Dickens’s novels seem more like a collection of separate scenes, events than a single novel. The plot develops slowly and I think it is for making the novel more interesting for the reader. Dickens always wrote about his life, he didn’t imagine or lie in his works, he just personifies real people in his main characters. The main idea of this novel is to show how slowly the judge process is and a special atmosphere of the novel helps us to understand why it is so.
The whole atmosphere of the first three
chapters didn’t change a lot during the whole novel. But in the next chapters the atmosphere became better. We see
Esther Summerson is one of the most positive characters in Dickens’s novel. She likes everything and everybody, she is polite and respectful and respectable. To my mind Esther Summerson is a little bit naïve because she is very kind and gave money to Mr. Skimpole. Of course he needed money but the necessity of money was his life credo. This example also prove that this character is a very helpful person and considerate.
Mrs. Jellyby is very incomprehensible person.
She is a lady of very remarkable strength of character who devotes herself
entirely to the public. "She has devoted herself to an extensive variety of
public subjects at various times and is at present (until something else
attracts her) devoted to the subject of Africa with a view to the general
cultivation of the coffee berry – And the natives – and the happy settlement,
on the banks of the African rivers, of our superabundant home population.”. To
my mind Dickens invented his characters and included in their names different
metaphorical sense. Mrs. Jellyby’s surname begins with the word "Jelly” and jelly is very plastic and doesn’t have
its form. Mrs. Jellyby takes an interest in many things, she takes care of
African children by sending letters in
The author used a lot of different means of expressiveness of speech such as an abstract metaphor, repetitions and so on. " I began to keep the little creatures,” she said, "with an object that the wards will readily comprehend. With the intention of restoring them to liberty. When my judgment should be given. Yees! They die in prison, though. Their lives, poor silly things, are so short in comparison with Chancery proceedings that, one by one, the whole collection has died over and over again. I doubt, do you know, whether one of these, though they are all young, will live to be free! Ve-ry mortifying, is it not?”. After reading this paragraph we can clearly imagine and understand situation the whole situation that describes in this paragraph.
The author used a lot of repetitions in his
novel. For example: "Although the morning was raw, and although the for still
seemed heavy…”. To my mind this repetition shows us ordinary days in
Critics say that Dickens’s novel are full of separate scenes that are not connected with each other. To my mind Dickens isn’t a lop-sided and every scene that he describes is very important in this novel. It’s like a collecting a puzzle. Every different episode in the result makes a huge whole picture. Dickens pays attention to the nature, people’s emotions and gestures. Every author has their own style that is why we can’t through it away because they add to the merit of the novel.
Chapters IV-VI
A new start for something big
Critics say that the element of surprise or mystery is of great importance to a plot. Maybe now it is quite difficult to judge whether the plot of the book satisfies these requirements or not, but obviously we can see some development in the plot. I must admit that the general atmosphere of the events becomes brighter and more dynamic. The author used to focus only on describing the town’s atmosphere, its dark and gloomy streets, spoiled weather. Now besides it, we meet the main character of the novel Esther Summerson who leaves her grandmother and now has to live in the house, bleak house as everybody calls it. She meets Ada who becomes her best friend. There is one more character in the book, a small boy Peepy. Esther sympathizes with him a lot, she takes care of him very much. And actually one of the most sentimental moments of these chapters is the relationship between Esther and Peepy:
"Oh, poor child," said I; "let me out, if you please!"
"Pray be careful of yourself, miss. The young Jellybys are always up to something," said Mr. Guppy.
"I made my way to the poor child, who was one of the dirtiest little unfortunates I ever saw, and found him very hot and frightened and crying loudly, fixed by the neck between two iron railings, while a milkman and a beadle, with the kindest intentions possible, were endeavouring to drag him back by the legs, under a general impression that his skull was compressible by those means. As I found (after pacifying him) that he was a little boy with a naturally large head, I thought that perhaps where his head could go, his body could follow, and mentioned that the best mode of extrication might be to push him forward.”
