Bleak House by Charles Dickens Book Analysis
The passage of the first chapter of Charles Dickens' Bleak House goes into the Lawsuit, the suit is a will that has gone on for lifetimes. Dickens goes into an exposition to show how long the suit has been active for, using imagery of a child being born, to them growing up and getting married, to their death, showing the repetition of life times. He follows it up with another form of imagery of a young boy playing with a toy horse, then he grows up to use a real horse, and finally rides off into the new world using imagery to portray his death and passing on to a new place. The suit has been going on for so long that the current parties taking part in the suit do not remember the true purpose of the lawsuit, it has lost all meaning, and the men who started the case are all dead. The final Jarndyce was Tom Jarndyce who killed himself because of the stress that the Chancery suit caused, the founding Jarndyces’ are all dead however the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit continues.
Close Reading
In this passage, Dickens compares the bills in the suit to the lack of morals within the parties and suggests many Chancellors have left because they have been corrupted by the suit and have enough money to retire, “A long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of morality” (Dickens 23). Holding court and having lawyers and clerks costs money, especially with how long this suit of inheritance has been going on, many families have exhausted their funds. Instead of the court making it clear for the families and coming to a compromise, the Chancellors and lawyers are corrupted by greed and the idea of milking the money from these wealthy families that they leave the parties part of Jarndyce and Jarndyce confused and angry at one another for carrying on the suit. Dickens mentions earlier within the passage that the parties do not know what the reason for this suit began other than it is an inheritance suit, the reader is left wondering why carry on the suit if the Chancellors and parties no longer know the reason?
The purpose the suit is going on for so long is because of the anger and confusion between the families. "Whole families have inherited legendary hatred with the suit" (Dickens 23), Dickens reveals that through generations hatred and greed can persist and how the court causes it. Families are fighting for the inheritance of Jarndyce and Jarndyce that they've lost the true meaning of this suit, the court of Chancery uses the confusion, grief, and ignorance of the people to wring them of their money. The reason why the suit exists and they are fighting over this is because someone had to die to give the inheritance, the main benefactor has long been dead and their family is still fighting, the court has long forgotten the deaths of the original Jarndyces’ and will continue to use the family for their money, disrespecting the dead and the family in the process.
