Introduction chapter one. Analysis of charles dickens’s bleak house

2.2.Divinities of Albion, or Galaxy Gallery of British Beauty
Tony Jobling’s prize possession, a collection of copper-plate pictures “representing ladies of title and fashion in every variety of smirk that art, combined with capital, is capable of producing.” It includes a picture of Lady Dedlock (20).
Donny, Misses
Twin sisters who operate Greenleaf School near Reading, where Esther Summerson was a pupil (3).
Elephant and Castle
The district in south London where the Bagnets live (27). Its name comes from the famous public house at its center where the roads to Kent and Surrey come together.
Flite, Miss
“A little mad old woman in a squeezed bonnet” who is obsessed by the Court of Chancery, even though her family has been ruined by it. She believes that a judgment in her case is imminent, a conclusion she confuses with the Last Judgment, describing both events in apocalyptic terms. She befriends Ada, Richard, and Esther (whom she calls Fitz-Jarndyce) and invites them to her lodgings on the top floor of Krook’s house . There she keeps a cage of birds named Hope, Joy, Youth, Peace, Rest, Life, Dust, Ashes, Waste, Want, Ruin, Despair, Madness, Death, Cunning, Folly, Words, Wigs, Rags, Sheepskin, Plunder, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, and Spinach, to which she adds the Wards of Jarndyce. When the Jarndyce case is settled, she sets the birds free .
One of the victims of Chancery, along with Tom Jarndyce, Gridley, and Richard Carstone, Miss Flite has been driven to madness by her obsession with the court. Appropriately she lives in the house of Krook, the symbolic counter to the Lord Chancellor, her name associating her with the caged birds who catalog the social ills caused by the court. Her confusion over the court’s judgment and the biblical Day of Judgment extends her significance beyond social satire to the philosophic theme of living in expectation, a theme Dickens developed in many of his novels, especially Great Expectations.
George, Trooper
Nickname of George Rouncewell.
Ghost’s Walk, the
The terrace at Chesney Wold where ghostly footsteps are sometimes heard. Legend has it that they are those of the Lady Dedlock from the 17th century whose sympathy for the Puritan cause made her a traitor to King Charles and the Dedlocks (7).
Greenleaf
The school near Reading where Esther Summerson is educated under the tutelage of the Misses Donny (3).
Gridley (“The Man from Shropshire”)
Another of the victims of the Court of Chancerywhose angry and violent efforts to gain a hearing of his grievances have led to his repeated imprisonment for contempt of court over a period of 25 years. “A tall sallow man with a careworn head, . . . a combative look; and a chafing, irritable manner” (15), he hides out and dies at George’s Shooting Gallery, a place of refuge in the novel, while trying to escape arrest (27).
Growlery, the
John Jarndyce’s den at Bleak House to which he escapes when the “east wind” has blown him out of humor.
Grubble, W.
Landlord of the Dedlock Arms, “a pleasant-looking, stoutish, middle-aged man, who never seemed to consider himself cosily dressed for his own fireside without his hat and top-boots, but who never wore a coat except at church” (37).
Guppy, Mrs.
William Guppy’s protective and doting mother, “an old lady in a large cap, with rather a red nose and rather an unsteady eye, but smiling all over. Her close little sitting-room was prepared for a visit; and there was a portrait of her son in it” (38). After Esther refuses her son for the last time, Mrs. Guppy refuses to leave Jarndyce’s house, indignantly inquiring, “Ain’t my son good enough for you?” ⁹(64).
Guppy, William
Cockney clerk for Kenge and Carboy, “a young gentleman who had inked himself by accident” (3), Guppy is a brash and vulgar young man who proposes to Esther Summerson and is refused (9). Struck by the likeness between Esther and Lady Dedlock’s portrait (7), he investigates Esther’s identity and learns Lady Dedlock’s secret (29), but Krook’s surprising death destroys the corroborating documents that he has arranged to buy (32). After Esther’s illness, he formally withdraws his proposal (38), only to renew it later and to be refused again (64). A wonderfully comic figure, Guppy speaks in a mixture of urban slang and legal jargon.
Gusher
One of Mrs. Pardiggle’s missionary friends, “a flabby gentleman, with a moist surface, and eyes so much too small for his moon of a face, that they seemed to have been originally made for somebody else” (15).
Guster
Mrs. Snagsby’s maid, “a lean young woman from a workhouse by some supposed to have been christened Augusta) . . . really aged three or four and twenty, but looking around ten years older” (10). She is subject to fits.