She sympathizes with him a lot. And though all the people who surround her try to look cold and show their neglect and indifference towards him, Esther expresses her feelings and she doesn’t feel any shame because of this. And it is her devotion to the boy that makes the moment so sentimental.
Though Esther’s life doesn’t seem to be so happy but even now we can see that it’s a new start for something big that will influence Esther’s life a lot.
In first chapters we meet Esther as a sad, depressed girl, who is not loved by her grandmother and who sees no support from anyone. But after meeting with Ada, Esther changes a lot. The girl admires her very much, she doesn’t see any drawbacks in Esther. Besides, she lives in a beautiful house, meets other people and we can see that the author tries to show Esther from the other side. But on the other hand we sympathize with the girl because perhaps she trusts people too much, trying to see only good in them.
Speaking about the narration itself, I suppose that most of the episodes are vital to the development of the plot. And we can’t exclude some of them because there the author can focus on some small details which at first seem to be insignificant but in fact they only help us to understand this or that character or the atmosphere in the house better. So such episodes can be regarded only as the merit of the novel. And omitting some facts and describing can change the novel very much. It is clear that the author describes some moments intentionally, specially for readers, for their understanding.
(By Luck)
I think that the plot of the "Bleak house” satisfies these requirements. We see what is going on by the eyes of the main heroine Esther Summerson from her childhood to her arrival to bleak house, all the events, one by one. The time sequence is observed. The events follow each other logically and are caused by the previous one.
In the 4th chapter Esther Summerson, Richard and Ada spend the night by the Jellyby’s. The description of Jellyby’s house is very detailed and bright: "a lame invalid of a sofa”, "the rooms had such a marshy smell”, there was "no hot water”, and no kettle, and "the boiler was out of order”.
Mrs. Jellyby is engrossed in her work, she loves it, and her work makes her life. But we don’t feel that she lives in a wrong way, we see no negative assessment of her way of living in the chapters. Her dress didn't "nearly meet up the back and that the open space was railed across with a lattice-work of stay-lace-like a summer-house”. But I think, that she is busy with some abstract house, but she should find more time to her children, because you can’t rule something if you can not solve your own family problems.
From these chapters (IV-VI) we see that the surname Summerson is not accidental. The main heroin Summerson really brings light to every scene. At the beginning of the 4th chapter she arrive in London, where smog is everywhere, it is dull, damp, but we don’t feel that something awful must happen, because Esther is here. I think that Esther acts like sun beam. At Jellyby’s house we feel that everything is destroyed and no one can help these poor children, but just after one day children are happy and tidy, only because of Esther’s efforts. So in comparison to Hemingway the atmosphere prepares us to negative events, but here, thanks to Summerson, just the atmosphere changes.
Esther Summerson is presented as an angel here. She is absolutely pure, sensitive, kind, and we don’t feel that she is disgraced by her day of birth. In spite of the fact that she is born out of wedlock and it was absolutely unacceptable at that time, she didn’t lose the faith. She is sometimes very naïve, but only because she is compassionate, that’s why she gave money to Mr. Skimpole.
In "Bleak house” we are really immediate observes of the things happening. The narration is made from the first person so we experience all the events together with the main heroine.
These chapters are full of metaphors. After the description of Krook’s shop we find such statement made by Krook: "they call me the Lord Chancellor and call my shop Chancery”. And we can agree with him because the more and more documents or evidences are added to the case, but nothing can change it. And more and more different items are brought to Krook’s shop, but nothing is sold.
One more abstract metaphor we find when Little Old Lady narrated about her birds: "I began to keep the little creatures," she said, "with an object that the wards will readily comprehend. With the intention of restoring them to liberty. When my judgment should be given. Yees! They die in prison, though. Their lives, poor silly things, are so short in comparison with Chancery proceedings that, one by one, the whole collection has died over and over again. I doubt, do you know, whether one of these, though they are all young, will live to be free! Ve-ry mortifying, is it not?" These birds symbolize the participants of the case. they grow up, grow old, but nothing changes concerning this case.
Dicken’s novels are notable for their satirical humor and treatment of contemporary social problems. And in Bleak House from the very beginning we see the corruption and inefficiency of the legal system, the typical theme for Dickens.
