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Bleak House Notes. Key Facts  

MAIN IDEAS KEY FACTS

Full Title · Bleak House Author · Charles Dickens Type Of Work · Novel Genre · Fiction Language · English Time And Place Written · London, 1852–1853 Date Of First Publication · First installment of serial, March 1852 Publisher · Bradbury & Evans, 1853 Narrator · Esther Summerson and a third-person narrator Point Of View · In Esther’s sections, the point of view is first person. In the narrator’s sections, the point of view is third person. Tone · Satirical, mysterious, compassionate Tense · Esther’s sections are in the past tense, as she narrates from a point seven years after the events of the novel take place. The thirdperson narrator’s sections are in the present tense. Setting (Time) · Mid-nineteenth century Setting (Place) · England, primarily Lincolnshire and London Protagonist · Esther Summerson Major Conflict · There are several storylines in Bleak House, each with its own conflict, but the main conflict that joins the storylines together is Tulkinghorn’s investigation into Lady Dedlock’s past. Rising Action · Lady Dedlock must protect the secret of her past when elements of her past resurface. When Tulkinghorn is murdered, Inspector Bucket must determine who did it.

Climax · There are several climaxes in the novel. Most significant are Lady Dedlock’s realization that Esther is her daughter in chapter 29 and Mademoiselle Hortense’s arrest in chapter 54. Falling Action · After Mademoiselle Hortense is arrested, Inspector Bucket explains the path that led him to his dramatic conclusion. After Lady Dedlock is found dead, Sir Leicester carries on in a broken state at Chesney Wold, while Esther describes the happy life she leads at the new Bleak House. Themes · The search for love; the importance and danger of passion; the ambiguous definition of mother Motifs · Secrets; suicide; children Symbols · The east wind; Miss Flite’s birds; Mr. Woodcourt’s flowers Foreshadowing · There are many instances of foreshadowing in Esther’s narrative as she looks back on the events after they have already occurred. For example, in chapter 17, Esther says she doesn’t understand why Mr. Jarndyce looks so upset when she calls him “father” and that she wouldn’t understand for “many and many a day.” In chapter 29, the narrator suggests that Lady Dedlock fears Tulkinghorn, which does indeed prove to be the case. In chapter 45, Esther laments—“ah, poor poor fellow!”—when she discusses Richard, foreshadowing his eventual death.

Plot Overview  

SUMMARY PLOT OVERVIEW Esther Summerson describes her childhood and says she is leaving for the home of a new guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, along with Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. On the way to the home, called Bleak House, they stop overnight at the Jellybys’ chaotic home. When they finally reach Bleak

House, they meet Mr. Jarndyce and settle in. They meet Mr. Skimpole, a man who acts like a child. The narrator describes a ghost that lurks around Chesney Wold, the home of Lady and Sir Leicester Dedlock. Esther meets the overbearing charity worker Mrs. Pardiggle, who introduces her to a poor brickmaker’s wife named Jenny, whose baby is ill. Esther says she is sure that Ada and Richard are falling in love. She meets Mr. Boythorn, as well as Mr. Guppy, who proposes marriage. Esther refuses him. At Chesney Wold, Tulkinghorn shows the Dedlocks some Jarndyce documents, and Lady Dedlock recognizes the handwriting. Tulkinghorn says he’ll find out who did it. He asks Mr. Snagsby, the law-stationer, who says a man named Nemo wrote the documents. Tulkinghorn visits Nemo, who lives above a shop run by a man named Krook, and finds him dead. At the coroner’s investigation, a street urchin named Jo is questioned and says that Nemo was nice to him. Later, Tulkinghorn tells Lady Dedlock what he’s learned. Richard struggles to find a suitable career, eventually deciding to pursue medicine. But he is more interested in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, which he believes will make him rich. Neither Esther nor the narrator ever fully explains the lawsuit, because nobody remembers what originally prompted the parties to begin the suit. In London, Esther meets a young girl named Charlotte who is caring for her two young siblings. A lodger who lives in the same building, Mr. Gridley, helps care for the children as well.

