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

CHAPTER TWO.CHARACTERS AND RELATED ENTRIES
2.1.Badger, Bayham and others
Doctor with whom Richard Carstone studies medicine. A cousin of Kenge, John Jarndyce’s solicitor, Dr. Badger is “a pink, fresh-faced, crisp-looking gentleman, with a weak voice, light hair, and surprised eyes: some years younger . . . than Mrs. Bayham Badger. He admired her exceedingly, but principally, and to begin with, on the curious ground . . . of her having had three husbands” (13). He is perhaps most notable as Mrs. Bayham Badger’s third husband.
Badger, Laura (Mrs. Bayham)
Bayham Badger’s wife: “She was surrounded in the drawing room by various objects, indicative of her painting a little, playing the piano a little, playing the guitar a little, playing the harp a little, singing a little, working a little, reading a little, writing poetry a little, and botanising a little. She was a lady of about fifty, I should think, youthfully dressed, and of a very fine complexion” (13). In conversation she repeatedly refers to the professional accomplishments of her first two husbands, Captain Swosser of the Royal Navy and Professor Dingo, a naturalist.
The Badgers provide comic relief in the novel, but Mrs. Badger’s obsession with the professions of her husbands also draws attention to Richard Carstone’s lack of commitment to his medical studies.
Bagnet, Matthew (“Lignum Vitae”)
Formerartilleryman, bassoon player, and proprietor of a small musical instrument shop at Elephant and Castle. An army friend of George Rouncewell, he acts as guarantor of George’s loan from Grandfather Smallweed. “An ex-artilleryman, tall and upright, with shaggy eyebrows, and whiskers like the fibres of a cocoa-nut, not a hair upon his head, and a torrid complexion. His voice, short, deep, and resonant, is not at all unlike the tones of the instrument to which he is devoted. Indeed, there may be generally observed in him an unbending, unyielding, brass-bound air, as if he were himself the bassoon of the human orchestra” (27). Although his nickname from his army days is Lignum Vitae, after a South American hardwood, suggestive of his “extreme hardness and toughness,” Bagnet is a gentle family man who defers to his wife in all family decisions. He tells George, “It’s my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained” (27). Their mutual accommodations to this fiction maintain this happy family. When George is unable to repay the loan, Smallweed threatens the meager finances of the Bagnet family and Mrs. Bagnet acts to rescue the family and George. The Bagnets have three children, Woolwich, Quebec, and Malta, named for the military bases where they were born.
Bagnet, Mrs. (“the Old Girl”)
“A strong, busy, active, honest-faced woman, . . . so economically dressed (though substantially), that the only article of ornament of which she stands possessed appears to be her wedding-ring; around which her finger has grown to be so large since it was put on, that it will never come off again until it shall mingle with Mrs. Bagnet’s dust” (27). She is also recognized by her grey cloak and the umbrella she always carries. Dona Budd (“Langage Couples in Bleak House,” Nineteenth Century Literature, 1994) suggests that the umbrella serves as a kind of scepter, indicating Mrs. Bagnet’s assumption of the masculine role in the family. She manages the Bagnet household and makes all the important decisions in her husband’s life. When George Rouncewell is arrested for the murder of Mr. Tulkinghorn, she goes to Lincolnshire to find Mrs. Rouncewell and reunites George with his mother from whom he has long been separated (52).⁶
Barbary, Miss
Lady Dedlock’s stern and cruel sister who lives at WIindsor, Berkshire; the “godmother” who raises Esther Summerson. “She was a good, good woman! She went to church three times every Sunday, and to morning prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays, and to lectures whenever there were lectures; and never missed. She was handsome; and if she had ever smiled, would have been . . . like an angel—but she never smiled” (3). She tells Esther that “It would have been far better . . . that you had never been born!”
Bell Yard
A narrow lane off Fleet Street where Mrs. Blinder cares for the Neckett children (15).
Bleak House
Two houses in St . Al bans have been suggested as the likely originals of Dickens’s Bleak House. Fort House in Broadstairs, Kent, the building where Dickens spent many holidays, has been renamed Bleak House, but it has no connection with the house in the novel.
Blinder, Mrs.
The kindly woman in Bell Yard who cares for the Neckett children after their father’s death (15).
Blowers, Mr.
An eminent attorney involved in the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce (1).
Bogsby, James
George Landlord of Sol’s Arms (33).
“Boguey”
Weevle’s nickname for Krook (32).
Boodle, Lord
One of Sir Leicester Dedlock’s guests at Chesney Wold, a man of “considerable reputation within his party,” who laments the politics of the time. He tells Dedlock that the choices for a new government “would lie between Lord Coodle and Sir Thomas Doodle—supposing it to be impossible for the Duke of Foodle to act with Goodle, which may be assumed to be the case in consequence of the breach arising out of that affair with Hoodle. Then, giving the Home Department and the Leadership of the House of Commons to Joodle, the Foreign Office to Moodle, what are you to do with Noodle? You can’t offer him the Presidency of the Council; that is reserved for Poodle. You can’t put him in the Woods and Forests; that is hardly good enough for Quoodle. What follows? That the country is shipwrecked, lost, and gone to pieces” (12). This catalog satirizes the do-nothing aristocrats and politicians who maintain the political and social status quo.
