Dickens is famous for his characters. From A Christmas Carol's Scrooge to Bucket (the detective who later polices the pages of Bleak House), many people who have never read Dickens recognize his characters. Dickens creates such vivid descriptions of places that they, too, almost seem like characters. Are they? In this post, I'll ponder whether or not Bleak House, the place, should actually be considered a character in the novel.
We first meet it in the following description: "It was one of those delightfully irregular houses where you go up and down steps out of one room into another, and where you come upon more rooms when you think you have seen all there are, and where there is a bountiful provision of little halls and passages, and where you find still older cottage-rooms in unexpected places, with lattice windows and green growth pressing through them" (62). The point here is that a house is really just a collection of individual rooms and that, sometimes, the connections between them(like unexpected passageways and staircases) are not obvious at first. In many ways this is like a serialized novel -- it is a collection of individual parts and you have to do the work of making manifest those connections. The house is like a maze in which the furnishings are "old-fashioned rather than old" and "agreed in nothing but their perfect neatness" (63). Dickens's point here seems to be that at first glance Bleak House is, potentially, an mismatched mess but because of the good spirit of the home and its owner, John Jarndyce, it is a pleasing chaos. There is even a fire already burning in Esther's room.
So maybe Bleak House is some kind of microcosm of the city -- a winding, irregular place made up of countless, odd places (the many rooms) and random objects (a "Native-Hinoo chair", a picture of the death of Captain Cook) . The challenge is to make connections. Is Esther, given the housekeeping keys, the Mayor of this city? And does she have what it takes to keep the chaos and all its irregular parts in harmony?
Why might it be important that Dickens, given his social reform agenda, makes a connection between peoples' characters and the characters of the places in which they live? What is the relationship between environment and character? Where else do you see Dickens exploring that in the first two installments?
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To my understanding, the maid gave Esther the keys because Jarndyce knows that he can count on Esther if he ever has to be away from Bleak House. I think before Esther and company moved to Bleak House, John Jarndyce knew how they were and how they carry themselves. I believe that Esther has what it takes to keep everything together because before she got to the Jellyby's house everything was chaotic and she seems to turn everything around.
ReplyDeleteI think that Dickens makes a connection between the peoples' characters and the characters of the places where they live because many believe that someone's surroundings (environment) can tell and/or show a person's character and I guess Dickens is trying to show an example of that. He shows this example with Esther and many other characters. He wants to show that even though the characteristics of the place where the person lives is bad does not make the character itself a bad person. Dickens explores this in the first installment with Mrs. Jellyby. The environment surrounding Mrs. Jellyby was a mess, her office was dirty and her paperwork was all over the place, her home was a hot mess but Mrs.Jellyby is a nice and smart woman and her environment does not tell you that about her.
In some way Bleak house could be considered a character. Just like people the house is complex. We all have these different parts of our selves, our likes and dislikes, our quirks, just things that make us who we are. When you think you have learned all you can about the person you learn some new thing, just like in Bleak House (B.H.) “and where you come upon more rooms when you think you have seen all there are” (62). Just like Prof. Reitz said that B. H. is a collection of individual rooms, we are a collection of our individual experiences, memories, beliefs, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think that Esther can and will be able to take the chaos and turn it into a thriving harmonic place. Personally I think that John Jarndyce made sure of that. I think that everything she had to do since her g-dmother’s/aunt’s death has been a test to make sure that she can handle it. First he (Jarndyce) shipped her off to school where she was taught for six years. There she learned how to be a housekeeper; she learned how to be a traditional mother, etc. Her mothering instinct was tested when Jarndyce sent her to Jellyby’s. I think it was on purpose just to find out how she would react to the neglect the house and the children suffered in that household. She could have completely agreed with Mrs. Jellyby about Africa being more important that her own kids and home but Esther chose to do what felt more right to her and that was to take care of the kids, to be the kind of mother they never had.
I think that Jarndyce has been like ‘the man behind the curtain’; he puts everything in motion without anyone understanding his real motives. I think he has been trying to mold Esther into his ideal version of a woman, wife and mother, and I think she has passed everyone of his tests, starting with politely refusing the food offered to her in the carriage and ending with being such a compassionate person as to give up all her hard earned savings to save a man she has just met from eminent jail, with flying colors.
I agree with Ilona, I believe that Esther is up to the challenge of caring for Bleak House. The events leading up to her stay there does seem like tests to see if she would be able to cut it. If she would have the compassion and ability to make Bleak House into a home. She had been shaped as a student and truly tested at the Jellyby household. Her instincts brightened the house like her name Summerson suggests.However, there will be more tests along the way. Hardships that she will have to overcome.
ReplyDeleteEsther and those housekeeping keys -- it is interesting to think about Esther's role at Bleak House and how it will shape her options down the road. On the one hand, it is wonderful to be trusted and valued after her loveless childhood. On the other, it casts her in a very definite role that might keep her from "getting in touch with her feelings" as she lives her life through others.
ReplyDeleteI want to underscore Judith's interesting observations about people and environment. While there is some evidence that people can transcend their environments (Esther is a prime example; I'm a little skeptical about Mrs. Jellyby, whose home seems a direct reflection of her, accdg to Dickens, out-of-whack priorities), I think we need to keep in mind the documents we read for Thursday about how very bad the environmental and social problems were as Dickens wrote the novel. I think he was very worried, indeed, about the effect of environment on people and his anthropomorphizing of homes might be one way he explores this idea.
In reference to environment and character, I think Miss Flite and her room is a very good reflection of her character. I know we have yet to learn a lot about Miss Flite, but her bare room is quite interesting. Perhaps it mirrors her bare existence and her bare thoughts-- living only for and thinking mostly only about the Jarndyce v. Jarndyce case. And the birds she keeps hostage are a reflection of her freedom being kept hostage by the case as well. Also, her room is very organized, and I suppose one has to be organized if they are following a case to the degreee that Miss Flite is following the Jarndyce case. She's my favorite character so far, if you can't already tell, because she seems so mysterious. More to come on her soon I hope.
