Bleak House Study Guide by Course Hero What's Inside person female narrator in all of Dickens's fiction. TENSE Those chapters of Bleak House told by Esther Summerson are j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 written in the past tense. Chapters told by the narrator are in the present tense. Bleak House is the only novel Dickens wrote d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1 in the present tense. a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3 ABOUT THE TITLE Bleak House is named after the home of John Jarndyce, who h Characters .................................................................................................. 4 takes in the orphans Richard Carstone and Ada Clare—two of k Plot Summary ............................................................................................ 11 the many heirs named in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce probate case—and hires Esther Summerson as Ada's companion. c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 17 Despite its name, the large house is warm and inviting. g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 80 l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 82 d In Context m Themes ...................................................................................................... 83 b Motifs .......................................................................................................... 85 The Great Exhibition e Suggested Reading .............................................................................. 85 Victorian England was characterized by a growing middle class, a growing empire, and a growing sense of scientific and social progress. To celebrate these achievements, England j Book Basics held a huge world's fair–like event called The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. AUTHOR The Great Exhibition opened on May 1, 1851, and took place in Charles Dickens London's Hyde Park in a 19-acre iron-and-glass structure YEAR PUBLISHED known as the Crystal Palace. This building embodied the 1852–53 technological advances of the time. Sections were prefabricated in Birmingham—a center of the Industrial GENRE Revolution—and transported to London for assembly. The Drama, Romance Birmingham and London teams kept in close contact via telegraph. In less than nine months the huge "palace" was PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR complete, and the Exhibition opened on schedule. On display Parts of Bleak House are told in the third person by an were roughly 100,000 items from more than 15,000 omniscient narrator; other sections are told in the first person contributors throughout the world. The United States, for by the main character, Esther Summerson. She is the only first- Bleak House Study Guide In Context 2 example, exhibited a McCormick reaper, a cotton gin, several Chancellor, and the equity court came to be known as the Colt revolvers, some Goodyear rubber products, an Court of Chancery. The Chancellor and his subordinates did "unpickable" lock, and two sculptures. not need to refer to precedent or codified law; they decided cases based on arguments and did not have to justify their To anyone who has visited a county or state fair, The Great decisions. Judges' decisions and court arguments were Exhibition might have seemed a bit tame. But in 1851 it was gathered together and called case law to be published in unique. There were soft drinks and other refreshments, public books. Being a judge became a full-time job, as did being a restrooms, and free samples of products like chocolates and barrister. Barristers had no relationship with clients; their job cologne. Visitors could buy a one-day or season ticket. When was to argue before the court. A solicitor interacted with the the exhibition ended on October 11, more than 6 million people client, prepared the case, and hired the barrister. had visited. In Victorian England, inheritance law was tricky, as Dickens With Bleak House, Dickens wanted to remind his readers that illustrates with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce inheritance case in all was not right in England. As a journalist Dickens wrote many Bleak House. Cases involving large estates could last years. positive articles about the Great Exhibition, which celebrated Inheritance law involved not only common law and equity law, England's progress. However Dickens resented its one-sided but also civil (codified) law and canon (church) law. This was view of society, ignoring England's many ills. As early as for reasons of both custom and greed. By custom, land January 1851, he wrote an article responding to the plans for holdings were kept intact by leaving them to the oldest male the Exhibition. In it he asked, "Which of my children shall heir; this was the law of primogeniture. Because historically the behold the Princes, Prelates, Nobles, Merchants, of England, king gave land to his supporters, real property (land and the equally united, for another Exhibition—for a great display of structures on the land) lay under the authority of the royal England's sins and negligences, to be ... set right?" During the (common law) courts. Personal property—property that could Exhibition itself, he began working on the concept of Bleak be moved around—was historically the province of House, which would explore societal woes the Great Exhibition ecclesiastical (church) courts. Because marriages and deaths ignored. were dealt with by the church, disputes regarding marriage contracts and wills fell under the church's jurisdiction. The church encouraged people to leave money, shares, and Victorian Courts valuable objects to multiple heirs—including, of course, the church itself. Having multiple heirs to large estates led to Even today the English legal system is based largely on controversy, and the equitable settlement of such common law, which is sometimes called customary law. It controversies came under the jurisdiction of the Court of derives from the decisions of judges made over the course of Chancery. Finally, although marriage was within the purview of centuries, unlike law that derives from legal codes and statutes the church, children might not be: When an orphan inherited created by legislators. Common law was administered by royal property but had no guardian, it fell to the Court of Chancery courts, and royal judges traveled around the country doling out to look after the orphan's interests. the king's justice. Therefore common law seldom took local customs into account, which sometimes led to claims of Bleak House drew not only on Dickens's early experiences with unfairness. The common law courts became known for other the British justice system through his father's arrests for debt unfair practices, too, such as long delays and preferential and his work as a law clerk and court reporter, but also on his treatment for the rich and powerful, who could bribe or personal disappointment in the Court of Chancery. In 1844 he otherwise influence judges. sued a publisher for printing a slightly revised penny edition of his novel A Christmas Carol, which had come out just three Slowly but surely law codes developed—especially in cases weeks earlier. Although Dickens won an injunction against his involving property—and were applied in the royal courts. opponents, which prevented them from selling their version, he Judges increasingly demanded written documentation; where ended up having to pay the court costs when they declared formal proof was unavailable, fair decisions could not be bankruptcy; the court costs used up most of his profits from A reached. A law of equity (fairness) was needed. Administering Christmas Carol. equity law eventually fell under the jurisdiction of the Lord Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc. Bleak House Study Guide Author Biography 3 The Bleak House Illustrations Dark Plate Technique Browne also used a technique called dark plates, which is Illustrations were an important part of almost all of Dickens's useful in depicting mood rather than plot or character. The major works. The English illustrator Hablot Knight Browne, technique emphasizes light and shadow over detail. Rather known by the pen name Phiz, collaborated with Dickens for 23 than creating patches of darkness in an otherwise light image years on 10 of the author's 15 novels, including Bleak House. by engraving limited areas of parallel lines on the plate that are In general the purpose of illustrations in a Victorian work of close together or crisscrossed, Browne used a ruling machine fiction was interpretive. The artist sought to indicate to cover the entire plate with fine lines, thus making the whole characters' personalities, clarify thematic relationships, and image dark and indicating nighttime, dark weather, or a severe emphasize symbols. The element of caricature that so often London fog. Only 10 of the 40 illustrations in Bleak House use featured in the illustrations in Dickens's novels suited his this technique. frequent use of exaggeration, sarcasm, and irony when commenting on characters in the narration. Just as the author did in his text, Browne also used motifs to great effect in his a Author Biography images. For instance, in the first three illustrations featuring Esther (Chapters