Bleak House

“Her natural cruelty is sharpened by a jealous fear of their regaining their liberty.”

The cat preying on any birds who escape from their cages is a metaphor for the dangers of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. The characters are trapped by their obsession with the potential inheritance and preyed upon by lawyers and advisors—people who profit from the case’s continuation, and who eventually drain the inheritance of all its money.

“I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east.”

Jarndyce’s fear of the East Wind symbolizes his lack of control. As a claimant in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case, he has given up any hope of the case ever being resolved. This huge part of his life is entirely out of his control and seems to have a corrosive and corrupting effect on all those around him. The case is like the East Wind, blowing from an unknown place for an unknown reason to seemingly bring misery into Jarndyce’s life. His contradictory qualifications—he is “always” conscious, but only “now and then”—reflect his efforts to maintain his good humor.

“Concert, assembly, opera, theatre, drive, nothing is new to my Lady under the worn-out heavens.”

The trappings of the wealthy elite are presented as both luxurious and hollow. Lady Dedlock can have anything she wants and go anywhere she pleases, but nothing can quell the deep, painful grief that she feels regarding the loss of her child. Lady Dedlock appears detached and aloof because she has trained herself to expunge all emotions lest she reveal the scandalous nature of her past. The whole world is “worn-out” for Lady Dedlock, as she is not permitted to publicly address her emotional pain.

“All this time he was, in money affairs, what I have described him in a former illustration—generous, profuse, wildly careless, but fully persuaded that he was rather calculating and prudent.”

Richard spends lavishly and drives himself into debt. At all times, however, he is convinced that he is acting in an intelligent manner. This belief is key to Richard’s character. He only wants to help, and he hopes that he can help the greatest number of people by being the chief benefactor of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. Richard is altruistic, but in a misguided and tragic sense.

“Whatever you do on this side the grave, never give one lingering glance towards the horrible phantom that has haunted us so many years. Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die!”

Jarndyce is one of the few characters who correctly diagnose the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case as a curse rather than a blessing. Throughout his life, he has seen relatives become invested in the case to the point of obsession. The case has caused misery, poverty, and suicide, so Jarndyce completely divests himself of any interest in the case ever being resolved. He tries to convince Richard that the case is a “horrible phantom,” but the force of his conviction cannot match the potency of the case.

“All this, so quickly, that her exclamation and her dead condition seem to have passed away like the features of those long-preserved dead bodies sometimes opened up in tombs, which, struck by the air like lightning, vanish in a breath.”

The revelations regarding her daughter foreshadow Lady Dedlock’s fate. Even at this point, the novel describes her in ominous tones. She is associated with death and graves; eventually, she will be found dead on the grave of Captain Hawdon. In truth, she has been dead inside ever since losing her daughter. The grief and the inability to share it have caused her a seemingly insurmountable emotional pain that has turned her into a husk of a person, waiting to die. 

“I was afraid of staying then to speak to either woman, lest I should bring her into trouble.”

When visiting the brickmakers’ house, Esther is made painfully aware of the presence of domestic violence. If either Liz or Jenny speaks without their husbands’ express permission, they run the risk of being abused physically. Esther is afraid on their behalf. Her empathy is evident, especially as no other character seems phased by the lingering threat of violence in the house. However, Esther’s own narration seems unwilling to explicitly describe the violence, almost as though she wants to deny the existence of such a dark, tragic truth.

“One glance between the old man and the lady, and for an instant the blind that is always down flies up.”

Lady Dedlock’s cold façade slips, but only for an “instant.” Until the moment she is framed for murder, Lady Dedlock maintains a detached and emotionless demeanor. This is a public performance to distract from the pain and turmoil she feels inside. As the other characters edge closer to the truth, however, the pretense is increasingly difficult to keep up. Though brief, this moment reveals the intense pressure that is weighing down upon Lady Dedlock.

“To tell you the truth, I am not inclined to smoke it to-day.”

George and Grandfather Smallweed have a ritual; whenever they discuss loans and debts, they smoke a pipe together. On this occasion, however, George declines to smoke the pipe. His rejection of the ritual reflects his changing attitude toward Smallweed and the loan industry in general. He is beginning to resent their treatment of the impoverished and the desperate, but he lacks any real power to change the society. By declining the pipe, he makes a gesture of disapproval, even if he cannot reform society.

“I was doubtful whether I had a right to preserve what he had sent to one so different—whether it was generous towards him to do it.”

Esther’s willingness to blame herself for everything extends to her own facial scarring. She does not allow herself to harbor self-pity. Instead, she criticizes her own negative emotions, as though she were stealing affection from her past self. She does not want to steal Woodcourt’s love for that past self because she no longer believes herself worthy of this love.

“While his heart is heavy with corroding care, suspense, distrust, and doubt, it may have room for some sorrowful wonder when he recalls how different his first visit there, how different he, how different all the colors of his mind.”

The kaleidoscopic experience of Richard’s first visit to the Court of Chancery helps to explain his obsession. He quickly becomes invested in the pomp and pageantry of the court, although these same aspects of Chancery later take on a darker “color” for him.