A mysterious lady approaches Jo and asks him to show her where Nemo is buried. Mr. Jarndyce tells Esther some details about her background. He reveals that the woman who raised Esther was her aunt. The next day, a doctor named Mr. Woodcourt visits before leaving on a trip to China and India. An unidentified person leaves a bouquet of flowers for Esther. Richard begins working in the law. Esther, Ada, and others visit Mr. Boythorn, who lives near Chesney Wold. There, Esther meets Lady Dedlock for the first time and feels a strange connection to her. Lady Dedlock has a French maid, Mademoiselle Hortense, who is jealous that Lady Dedlock has a new young protégée named Rosa. A man named Mr. Jobling, a friend of Mr. Guppy’s, moves into Nemo’s old room above Krook’s shop. Two men, George and Grandfather Smallweed, talk about some money that George owes Smallweed. They reach an agreement, and George leaves. Tulkinghorn introduces Bucket and Snagsby, and Snagsby introduces Bucket to Jo. Bucket figures out that the woman Jo led to the burial ground was disguised in Mademoiselle Hortense’s clothes. Mademoiselle Hortense soon quits her post at Chesney Wold. Caddy Jellyby tells Esther she is engaged to Prince Turveydrop. Charley Neckett becomes Esther’s maid. Mr. Jarndyce warns Ada and Richard to end their romantic relationship since Richard is joining the army. Gridley dies.

Smallweed visits George and says that Captain Hawdon, a man he thought was dead, is actually alive, and that a lawyer was asking about some handwriting of his. He asks George if he has any handwriting to offer. George visits Tulkinghorn, who explains that George will be rewarded if he gives up some of Hawdon’s handwriting. George refuses. Guppy visits Lady Dedlock in London and tells her he thinks there is a connection between her and Esther. He says that Esther’s former guardian was someone named Miss Barbary and that Esther’s real name was Esther Hawdon. He says that Nemo was actually named Hawdon, and that he left some letters, which Guppy will get. When Guppy leaves, Lady Dedlock cries: Esther is her daughter, who her sister claimed had died at birth. Charley and Esther visit Jenny and find Jo lying on the floor. He is sick, and Esther takes him back to Bleak House, putting him up in the stable. In the morning, he has disappeared. Charley gets very ill. Then Esther gets extremely ill. Guppy and his friend Jobling want to get Hawdon’s letters from Krook. But when they go down to Krook’s shop, they find that he has spontaneously combusted. Later, Grandfather Smallweed arrives to take care of Krook’s property. Guppy eventually tells Lady Dedlock the letters were destroyed. Smallweed demands payment from George and the Bagnets, on whose behalf he borrowed the money. Desperate, he tells Tulkinghorn he’ll turn over the Hawdon’s handwriting if he’ll leave the Bagnets alone. Esther recovers slowly. Miss Flite visits her, telling her that a mysterious woman visited Jenny’s cottage, asking about Esther and taking away a handkerchief Esther had left. She also tells Esther that Mr. Woodcourt has returned. Esther goes to Mr. Boythorn’s house to recover fully. She looks in a mirror for the first time and sees that her face is terribly scarred from

the smallpox. While there, Lady Dedlock confronts her and tells her she’s Esther’s mother. She orders Esther to never speak to her again, since this must remain a secret. Richard pursues the Jarndyce lawsuit more earnestly, aided by a lawyer named Vholes. He no longer speaks to Mr. Jarndyce, who doesn’t want anything to do with the suit. Esther visits Guppy and instructs him to stop investigating her. Tulkinghorn visits Chesney Wold and hints that he knows Lady Dedlock’s secret. She confronts him and says she will leave Chesney Wold immediately because she knows her secret will destroy Rosa’s marriage prospects. Tulkinghorn convinces her to stay, since fleeing will make her secret known too fast. When Tulkinghorn is back home, he is visited by Mademoiselle Hortense, who demands he help her find a job. He threatens to arrest her if she keeps harassing him. Esther tells Mr. Jarndyce about Lady Dedlock. He reveals that Boythorn was once in love with Miss Barbary, who left him when she decided to raise Esther in secret. Mr. Jarndyce gives Esther a letter that asks her to marry him. Esther accepts. Esther tries to convince Richard to abandon the Jarndyce suit. While she is visiting him, he tells her he has left the army and devoted himself entirely to the lawsuit. Esther sees Mr. Woodcourt on the street. She asks Mr. Woodcourt to befriend Richard in London, and he agrees. In London, Woodcourt runs into Jo on the street and gives him some food. He discovers that Jo once stayed with Esther. Jo tells him that a man forced him to leave and that he’s now scared of running into him.