Hawdon, Captain (“Nemo”)
Retired military officer who, using the alias Nemo (Latin for “nobody”), works as a law writer and lives in abject poverty on the middle floor of Krook’s house. He is found dead there, probably from an opium overdose (10). His death is mourned only by Woodcourt, the doctor who attended him, and Jo, a ragged crossing sweeper he has befriended. Tulkinghorn and Guppy, suspicious of his identity, discover his secret, that he was Lady Dedlock’s lover before her marriage and the father of Esther Summerson. Their investigations lead to the harassment of Trooper George and provoke Lady Dedlock’s flight, which ends with her death by the gate of the cemetery in the heart of Tom-All-Alone’s, where Hawdon is buried.
Haymarket
Turveydrop likes to dine at a restaurant in this street off Pal l Mal l in London’s West End. George’s Shooting Gallery is nearby. Hortense Lady Dedlock’s passionate French maid, “a large-eyed brown woman with black hair: who would be handsome, but for a certain feline mouth, and general uncomfortable tightness of face, rendering the jaws too eager, and the skull too prominent. There is something indefinably keen and wan about her anatomy; and she has a watchful way of looking out of the corners of her eyes without turning her head, which could be pleasantly dispensed with—especially when she is in an ill-humour and near knives” (12). She becomes insanely jealous when she is supplanted by Rosa. She aids Tulkinghorn’s investigation into Lady Dedlock’s connection with Hawdon, but when he does not reward her appropriately, she murders him (48). Bucket and his wife pursue and arrest her (54). She is loosely based on Mrs. Mar ia Manning, the notorious murderess whose execution Dickens witnessed in 1849. Her passionate vengefulness foreshadows that of Dickens’s other French villainess, Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities.
Jarndyce, John
Present owner of Bleak House and court-appointed guardian to Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, an “upright, hearty and robust” man, “nearer sixty than fifty,” who has “a handsome, lively, quick face” (6). Even though he is the principal figure in the Jarndyce case, he avoids any involvement with it and advises others to do the same, advice that would have been useful to his great-uncle, Tom Jarndyce, who “in despair blew his brains out at a Coffee House in Chancery Lane” (1). Although he recognizes the destructiveness of the court, he is not so clear-sighted about the shortcomings of those he helps, especially Harold Skimpole. He is unsuccessful in preventing Richard’s entanglement in the case. When such things put him out of humor, he says “the wind’s in the east” and retreats to a den in Bleak House he calls his Growlery. He devotes his life to the practice of private philanthropy. He adopts Esther Summerson, sending her to school and then engaging her as a companion to Ada (3). He later proposes marriage to her (44); she accepts out of gratitude and obligation, but when he realizes that she really loves Allan Woodcourt, Jarndyce arranges their marriage, providing a new Bleak House for them in YORKSHIRE.¹⁰ Jarndyce is one of many benevolent gentlemen in Dickens’s novels, but his kindness is more conflicted than that of Mr. Brownlow (Oliver Twist) or the Cheerybles (Nicholas Nickleby). Rather than confront the evils of society, Jarndyce is often driven to retreat into his Growlery. He fails in his attempts to save Richard from ruin and is unable to see the destructive side of Skimpole. His relation to Esther is also more complex than the fatherly affection of the earlier philanthropists and includes an erotic, if repressed, attraction that prompts his quixotic proposal and his diffidence in “courting” her. He hides his inner life from others, a secrecy not probed in Esther’s reticent narrative. Finally, in a novel that attacks false philanthropy, Jarndyce also seems reticent to carry out wholeheartedly his role as a representative of positive philanthropy.
Jarndyce and Jarndyce
The lawsuit at the center of Bleak House that has been winding on interminably in the Court of Chancer y for several generations. John Jarndyce avoids a destructive obsession with the case, but his great-uncle Tom, Richard Carstone, and others are ruined by it. When it is finally settled at the end of the novel, all proceeds from the will have been used up in legal costs. Dickens based the case on actual cases in Chancery that prompted a movement for court reform at the time the novel was being written.
Jellyby, Caroline (Caddy)
Mrs. Jellyby’s eldest daughter, “a jaded and unhealthy-looking, though by no means plain girl” (4), who slaves as her mother’s secretary and whose ink-stained hands attest to her drudgery. Caddy resents her mother’s neglect in not instructing her in domestic skills or personal grooming, and she resents her mother’s exploitation of her. “I wish Africa was dead” (4), she confesses to Esther. Caddy escapes her chaotic home by taking dancing lessons and by marrying Prince Turveydrop, the dance instructor (30). When Prince goes lame, she takes over his duties at the academy. They have one child, a deaf and dumb daughter, Esther.
Welsh (2000) analyzes Caddy’s role in the novel as a rival to Esther; Caddy makes her own way out of childhood neglect and struggles to survive, yet she is treated condescendingly in Esther’s narrative.