Bleak House is one of the most successful and well-known Dickens’s book. It was written more than century ago and the author’s manner seems really unfamiliar and sometimes a little bit difficult for reading. A plot is a narrative of events arranged in time sequence, each event being caused by some others. The element of surprise or mystery is of great importance to a plot. The author brings the realistic and the fantastic together in one piece of writing.The plot-maker expects us to remember what’s happened, and we expect him to leave no loose ends. Frequent coincidences used as plot techniques to link one part of the story with another. We can see two narrators in this work. On the one hand it is Esther Summerson who describes her experiences in first person as if in a diary on the other hand it is the third person and sometimes the reader becomes a part of it. Sometimes it is not hard to notice the unique relationships between the author and the reader. Due to a number of technical devices Dickens creates a definite rhythm of the scene, which is very important in rendering his message.
There are some main characters in this novel and in the next three chapters (4-6) we could completely understand their personalities and analyse Dickens’s attitude to them. Esther Summerson is a narrator of Bleak House who tells us about her childhood, about her mother’s death, her career as a teacher in Greenleaf School, Jarndyce’s Bleak House. This kind of narration arouses interest and compassion to her problems and her really difficult life. John Jarndyce is an owner of Bleak House and the guardian of Esther, Richard, and Ada. He is very kindly, generous, and wise and does his best to look out for the interests of his wards. Lady Deadlock dominates in this novel. She is introduced us as a very beautiful middle aged society lady who has her own unique charm. But she seems not to care about or have any interest in the world around her. And during the novel she becomes the object almost all of the interesting actions in Bleak House. Mrs Jellyby is also interesting character who on the one hand is full of social activity but on the other hand neglects her own family, her children and the condition of her home. The novel also contains many minor characters including lawyers, businessmen, servants, laborers who create a whole atmosphere.
(By Tanya)
In the Chapters 4-6 the reader comes across Esther's narration, where she starts from her young ages and then describes all the events that have happened to her. Following each other, they merge with some sub-plots of the novel (for example, remember the old-lady's story), forming certain unity of narration. But this narration isn't monotonous, it's vivid and flexible, the whole atmosphere changes a lot from chapter to chapter creating different reader's perception of the plot. As we can remember, the first chapters created certain depressive effect produced by the description of omnipresent fog, mud and mire. In the following chapters the atmosphere is still a little bit gloomy and mournful, but the author doesn't impose the feeling of hopelessness on the reader. All this greyness still has something charming in it. The atmosphere creates certain contrast with the emotional state of the main heroine just remember the lines: "The evening was so very cold and the rooms had such a marshy smell that I must confess it was a little miserable, and Ada was half crying. We soon laughed, however.” Notwithstanding the dismal surroundings Esther and Ada manage to keep their positive attitude towards the situation and this reflects the most important treats of their characters – cheerfulness, buoyancy and ability to accept any situation. In the 6th chapter the whole atmosphere changes a little bit. "A bell was rung as we drew up, and amidst the sound of its deep voice in the still air, and the distant barking of some dogs, and a gush of light from the opened door, and the smoking and steaming of the heated horses, and the quickened beating of our own hearts, we alighted in no inconsiderable confusion”. The very description of the house is very gloomy and mysterious. Here we come across the theme of blurring substance again – in the first chapter it was omnipresent fog, here we see smoke and steam. This blurriness and diffusiveness create certain Gothic atmosphere of family secrets that are to be revealed.