Woodcourt helps Jo find a hiding place at George’s Shooting Gallery. Jo soon dies. Lady Dedlock dismisses Rosa with no explanation in order to protect her. Tulkinghorn is enraged and says he’ll reveal the secret. That night, Tulkinghorn is shot through the heart. The next day, Bucket arrests George for the murder. Ada reveals to Esther that she and Richard have been secretly married. Bucket investigates Tulkinghorn’s murder. He receives a few letters that say only “Lady Dedlock.” He confronts Sir Leicester and tells him what he knows about Lady Dedlock’s past. Instead of arresting Lady Dedlock, however, he arrests Mademoiselle Hortense, who killed Tulkinghorn and tried to frame Lady Dedlock. Meanwhile, Mrs. Rouncewell, the housekeeper at Chesney Wold, finds out that George is her long-lost son. She begs Lady Dedlock to do anything she can to help him. Guppy arrives and tells Lady Dedlock that the letters were actually not destroyed. Lady Dedlock writes a note to Sir Leicester, saying she didn’t murder Tulkinghorn, and then she flees. Sir Leicester collapses from a stroke. Mrs. Rouncewell gives him Lady Dedlock’s letter, and he orders Bucket to find her, saying he forgives her for everything. Bucket asks Esther to join him, and they set out in search of Lady Dedlock in the middle of the night. While Sir Leicester waits at home, unable to speak clearly, Esther and Bucket search. Eventually Bucket figures out where to find her. They finally find Lady Dedlock at the gate of the burial ground where Hawdon is buried. She is dead. Richard is sick and still obsessed with Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Ada is pregnant and hopes the baby will distract Richard from his obsession with

the lawsuit. After visiting Richard one night, Woodcourt walks Esther home and confesses he still loves her as he once did. She tells him she is engaged to Mr. Jarndyce. Smallweed finds a Jarndyce will among Krook’s property and gives it to Vholes. George moves to Chesney Wold, where he helps tend to Sir Leicester. Esther begins to plan the wedding. Mr. Jarndyce goes to Yorkshire on business and then sends for her. When she arrives, she finds out that Mr. Jarndyce has bought a house for Woodcourt out of gratitude. He shows her the house, which is decorated in Esther’s style, and tells her that he’s named the house Bleak House. Then he reveals that he knows she loves Woodcourt and that they should be married. He says he will always be her guardian. Woodcourt appears, and he and Esther reunite. The Jarndyce and Jarndyce case is finally dismissed. No one gets any money since the inheritance had been used up to pay the legal fees. Richard dies. Esther says she and Woodcourt have two daughters and that Ada had a son. She is very happy.

Chapters 1–5  

SUMMARY CHAPTERS 1–5 Page 1Page 2Page 3

Summary: Chapter 1, “In Chancery” In London, the Lord High Chancellor sits in Lincoln’s Inn Hall in the High Court of Chancery. It is November and very foggy. Several counsels and

solicitors are looking through the paperwork of a court case called Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which has gone on for generations. An old woman who appears to be crazy sits at the side of the room. She may be a party in the lawsuit. The case is so old that no one really remembers what it is about anymore, and it has corrupted countless people. A man named Mr. Tangle knows more about the case than anyone else. The chancellor determines to send two young people, a girl and a boy, to live with their uncle. Summary: Chapter 2, “In Fashion” The narrator points out the triviality and evil in the world of fashion, although there are good people in it as well. Lady Dedlock has come home with her husband, Sir Leicester Dedlock. He loves Lady Dedlock, but she is cold and distant. The Dedlocks’ lawyer and legal advisor, Mr. Tulkinghorn, visits them and updates them on the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. Lady Dedlock asks him who copied the documents, claiming that she likes the handwriting. Tulkinghorn says he’ll find out. Lady Dedlock feels ill and retreats to her room. Summary: Chapter 3, “A Progress” Esther Summerson takes over as a first-person narrator. She claims to be unintelligent. She remembers a doll she had when she was a child that she felt was the only person she could talk to. Esther’s godmother, Miss Barbary, raised Esther, and Esther believes that she was fully virtuous but distant and strict. She says her birthday was always the saddest day of the year. On one birthday, Esther demanded to know what happened to her mother, and her godmother revealed that Esther was her mother’s “disgrace” and that her mother was a disgrace as well. As a result, the distance between Esther and her godmother grows wider. One day, a stranger comes to the house and looks Esther over. Then he leaves.

Two years later, when Esther is fourteen, her godmother dies suddenly. The stranger reappears and introduces himself as Kenge. He reveals that Esther’s godmother was actually her aunt. He asks her if she’s ever heard of a lawsuit called Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which she has not. Kenge says that as part of the lawsuit, Esther will live with Mr. Jarndyce. She will be educated and comfortable, but she must not ever leave the grounds without informing Mr. Jarndyce. Esther says goodbye to the housekeeper, Mrs. Rachael, who shows no emotion. Esther buries her beloved doll in the garden. Kenge takes her away in the coach, then drops her off near Reading. A maid, Miss Donny, leads her to a carriage and they go to an estate called Greenleaf, as arranged by Esther’s new guardian, Mr. Jarndyce. Esther spends six years at Greenleaf. One day, she receives a letter from Kenge, saying she will be placed in a new home in five days. Esther leaves Greenleaf sadly but talks herself out of crying. At Kenge’s office, she meets a young girl named Ada Clare, and Ada’s cousin, Richard Carstone. All three young people are to be taken to Bleak House, where Mr. Jarndyce lives. Esther has been chosen as Ada’s companion. Ada and Richard are somehow related to the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case, but Esther isn’t. Outside, a mad old woman approaches the three young people and claims that a judgment concerning the Jarndyce case will come soon. Summary: Chapter 4, “Telescopic Philanthropy” Kenge tells Esther, Ada, and Richard that they will spend the night at the Jellybys’ house and says goodbye, leaving them to Mr. Guppy, the driver. At the Jellybys’, a child has his head stuck in a railing, and Esther helps him. Many dirty children are swarming through the house when Mrs.

