Bleak House heralds the prowess of Charles Dickens at his highest point. Woven around a lawsuit named Jarndyce Vs Jarndyce, the novel bears the distinctive stamp of the novelist, especially his powers of observation and characterization. The range of people who are present in a Dickens novel, makes him no less than a social historian and will survive until posterity as a chronicle or document of Victorian England albeit laced with interest, humor, sentiment and drama.
The theme of childhood, deprivation, orphan-hood and poverty continues in this novel as it does in Great Expectations, David Copperfield or Nicholas Nickleby in the characters of Esther, Ada, Richard and Jo. The obfuscation and complexity of the Chancery suit should be regarded as another theme. The class divide that exists in English society is subtly flagged by the novelist while dealing with the situations between the Dedlocks and the other characters.
The array of characters that Dickens has created in this novel is indeed mind boggling. Harold skimpole, Guppy, Snagsby, Smallweed, Boythorn, Lady Dedlock, Charley, Krook, George, Phil, Esther Summerson, Hortense, Mrs Rouncewell, Ada – What a range of characters which once again reaffirms my belief in Dickens’ powers of observation and hence characterization to be more than extraordinary. He does provide them with shades of extremity bordering on the absurd: Ms. Smallweed’s preoccupation with money, Mr. Snagsby’s coughs, Mr. Tulking horn’s immovability and impassionate demeanor, Ms. Jelly by’s obsession with Africa, Mr. Turveydrop’s life bordering only on deportment and Mr. Chadband’s sermonizing.
Diverting from analytical arguments over what the novel is meant to be, the thematic overview etc, what a pleasure it is to read a Dickens novel. Again and again my belief in the value of entertainment and the ability of the novel (fiction) to remove boredom and recreate wonder is reinforced by a Dickens novel. Bleak House is by no means bleak. It is a vast canvas of human life, London or Lincolnshire portrayed in its starkness and primary state. (I Keep reminding myself that Dickens wrote his novels to entertain his readers; the review/ critical summary/ analysis of his work is the purview of critics and literary theorists) Novels such as Bleak House convey the power of Literature. While performing his duty of entertaining the readers, the novelist is responding at various levels to the problems that his discourse puts forth.
The plot has its share of surprises. Krook being Ms Small Weed’s brother, Boy thorn being Lady Dedlock’s sister’s husband, George being Mrs. Rouncewell’s son and so on. This is another of those powerful techniques that Dickens employs to daze, delight and corner the reader. I was sad that it ended. I wanted more of what the novelist had created. Such is the power of the novel. Although the author deftly summarizes the fortunes and the progress of all his characters, the reader (myself) is a little dazed,for the power of the novel is too significant and pressing. I could see the characters inhabit their shady corners and crevices of Chesney Wold, Chancery Lane, Lincolnshire and Bleak House which is not bleak after all but is enshrined as an abode of happiness and symbolizes all that is good and kind, personified in the inhabitants of the house; Esther Summerson, Wood court and Jarndyce, Dickens is on the aspect of idolizing and creating a set of perfect characters who are nearly flawless and infallible. He is at ease, moulding and making people from all walks of life; the high and the genteel; Sir Dedlock and Lady Dedlock, to the mean and petty, Krook, Small Weed or Mr. Guppy or the so called small and marginal of the society, riffraff for those who look at them from a privileged point of view; Jo, Jenny, Charley, Phil and others. The class reality is too real and oppressive to be ignored.
Against the backdrop of a Chancery suit, Dickens narrates the fortunes of two families. The Jarndyces and the Dedlocks, who are both connected and influenced by the fortunes of Miss Esther. The characters of Turvey drop, Caddy, Tulking Horn, George, Inspector Bucket, The Bagnets, Ms Flite, Rouncewell, Vholes, Snagsby are the accompaniments in this delicious repast as Dickens weaves and maneuvers the narrative across time. Bleak House has a complexity of discourse rather than plot. Disguise, and the relativity of truth are at the heart of the novel. Lady Dedlock is ignorant of the survival of her daughter Miss Esther who is thought dead after birth and this is the bedrock which spins the entire novel. The fiction that the Jarndyce suit will yield considerable wealth to the suitors blows up in the fact that the suit is dissolved in its costs/expenses.
Bleakness and Blackness dominate the proceedings of the novel. Most of the characters are in the confines of a cloistered space; Sir Dedlock, Miss Flite, Vholes, Smallweed, Krook etc., The confinement impinges regularly on the moods and fortunes of the characters. Richard’s fortunes start declining when he moves into a small room in Symond’s inn. Lady Dedlock’s lover and Miss Esther’s father of whom very little is said in the novel is forever in his dark room, in delusions or illusions from the spell of opium.
Esther Summerson is the mirror of sunshine who brightens all to whom she is introduced; the anodyne for suffering, the emollient of misery, the embodiment of virtue, the harbinger of happiness, Esther Summerson is the pole-star in whom Dickens has bestowed abundant kindness and goodness. ( To be continued)