ReplyDeletefirst two chapters being told by Esther Summerson.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a -M-? ( Just curiosity)
Pg 50 Richard brought hair from Mr. Krook, why would he need to buy the hair? Why did Krook want to buy Esther's? I'm thrown off by this.
Pg 52 Esther is told by the old lady that she is found to be very known in the court as much as Tom Jarndyce. On Pg 54 there is a reference by the old lady to the cat, Lady Jane, and her greed toward the lives of the birds. This in some way could be in reference to the court and how people linger in the courts only waiting to not be obtained and destroyed by the court. With the court being the cat and the constituents the birds.
Beginning of chapter 7 Esther principally describes a specific morning with the phrase of "pleasenter weather". Which can forecast a better day for her because days are normally more gloomy. Pg 58- Esther reads a letter from John Jarndyce which indicates his want to meet her, and she is nervous to meet him because she does not know how to thank him for being her "benefactor." Which may link Her to him at a age younger then she may be lead to believe. Pg 59 esther and company arrive at bleak house it a weary and unsettling maNner, without light which could be signify the unclear future that holds nothing but darkness. esther recognizes Mr. Jarndyce from earlier in her life by the way that he is speaking with another.
Chapter 7 changes over to the dickensian narrator.
Ok sorry for the late post.... ok and i see alot of words i did not put here because i figured it be useless because we are going past this tomorrow, but there are alot of puns that play on characters names that i am finding quite amusing. and the connections with the characters becomes more apparent and is begginning to make more sense...
Mr. Skimpole is an important character to look at regarding the relationship between environment and character. The obvious environment Mr. Skimpole belongs to is Bleak House, but Skimpole is also apart of another environment which he is constantly in battle with: the world. His carefree and child-like character does not approve of the restrictions and boundaries the world, more specifically his society, has set for him. Because of his desired freedom, he has no interest in capitalism, the economy, or for his role within his community: "but to no purpose, for he must confess to two of the oddest infirmities in the world: one was, that he had no idea of time; the other, that he had no idea of money" (66). His lack of understanding of these two social conventions is the reason he faces financial trouble; Esther and Richard pay his debt when he is interrogated by a debt collector. In the same way a child needs supervision and guidance from a guardian or parental figure for his/her lack of knowledge and inexperience, Mr. Skimpole needs to be under the watch of Mr. Jarndyce, Esther and even the government. Perhaps Dickens uses Mr. Skimpole's character to imply that enviornmental control is necessary to achieve freedom. In a sense, Skimpole's desire for freedom diminishes his ability to achieve absolute independence; he is unable to control his own life because his immature mindset does not give him the capability or drive to do so. Not only is he unable to support any of his estranged children, but he is not even inclined to support or control himself. If Skimpole would have adapted to the rules of his enviornment, he would have obtained the freedom to care for himself. Instead, because he does not conform to social laws, Skimpole is a middle-aged man who is forever trapped in the life of a naive child living under the care of John Jarndyce.
ReplyDeleteI think Sifat's reading of Skimpole's character is one of the best I've ever read. Skimpole is a bizarre character and hard to pin down -- the characters we like like him, and yet he is the source of much pain and suffering even as he disavows agency (because he is a child). Really insightful.
ReplyDeleteThe M, to refer to Christian's question, is "mad" -- but interesting that Dickens doesn't just say that. Why might he leave it open? Thanks, Christian, for bringing that to our attention.
This is how you write a comment.
ReplyDeleteReferencing Bleak House as a microcosm is an excellent observation. Esther having the keys to it does make her in some way like the mayor, but maybe she's more of a reformer. Having been to London proper, seeing the way the less fortunate live (like the brickmaker and his wife), the sympathy the felt, she doesn't want this life for those she's taking care of. It remains to be seen if there's really anything she can do. After a night out, returning to Bleak House, her boots are as dirty as anyones.
ReplyDeleteEddie raises the good question: what can anyone do? What can anyone, faced with the scale and imbrication of the social problems (and that those huge social problems are manifested in the daily lives of an infinite number of individuals) Dickens chronicles, do? Is it enough (for Dickens, for anyone) to hold up a mirror to society, or do you have to have a vision for social improvement/restoration/justice?
ReplyDeleteBleak House,in my oppinion can be considered as a character. Each of the rooms convey different apects and personalities of the plot and of the characters. Just as the house has many different rooms that dont quite fit together; London has many characters that dont all piece together. I think this may be a analogy of the social chaos. With that, I think Ester represents social reform. She is where chaos and reform come to a settlement.
ReplyDeleteCorrection. Bleak House is not so much of a character in what i previously stated bet serves as a metaphor for the bigger picture. The different characters, rooms in the house, and the Jarndyce v. Jarndyce case all represent chaos in the house which could be interpreted as the chaos in society. This is why I think of Ester as social reform being that she is positive figure wherever she goes.
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ReplyDeleteI think the previously mentioned subject of chaos is a great way to describe Bleak House in it's portrayal of a major city. In current mediums, we don't get the same effect that Bleak House delivers; most stories are told through the view of one person or a few people, with minimal emphasis on the world around them. It's obvious that in Bleak House there are specific characters that we should focus on, but Dickens also augments this normal formula by paying just as much attention to his supporting characters as he does his "main cast" of characters. This is where the feeling of chaos comes in, there are so many characters, settings, images, sensations for the reader to take in, it is almost like a test of will. A very similar feeling one would have when walking the busy streets of a metropolis.
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