Jellyby introduces herself. Esther observes an older child, pale and quiet, sitting at a writing desk. Mrs. Jellyby tells them about her charity work in Africa and ignores her children. Caddy, the girl at the writing desk, is writing out a letter that Mrs. Jellyby dictates. The Jellybys’ house is in utter disarray, and there is no hot water or heat. Dinner is chaotic. Priscilla, the cook, is drunk. A man named Mr. Quayle discusses Africa with Mrs. Jellyby, while Mr. Jellyby sits silently. That night, Caddy appears at Esther’s door and professes her unhappiness at home. She says she wishes the whole family were dead. Summary: Chapter 5, “A Morning Adventure” Esther goes walking with Miss Jellyby after washing one of the children, Peepy. Miss Jellyby complains about Mr. Quayle. Richard and Ada join them. The old lady they’d seen days ago appears in front of them. She leads them to her house nearby and stops at a shop below, where a sign says “Krook, Rag and Bottle Warehouse” and “Krook, Dealer in Marine Stores.” There are many signs requesting things to be bought; nothing seems to be sold. Dirty bottles fill the windows. Esther recognizes the handwriting on some of the law books scattered around as being the same as papers from Kenge. An old man opens the door and greets them, saying they should come into the shop. The old woman identifies the man as her landlord, Krook. He seems insane. He knows a lot about the Jarndyce case and tells them how Tom Jarndyce shot himself. In the old woman’s room, she shows them her birdcages. She tells them that the other lodger is a law writer. Esther, Ada, Richard, and Miss Jellyby soon leave. Soon, Esther, Ada, and Richard leave the Jellybys’ and continue on toward Bleak House.

Analysis: Chapters 1–5 Fog, which appears throughout the beginning of Bleak House, both sets the mood of the novel and highlights the muddled state of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. Fog literally covers London when the third-person narrator sets the scene on the first page of the novel. “Fog everywhere,” he says simply. The narrator provides three paragraphs of gloomy, evocative description before introducing us to the Lord High Chancellor and the disaster that is the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. Much as London is covered in fog, our own understanding of what, exactly, this case entails is unclear. The narrator doesn’t tell us exactly who is involved in the case or exactly what issue the case addresses. Indeed, the narrator acknowledges that “no man alive knows what it means”—the fogginess of the case is chronic. The gloomy aspects of fog are also connected to this case, and the narrator tells us that “no man’s nature has been made better” by the doings. This pervasive image sets the tone of the narrative to come and adds to the already gloomy atmosphere the novel’s title suggests. In chapter 3, Esther Summerson replaces the third-person narrator, a shift that has the effect of pulling us deeper into the story. Although Esther claims to have difficulty in telling her story and asserts right away that she isn’t very clever, her voice is clear and unhesitating as she tells us about herself and how she became involved in the Jarndyce case. Esther comes across as slightly self-pitying in her descriptions of her strict, emotionally distant godmother and her unhappy birthdays, but her selfdeprecation and constant denial of her own intelligence are manipulative gestures that both endear us to her and give her an excuse in case we don’t like the story. In other words, she is so insistent that she is not clever and is so doubtful of her ability to tell the story correctly that she has a lot of leeway to tell the story according to her own very subjective view. If things turn out to be different from the way she describes them, she can claim she warned us of her fallibility from the start. Also, even though Esther claims to be unimportant to the story, she clearly relishes talking about herself.

In the space of just five chapters (out of a novel of sixty-seven), Dickens manages to introduce us to a host of lively, vivid characters. For example, in chapter 2 we meet Mr. Tulkinghorn, who Dickens describes as “old school . . . generally meaning any school that seems never to have been young.” The chaotic Jellybys appear in chapter 4, when Dickens introduces the unforgettable Mrs. Jellyby, who is more concerned with writing letters about Africa than she is with her filthy, unhappy child...