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Bleak house, by charles dickens
Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens that critiques the English legal system and society of the time. It follows two plots around the legal case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which highlights the inefficiencies of the Court of Chancery. The novel also depicts the bleak living conditions of the working class through characters like Jo. Through its use of fog, symbols, and multiple narrators, Bleak House comments on the social problems and injustices of mid-19th century England.
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Bleak house, by charles dickens
- 1. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens
- 2. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens Background to the Novel • The Factory Act, passed in 1850, defined the legal working hours. • Campaign for the reform of Chancery Law and improvement of sanitation. • Great Exhibition (1851): beginning of a new era.
- 3. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Bleak House: Dickens’ comment on his own times and the state of the country. • Characters reflect the prevailing vices, evils, and neglect of social, moral and spiritual affairs.
- 4. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Dickens uses information from a solicitor to tell his story about the Chancery and its “antiquated jurisprudence.” (Handley 10) • Published in monthly installments (March 1852-September 1853).
- 5. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Structure: 2 plots – several subplots; • Multiple association: everything is related to everything else. • Contrasts in character, theme, images and symbols. • Author’s voice: focused on Esther.
- 6. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Bleak: ADJECTIVE • 1(of an area of land) lacking vegetation and exposed to the elements. • ‘a bleak and barren moor’ • 1.1(of a building or room) charmless and inhospitable; dreary.‘( the bleak little room) • 1.2(of the weather) cold and miserable. ‘a bleak midwinter's day’ • 1.3(of a situation) not hopeful or encouraging; unlikely to have a favourable outcome.‘he paints a bleak picture of a company that has lost its way’; ‘the future looks bleak’ • 1.4(of a person's expression) cold and forbidding.
- 7. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Structure enhanced by balance, unity between narrators and images and symbols: E.g. the London fog, the fog in Chancery proceedings, the fog at Chesney Wold and in Jo’s mind.
- 8. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens Style • Irony • Atmosphere ( e.g. Fog; deprivation, etc) • Multiple association • Weather (mood or morality) • Detailed descriptions
- 9. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Gothic /macabre elements • Symbols (e.g. Jo’s sweeping – need for a larger broom and need to cleanse not only the dirt). • Symbolic names (e.g. Nemo = Latin for “nobody”)
- 10. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Light and darkness imagery associated to particular characters • Association of characters to phrases or actions: e.g.”Mrs Bagnet is always washing greens.” • Use of the rhetorical and the sentimental. (Handley 19-20)
- 11. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens Themes • Satirical attack on Chancery • Importance given to the nobility • Superficiality of society • Service to others • Family Life (Handley 21-22)
- 12. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens • Search for Love • Importance and Danger of Passion • Ambiguous definition of “Mother” Motifs: Secrets - Children Suicide
- 13. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens Symbols: The East Wind Miss Flite’s Birds Mr Woodcourt’s Flowers (Sparknotes Editors 9-11)
- 14. Bleak House, byCharles Dickens Genre Social Problem novel or Social novel: “work of fiction in which the prevailing social problem, such as gender, race or class prejudice, is dramatised through its effect on the characters of a novel.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica Editors)