As it was mentioned above the main character in these chapters is a young lady Esther. Being very gentle and fragile, kind and generous she can't but win readers' hearts. Being always ready to help everybody – from a small child who got stuck between the rail to a man who's going to be imprisoned because of his huge debts – Esther seems to be absolutely innocent, trustful and altruistic. But at the same time Esther doesn't even know how magnanimous she really is. She tends to underestimate her qualities and sometimes it seems even a little bit ridiculous. Just recolect the following situations: "Ada laughed and put her arm about my neck as I stood looking at the fire, and told me I was a quiet, dear, good creature and had won her heart. "You are so thoughtful, Esther," she said, "and yet so cheerful! And you do so much, so unpretendingly! You would make a home out of even this house." My simple darling! She was quite unconscious that she only praised herself and that it was in the goodness of her own heart that she made so much of me!” and "Esther was their friend directly. Esther nursed them, coaxed them to sleep, washed and dressed them, told them stories, kept them quiet, bought them keepsakes"- My dear girl! I had only gone out with Peepy after he was found and given him a little, tiny horse!” When Ada praises Esther, the latter begins to explain it as Ada's generosity and kind-heartedness, she repeats that it is Ada who is an angel on the earth to make Esther better. Yes, this way of behaviour can be explained, because Esther is so shy and timid, she's a real young lady of Victorian England, but her timidity sometimes is too exaggerated that it looks like feebleness.
So
we can see that the whole atmosphere of these three chapters is
opposed to the main character – Esther. Gloomy, dark, mysterious,
foggy, dreary, melancholy, mournful Streets of England and cheerful,
generous, kind-hearted, naïve, timid, shy, magnanimous Young Lady of
England.
(by Rina)
"…яркая индивидуальность, а Диккенса не читал”.
The more we read, the more we know. The more we know, the more interesting it is for us to analyze what has been read.
In these chapters we get acquainted with some new characters, e. g. Mr and Mrs Jellyby. We get to know some information about Esther. We are shown how generous and caring she is. There are two shinig examples. The first one is the fact Esther has given Mr Skimpole the money she’s been saving. for a long time. She wanted nothing in return. She just wanted to help. The second example is Esther’s pitying Peepy. The reader’s reaction to her behaviour is in any case positive. I believe people like Esther don’t exist nowadays. She’s too good it survive in this cruel world in such notorious times.
Esther Summerson is a very good character. First of all, she is compassionate. She pities every unfortunate child. For example, when Peepy comes into her room Mrs Jellyby says, "Go along, you naughty Peepy”, while Esther "ventured quietly to stop poor Peepy as he was going out, and to take him to nurse”. Then Peepy falls asleep in Esther’s arms. These lines evoke something warm in my soul and make me sympathize with Esther.
Actually the very thing I like in Dicken’s style is that the author managers to evoke emotions. Some passages are rather sentimental – these are the ones that stay in my mind for a long tome. "Therefore I proposed to the children that they should come in and be very good at my table, and I would tell them the story of Little Red Riding Hood while I dressed; which they did as quiet as mice, including Peepy, who awoke opportunely before the appearance of the wolf”.
In the fourth chapter Esther is a sentimental character. She behaves in an unnatural way because there are few people that are so altruistic by nature. But these sentimental moments are necessary for one to become more generous and noble him/herself.
Speaking about Dicken’s style, I can’t but mention the fact that some linguists claim that his world is lop-sided and incomplete. I can’t agree with them. What does this "incomplete” actually mean? The author provides as much information as needed to create a certain impression. Another thing is episodes that seem to be non-vital to the development of the plot. Maybe, they are not, but they are vital to create certain mood and atmosphere. And to my mind they add to the merits of the novel. They make up a unique writing style, Dicken’s style. Moreover, it’s pleasant to read such English, so imaginative, so literary, so expressive.
To conclude, I’d like to cite Veniamin Kaverin.. In his book "Two captains” Katya says about Sanya: «Григорьев – яркая индивидуальность, а Диккенса не читал». She means that there are some authors that are worth reading and must be read. Their works, being read by us, leave an unforgettable impression in our minds, hearts, souls. They do not pass by. They stay. Forever. "…яркая индивидуальность, а Диккенса не читал”.
Speaking about these chapters it would be pleasant to mention the atmosphere Dickens creates in them. In the Chapter 4 we deal with London again and its fog and its smog. The whole atmosphere nonetheless doesn’t predict any bad things to happen. The flow of narrative shows the tranquillity of the characters staying in London. In the 5th chapter the characters go to the Bleak House and the journey connected not only with exhaustion but with agitation concerning the final destination as well. When we arrive to the Bleak House along with the characters we feel much warmer. This is due to Dickens’s great descriptive abilities that allow him to involve the readers and thus make them feel what the characters actually feel.