Jellyby, Mr.
Mrs. Jellyby’s husband, “a mild bald gentleman in spectacles” who sits “in a corner with his head against the wall, as if he were subject to low spirits” (4). His low spirits and bankruptcy seem to be caused by Mrs. Jellyby’s neglect. Jellyby, Mrs. “A pretty, very diminuitive, plump woman of from forty to fifty, with handsome eyes, though they had a curious habit of seeming to look a long way off, as if . . . she could see nothing nearer than Africa” (4). Her “mission” is an educational project for “the natives of Borrioboola-Gha, on the left bank of the Niger” (4). This “telescopic philanthropy” causes her to overlook problems at home and to neglect her family and her household, and this negligence is evident in the constant state of chaos in her home. When the African scheme fails, she takes up “the rights of women to sit in Parliament” (67).
Mrs. Jellyby’s African project was based on a failed Evangelical missionary effort that Dickens had discussed in “The Niger Expedition” (1848). Mrs. Jellyby’s character was based on Caroline Chisholm, a woman devoted to aiding emigrants to Australia but neglectful of her own family. The satire of feminism in Mrs. Jellyby and Miss Wisk so offended John Stuart Mill, who would write the feminist classic The Subjection of Women (1869), that he said Bleak House was “much the worst” of Dickens’s novels and condemned “the vulgar impudence of this thing to ridicule the rights of women.”
Jellyby, Peepy
Caddy’s younger brother. His mother’s neglect is evident in his clothing, which is “either too large for him or too small,” and in his frequent scrapes and accidents, such as getting his head caught in the railing in front of his house (4).
Jenny
Wife of the violent brickmaker who abuses her. When Esther first visits her house, accompanying Mrs. Pardiggle (8), Jenny has a black eye and is “nursing a poor little gasping baby” who dies during their visit. Esther covers the infant with her handkerchief, an incident recalling Esther’s burial of her doll and her own childhood. Lady Dedlock later secures the handkerchief. On her final flight from Chesney Wold, Lady Dedlock exchanges clothes with Jenny (57–59).
Jo (“Toughy”)
The poor, illiterate crossing sweeper and street urchin at the bottom of the social scale in the novel, “very muddy, very hoarse, very ragged. . . . Name, Jo. Nothing else that he knows on. . . . No father, no mother, no friends. Never been to school” (11). Befriended by Nemo, he testifies at the inquest into the law writer’s death (11). He lives on the streets of Tom-All-Alone’s, suggesting that his utter homelessness and ignorance are the human side of the urban slums created by Chancery. He guides Lady Dedlock to the cemetery where Hawdon is buried (16); carries the smallpox to St. Albans, after he is told to “move on,” where it infects Charley and Esther (31); and dies at George’s Shooting Gallery attended by Woodcourt (47).
Jo’s story is told in a series of famous set pieces: his answers at the inquest into Nemo’s death, drawn from an actual case of a crossing sweeper named George Ruby at the Guildhall in January 1850; his breakfast on the steps of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts at which Jo’s illiteracy is contrasted to the knowledge of a dog who has been trained to herd sheep (16); his incomprehension as he is sermonized by the hypocritical Chadband (19); and his death repeating the Lord’s Prayer following Woodcourt’s instruction (47).
The testimony of George Ruby was published in the Examiner (January 12, 1850) and later reprinted in Household Words (“Household Narrative,” January 1850).
Jobling, Tony (“Weevle”)
Guppy’s friend who “has the faded appearance of a gentleman in embarrassed circumstances; even his light whiskers droop with something of a shabby air” (20). He takes Nemo’s rooms after the law writer’s death, using the alias “Weevle,” in order to keep an eye on Krook for Guppy (20). At the appointed hour when Guppy is supposed to get Hawdon’s papers from Krook, Tony and Guppy discover the old man’s extraordinary disappearance by spontaneous combustion (32). Tony also goes along when Guppy renews his proposal to Esther (64).
Kenge (“Conversation Kenge”)
Mr. Jarndyce’s solicitor with the firm of Kenge and Carboy: “a portly, important-looking gentleman, dressed all in black, with a white cravat, large gold watch seals, a pair of gold eyeglasses, and a large seal ring upon his little finger. . . . He appeared to enjoy beyond everything the sound of his own voice” (3). He handles Jarndyce’s adoption of Esther Summerson and takes Richard as an assistant when he briefly considers entering the law. Kenge ties the greatness of Britain to her legal system and counters Jarndyce’s cynicism about the law with inflated chauvinistic rhetoric: “We are a great country, Mr. Jarndyce, we are a very great country. This is a great system, Mr. Jarndyce, and would you wish a great country to have a little system? Now, really, really!” (62).