Borrioboola-Gha
African village that is the focus of Mrs. Jellyby’s missionary activities (4).
Boythorn, Lawrence
The impetuous and boisterous friend of John Jarndyce, who speaks with a “vigorous healthy voice,” spilling out a “very fury of . . . superlatives, which seem . . . to go off like blank cannons and hurt nothing. . . . He was not only a very handsome gentleman . . . with a massive grey head, a fine composure of face when silent, a figure that might have become corpulent but for his being so continually in earnest that he gave it no rest, and a chin that might have subsided into a double chin but for the vehement emphasis which it was constantly required to assist; but he was such a true gentleman in his manner, so chivalrously polite, his face was lighted by a smile of so much sweetness and tenderness, and it seemed so plain that he had nothing to hide, but showed himself exactly as he was” (9). His boisterousness is belied by the pet canary he carries upon his shoulder. He maintains an ongoing litigation over property lines with his neighbor, Sir Leicester Dedlock. He offers his house to Esther Summerson for her recuperation from smallpox (36). In his passionate commitment to principle, Graham Storey (1987) points out, he is the opposite of Harold Skimpole.
Boythorn was, according to Dickens, “a most exact portrait” of the poet WAalter Savage Landor, Doris Alexander (1991) concludes that Dickens toned down Landor’s eccentricities in the portrayal of Boythorn.
Bucket
Police detective employed by Tulkinghorn to discover Gridley’s whereabouts and to inquire into Lady Dedlock’s interest in Hawdon’s grave. “With his attentive face, and his hat and stick in his hands, and his hands behind him, [he is] a composed and quiet listener. He is a stoutlybuilt, steady-looking, sharp-eyed man in black, of about the middle-age” (22). He sizes up those he is questioning or investigating and discovers their interests, using flattery to learn what they might otherwise withhold. After Tulkinghorn’s murder, he and his wife work together to solve the crime. Although he initially arrests George for the crime (49), he uses the arrest as a ruse in his scheme to trick Hortense into a confession (54). He is also employed by Sir Leicester Dedlock to follow Lady Dedlock when she runs from Chesney Wold (57)⁷.
Although Dickens denied it, Bucket was probably based on Inspector Field of the Metropolitan Police.
Bucket, Mrs.
Bucket’s wife, “a lady of natural detective genius” (53). She keeps tabs on Hortense when the French maid is under suspicion and living as a lodger in the Bucket household.
Buffy, the Rt. Hon. William, M.P.
The initial figure in one of Dickens’s catalogs satirizing political Dandyism, Buffy is a political ally of Sir Leicester Dedlock. He contends that “the shipwreck of the country—about which there is no doubt . . . is attributable to Cuffy. If you had done with Cuffy what you ought to have done, when he first came into Parliament, and had prevented him going over to Duffy, you would have got him into alliance with Fuffy” (12).
Carstone, Richard
Ward of the Court of Chancery, committed by the court to the charge of John Jarndyce, “a handsome youth, with an ingenuous face, and a most engaging laugh. . . . He was very young” (3). He falls in love with his cousin and fellow ward, Ada Clare. He is kind, trusting, and generous, but also naive and feckless. Jarndyce tries to give direction for his life by encouraging him to enter a profession. Richard tries medicine (13), the law (17), and the Army (24), but he is unable to settle on anything because of his unhealthy preoccupation with the Jarndyce case. Finally he falls into the clutches of the lawyer Vholes, who feeds his obsession with the suit (37). He becomes suspicious and, estranged from Jarndyce, he wastes away. Richard secretly marries Ada (51), but she cannot restore him to health. When the Jarndyce suit ends with all proceeds absorbed in court costs, Richard dies, leaving Ada and his unborn child to the care of Jarndyce (65). Obsessed with the law suit like Gridley, Miss Flite, and Tom Jarndyce, Richard is the most developed portrait of a victim of Chancery.
Chadband, Mrs. (Mrs. Rachael)
Esther Summerson’s childhood nurse, then known as Mrs. Rachael, “a stern, severe-looking, silent woman” (19).
Chadband, the Reverend
Mr. Unctuous dissenting clergyman admired by Mrs. Snagsby, he is the model of cant and hypocrisy: “a large yellow man, with a fat smile, and a general appearance of having a good deal of train oil in his system” (19). He speaks in a homiletic style, asking empty rhetorical questions, exploiting vapid biblical allusions, with a pulpit dialect that transforms “truth” into “terewth.” He “never speaks without first putting up his great hand, as delivering a token to his hearers that he is going to edify them” (19). His wife, “a stern, severe-looking, silent woman” (19), turns out to be Mrs. Rachael, Esther Summerson’s childhood nurse. Chadband sermonizes Jo on “Terewth” (25). He joins with the Smallweeds in an attempt to blackmail Sir Leicester Dedlock and is thwarted by Bucket (54).
