system, the law and justice, not one and the same
The class system and social mobility, particularly the disparity in living conditions, opportunities, and privileges.
Related to this theme is the focus on personal appearance and identity, the inner and outer selves.
Questions for discussion
In addition to a multiplicity of genres, Dickens includes a multiplicity of themes as social commentary. These include:
Passions, obsessions, and madness; more specifically, the characters who do not follow a "calling" in life tend to be lost, at the mercy of the fates. If that calling or passion falls out of balance, however, and becomes an obsession, those characters become mad and self destructive as the passion consumes their lives, with bad outcomes.
Social responsibility, philanthropy, human kindness. During the 19th century, both the middle and upper classes considered charity a social responsibility; in fact, it was also fashionable. This desire to take care of the poor, the lower classes, the disadvantaged, may also account for some of the Victorians imperialism.
Questions for discussion
In addition to a multiplicity of genres, Dickens includes a multiplicity of themes as social commentary. These include:
Literacy, reading—Krook can't read, but tries to teach himself, draws letters with his finger, Nemo's handwriting, that Lady Dedlock recognizes
High on this list of social responsibilities is the fate of children
Lower on this list is the fate of women--considered, if not improved
Questions for discussion
The narrators: Esther Summerson is one narrator, and the other is a nameless, third-person omniscient narrator. Generally 1st person narration limits the reader's knowledge of events and other characters in the novel to just that one person. On the other hand, the omniscient 3rd person narrator knows and tells all.
Why does Dickens use Esther as a 1st person narrator in parts of the book?
Questions for discussion
Last week, we took a close look at the description that opens Chapter 1; it's full of mud and fog, symbolic of the Court of Chancery. But other images in the novel are also significant, like:
Spontaneous combustion
Miss Flite's birds
Disease and contagion
Tom-all-alone's, Nemo's burial spot, and the title Dickens almost gave this novel.
Bleak House, both iterations, houses in general
Chesney Wold and its Ghost Walk
Questions for discussion
If Bleak House is primarily a novel about the law, its practitioners, and its victims, why does Dickens devote so much of the novel's plot to the story of Lady Dedlock? Her problems stem from matters other than the law.
Breakout room question
As I have asked frequently before, what do you come away with from this novel? What are you going to remember about it at the end of this term?
Literary critic
The indifference of society to the suffering of its members; the venality, brutishness, or sheer ineptitude of its public servants; its perverse substitution of the virtues of the head for those of the heart; the hopeless inadequacy of its political and philanthropic institutions: these are the recurring motifs of Dickens's novels . . .
Next week:
Epistolary as genre