“Mr. Tulkinghorn takes a small key from his pocket, unlocks a drawer in which there is another key, which unlocks a chest in which there is another, and so comes to the cellar-key, with which he prepares to descend to the regions of old wine.”

The law is a convoluted mess and only ancient, archaic figures such as Tulkinghorn can seemingly exert a mastery over it. Tulkinghorn’s expertise is not necessarily due to his experience or knowledge of the law itself, but due to the secrets and hiding places that define his person. Even his office is rife with secrets, such as the complicated string of hiding places that guard his cellar. Everything about Tulkinghorn is shrouded in impenetrable secrecy, just like the laws and courts.

“I was glad to be tenderly remembered, to be gently pitied, not to be quite forgotten.”

Esther’s sincere, earnest desire for affection and tenderness is a key part of her character. While Richard wants wealth and Jarndyce wants to help others, Esther wants to experience the love that she was denied as an orphaned child. This desire to be loved makes Lady Dedlock’s inability to establish a relationship with Esther all the more tragic.

“In Lincolnshire the Dedlocks of the past doze in their picture-frames, and the low wind murmurs through the long drawing-room as if they were breathing pretty regularly.”

The family members portrayed in Chesney Wold’s paintings seemingly haunt its living residents. They watch over Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock, and the others, illustrating the way in which generations long dead can still hold sway over the living. Just as the debate between two competing wills has tied up the Court of Chancery for decades, the expectations of Sir Leicester’s family guide his actions, as though his ancestors were still watching and judging him at every moment.

“Duty is duty, and friendship is friendship.”

Bucket may not always agree with his duties, but he regards the idea of duties as sacred. He can separate his duty to arrest George from his budding friendship with the former soldier, placing his duties above everything else. Doing so allows Bucket to make sense of a complicated world, as his duties guide him forward while his friendships threaten to distract him.

“I cannot bear the thought of appearing selfish and mean. I want to see Ada righted, Woodcourt, as well as myself.”

Richard is desperate to believe that he is not purely self-interested. He recognizes that his obsession with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case has taken a toll on his health and his friendships, so he scrambles for a more altruistic explanation of his actions. By convincing himself that his love for Ada drives his obsession, he can think of himself as a hero.

“But the mere truth won’t do.”

Jarndyce visits George in prison and in a short sentence reveals the distinction between Justice Versus Law, as well as the hypocrisy of the courts that define so many characters’ lives. The Jarndyce and Jarndyce case is allegedly a search for truth; it is an attempt to uncover the real and rightful heirs to the fortune. As Jarndyce points out, however, “mere truth” does not suffice in the legal system; everything is subjective, everything is debated, and truth is only agreed upon after the fact. Jarndyce’s cynicism may seem like sensible advice given George’s predicament, but George is eventually vindicated.

“Railroads shall soon traverse all this country, and with a rattle and a glare the engine and train shall shoot like a meteor over the wide night-landscape, turning the moon paler.”

The railroads exist in Bleak House as a subtle reminder of encroaching modernity. Archaic systems such as the Court of Chancery will crumble before the industrial behemoth of the immediate future. The railroad brings people together, even though the past divides them.

“You have made your bed. Now, lie upon it.”

George accepts his fate as a form of self-punishment. He regrets hiding his life from his family, so any misery or pain inflicted on him underscores the self-loathing he feels for not measuring up to his brother’s success. George is willing to endure any kind of pain as penance for his mistakes, as though the universe were punishing him for crimes that only he acknowledges.

“Does this discovery of some one lost, this return of some one so long gone, come upon him as a strong confirmation of his hopes?”

In certain ways, George and Lady Dedlock are similar characters. During their lives, they have both felt so burdened by shame and responsibility that they run away from their respective homes and throw themselves on the mercy of fate. George eventually finds his way home after living in secret for many years, but Lady Dedlock is not so fortunate.

“And it was my mother, cold and dead.”

Esther‘s tragedy is that she grew up without a mother only to discover one who, though alive, is obliged by social responsibility and expectations to keep their relationship hidden. Finding Lady Dedlock on the grave may be the closest that Esther can come to being with her mother in any honest capacity. Only death removes the social obligations that have kept them apart for so long.

“So slow, so eager, so bloodless and gaunt, I felt as if Richard were wasting away beneath the eyes of this adviser and there were something of the vampire in him.”

Dickens frames Vholes as a vampiric figure. He is one of many legal advisors who make a fortune from the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. Like the others, he sucks the inheritance dry before the case is finally resolved. At the same time, he is sucking the life out of Richard by dangling the hope of a profitable judgment in front of him. Esther takes an immediate dislike to Vholes and correctly diagnoses him as a parasitic figure.

“I saw in the papering on the walls, in the colors of the furniture, in the arrangement of all the pretty objects, my little tastes and fancies, my little methods and inventions which they used to laugh at while they praised them, my odd ways everywhere.”

The decoration and the keeping of Bleak House are among the few ways in which Esther can express herself. As someone who is demonstrably not a member of the elite, she must work for a living. Her work becomes a form of self-expression, and this self-expression is made all the more meaningful when Esther visits another home that is decorated and kept in the exact same manner. The similarity is a vindication of her identity—an acknowledgment from Jarndyce that Esther has a valid identity that he can discern and replicate for her benefit.