Dennis Walder (1981) suggests that the Reverend Edward Irving was the original for Chadband, but Doris Alexander (1991) identifies a strong physical resemblance between the preacher and the poet John Kenyon.
Charley
Nickname of Charlotte Neckett.
Chesney Wold
The Dedlocks’ house in Lincolnshire (2), where Lady Dedlock’s portrait attracts Guppy’s attention (7) and where the legend of the Ghost’s Walk haunts Lady Dedlock. Dickens based Chesney Wold on Rockingham Cast l e in Northamptonshire.
Clare, Miss Ada
Ward in the Court of Chancery who is committed by the court to the guardianship of John Jarndyce, “a beautiful girl! With such rich golden hair, such soft blue eyes, such a bright, innocent, trusting face!” (3). Jarndyce chooses Esther Summerson, who refers to Ada as “my beauty,” to be her companion. Although Ada is in love with her cousin and fellow ward, Richard Carstone, she is also worried about his restless and suspicious behavior. She secretly marries him shortly before his death (51) and is left with an infant son, Richard, to be cared for by Jarndyce (67).
By repeatedly referring to Ada as “my beauty,” Esther calls attention to Ada’s role as the figure on whom Esther projects her own physical attractiveness and sexual desires. Alexander Welsh (2000) analyzes her role in these terms as a projection of Esther’s repressed self-image.
“Coavinses”
Skimpole’s name for Neckett, derived from Neckett’s employment as an agent for Coavinses’ Sponging House (6).
Dedlock, Lady Honoria
The proud, beautiful, and cold wife of Sir Leicester Dedlock. Twenty years younger than her husband, “she has beauty still, and, if it be not in its heyday, it is not yet in its autumn. She has a fine face—originally of a character that would be rather called very pretty than handsome, but improved into classicality by the acquired expression of her fashionable state” (2). A celebrated beauty, she conceals her humble origins and her guilt about her past behind a facade of cold condescension, repeatedly protesting that she is “bored to death.” Her celebrity and her melodramatic pose draw the curious attentions of several investigators who seek to discover Lady Dedlock’s secret. Tulkinghorn wants to discover the reason for her repressed interest in Nemo’s handwriting (2), Guppy tries to unravel the physical resemblance between Esther Summerson and Lady Dedlock’s portrait, and Bucket investigates her involvement in Tulkinghorn’s murder. Tulkinghorn learns of her relationship with Captain Hawdon and of their illegitimate daughter, Esther Summerson. Lady Dedlock reveals herself to Esther and pledges her to secrecy (36), but she runs from Chesney Wold when Sir Leicester learns of her past (56). Disguised as a poor brickmaker’s wife, she makes her way to London pursued by Bucket and Esther. They find her dead by the gate to the graveyard where Hawdon is buried (59).⁸
Lady Dedlock’s story follows that of the conventional Victorian melodrama of the fallen woman; the novel could easily have been entitled “Lady Dedlock’s Secret.” Telling it, however, through the two contrasting narrators shifts the interest from the conventional exposé to the psychological implications, both for Lady Dedlock and for those around her. Repressing her secret has frozen her into a state of self-conscious spiritual paralysis, a condition analyzed by J. HILLIS MILLER (1958). She is as deadlocked psychologically as her husband is socially. Seeing her story through the eyes of Esther, who for different reasons represses the truth of her identity, also underscores the degree to which her story is constructed by the men who investigate her, especially Tulkinghorn, Guppy, and Bucket. As her inclusion in the “Galaxy Gallery of British Beauty” indicates, she is a construct of the male gaze. Only Esther, who scrupulously avoids similar attention, has intimations of Lady Dedlock’s inner life, knowledge that she is bound to keep secret. Although Esther’s narration, in a limited way, defamiliarizes the conventional story, it does not save Lady Dedlock from the inevitable punishment for her sins, a punishment that extends to others, especially Sir Leicester and Tulkinghorn, whose involvement in her story brings suffering and death.
Dedlock, Sir Leicester
Baronet, patriarch of the Lincolnshire Dedlocks and present owner of their landed estate, Chesney Wold. “His family is as old as the hills and infinitely more respectable. He has a general opinion that the world might get on without hills, but would be done up without Dedlocks. . . . He is an honourable, obstinate, truthful, highspirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly unreasonable man. Sir Leicester is twenty years, full measure, older than my Lady. He will never see sixty-five again, nor perhaps sixty-six, nor yet sixty-seven. He has a twist of gout now and then, and walks a little stiffly. He is of a worthy presence, with his light grey hair and whiskers, his fine shirt-frill, his pure white waistcoat, and his blue coat with bright buttons always buttoned” (2). At the top of the social scale in the novel, Sir Leicester represents the idle landed aristocracy. He is deadlocked in the past and is totally alienated from his present society, a condition described in the novel as Dandyism.