And now let’s go further through the characters’ examination. At first let’s have a look at Esther. Esther Summerson has several traits of character that manifest her personality and Dickens’s attitude to her. At first we should say that Esther is an observer but a subjective one. It happens because the novel is written from the first person singular, so we deal with Esther’s understanding of the world. For the same reason she should be a good observer to give the reader proper impact about what’s going on in the book. Secondly, Esther is a very sensitive person; she has an ability to sympathize with others. Maybe because of her compassion she’s rather naïve. When Mr. Skimpole asks her for money we see how easily she gives it to him not noticing his slyness. This naivety is probably caused by small life experience. Half of her life she spent with her violent aunt, and another one in a closed boarding school. Esther is a very positive person and the author wants the readers to sympathize with her. Still we can’t say anything about her role in the book, except observation, judging by the first 6 chapters.
Another important character that appears in these chapters
is Mrs. Jellyby. While describing Mrs. Jellyby Dickens concentrates firstly on
her appearance. He says that she is a plump woman with kind eyes of the age
from 40 to 50. The he goes to her attitude of life – she is always interested
in something and at the moment she is fond of philanthropy towards African
children. But it is still seems that all her interests are determined by her
desire to stand out of the surroundings, and she is really not keen on the things
she says to be. She doesn’t care about all of it. But when we see the place she
lives in we understand her actual attitude to the world and the society.
by 8davids8
Dickens’s novels seem more like a collection of separate scenes, events than a single novel. The plot develops slowly and I think it is for making the novel more interesting for the reader. Dickens always wrote about his life, he didn’t imagine or lie in his works, he just personifies real people in his main characters. The main idea of this novel is to show how slowly the judge process is and a special atmosphere of the novel helps us to understand why it is so.
The whole atmosphere of the first three
chapters didn’t change a lot during the whole novel. But in the next chapters the atmosphere became better. We see
Esther Summerson is one of the most positive characters in Dickens’s novel. She likes everything and everybody, she is polite and respectful and respectable. To my mind Esther Summerson is a little bit naïve because she is very kind and gave money to Mr. Skimpole. Of course he needed money but the necessity of money was his life credo. This example also prove that this character is a very helpful person and considerate.
Mrs. Jellyby is very incomprehensible person.
She is a lady of very remarkable strength of character who devotes herself
entirely to the public. "She has devoted herself to an extensive variety of
public subjects at various times and is at present (until something else
attracts her) devoted to the subject of Africa with a view to the general
cultivation of the coffee berry – And the natives – and the happy settlement,
on the banks of the African rivers, of our superabundant home population.”. To
my mind Dickens invented his characters and included in their names different
metaphorical sense. Mrs. Jellyby’s surname begins with the word "Jelly” and jelly is very plastic and doesn’t have
its form. Mrs. Jellyby takes an interest in many things, she takes care of
African children by sending letters in
The author used a lot of different means of expressiveness of speech such as an abstract metaphor, repetitions and so on. " I began to keep the little creatures,” she said, "with an object that the wards will readily comprehend. With the intention of restoring them to liberty. When my judgment should be given. Yees! They die in prison, though. Their lives, poor silly things, are so short in comparison with Chancery proceedings that, one by one, the whole collection has died over and over again. I doubt, do you know, whether one of these, though they are all young, will live to be free! Ve-ry mortifying, is it not?”. After reading this paragraph we can clearly imagine and understand situation the whole situation that describes in this paragraph.
The author used a lot of repetitions in his
novel. For example: "Although the morning was raw, and although the for still
seemed heavy…”. To my mind this repetition shows us ordinary days in
Critics say that Dickens’s novel are full of separate scenes that are not connected with each other. To my mind Dickens isn’t a lop-sided and every scene that he describes is very important in this novel. It’s like a collecting a puzzle. Every different episode in the result makes a huge whole picture. Dickens pays attention to the nature, people’s emotions and gestures. Every author has their own style that is why we can’t through it away because they add to the merit of the novel.