Krook (“Lord Chancellor”)
A drunken and illiterate rag and bone dealer, who amasses miscellaneous artifacts and papers in much the same way as the Court of Chancery collects documents, earning him the nickname Lord Chancellor. “An old man in spectacles and a hairy cap. He was short, cadaverous, and withered; with his head sunk edgeways between his shoulders, and the breath issuing in visible smoke from his mouth, as if he were on fire within” (5). With his ominous cat, Lady Jane, he presides over an establishment that is a kind of “counter Chancery.” Nemo (Captain Hawdon) occupies rooms on the middle floor of Krook’s house and Miss Flite the top floor. After Nemo’s death, Jobling takes his rooms (20). On the night Krook is to give some of Nemo’s papers to Guppy, the old man spontaneously combusts, taking the documents with him (32). When Krook is discovered to have been Mrs. Smallweed’s brother, the Smallweeds take over his effects and discover the missing Jarndyce will among his papers (33).
Krook’s controversial role in the novel, especially his death, was criticized by many Victorian readers, most notably George Henry Lewes, who challenged it as unrealistic and unscientific. Although Dickens cited cases of spontaneous combustion in his preface to the novel, his intent was clearly symbolic. He used the episode as a way of suggesting the fate of Chancery and any institution that so blighted the nation and destroyed those who sought redress in the law.
Le Cat, Claude Nicolas (1700–1768)
Renowned French surgeon cited by Dickens in the preface to Bleak House as the source for a report of a recent case of spontaneous combustion.
Lincolnshire
County about 125 miles north of London where Chesney Wold, country seat of the Dedlocks, is located.
Liz
Brickmaker’s wife and friend of Jenny. “An ugly woman . . . [who] had no kind of grace about her, but the grace of sympathy; but when she condoled with the woman, and her own tears fell, she wanted no beauty” (8).
Lord Chancellor
Head of the British judicial system, appointed by the prime minister and a member of his cabinet, and the presiding judge in the Court of Chancery He is “at the very heart of the fog” in the opening chapter of Bleak House and is the judge who appoints Jarndyce as guardian over Richard Carstone and Ada Clare (3).
Melvilleson, Miss M.
“Noted syren” who sings at the Sol’s Arms; “she has been married a year and a half, . . . and . . . her baby is clandestinely conveyed to the Sol’s Arms every night to receive its natural nourishment during the entertainments” (32).
“Mercury”
The Dedlocks’ footman (16).
Mooney
The beadle who makes arrangements for the inquest into Hawdon’s death (11). Peter Ackroyd(1990) identifies his original as Looney, a beadle in charge of Salisbury Square.
Skimpole, Harold
Friend of John Jarndyce, who, though trained as a physician, practices as a dilettante dabbling in art and music while pretending to be an irresponsible “child.” “He was a little bright creature, with a rather large head; but a delicate face, and a sweet voice, and there was a perfect charm in him. All he said was so free from effort and spontaneous, and was said with such captivating gaiety, that it was fascinating to hear him talk” (6). He takes no responsibility for his finances and sponges from Jarndyce and others, establishing a kind of symbiotic relationship with his benefactors. “I don’t feel any vulgar gratitude to you,” he tells them, “I almost feel as if you ought to be grateful to me, for giving you the opportunity of enjoying the luxury of generosity” (6). He justifies his parasitic way of life with his “Drone philosophy”(8), which describes the drone, living on the honey produced by the busy bees, as a necessary counterpart to them. Esther and Richard loan him money to prevent his arrest by Neckett (6). He accepts a bribe from Bucket to disclose the whereabouts of young Jo (31). Vholes gives him five pounds to introduce him to Richard Carstone (57). Later, Jarndyce asks him not to accept money from Richard Carstone (61). Skimpole responds by describing Jarndyce in his memoirs as “the Incarnation of Selfishness” (61). Skimpole has several children and grandchildren, including three daughters, Arethusa, Laura, and Kitty, whom he characterizes as his Beauty daughter, Sentiment daughter, and Comedy daughter (43).
Although Skimpole claims to possess the innocence and openness of a child, he turns out to be more secretive and knowing than he pretends. He colludes with Bucket to “move on” the feverish Jo; he callously ignores the suffering of his wife and children, and his final condemnation of Jarndyce reveals a selfishness that belies his innocent philosophy. His relationship with Jarndyce, who is largely blind to Skimpole’s faults, adds an important dimension to the novel’s critique of philanthropy, suggesting that philanthropy calls for collusion between the philanthropists and their clients. Alexander Welsh (2000) provides a thoughtful analysis of the relation between Skimpole and Jarndyce.