BLEAK HOUSE

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.
 There is a court case that has been going on for generations called Jarndyce and Jarndyce. This case led many people who became involved in the case into thinking they would inherit a VERY large sum of money when it was all settled. The problem is that the late Mr. Jarndyce left many different versions of his will that were all written at different dates. The case has never been resolved and it has ruined many people's lives. The newest victims of the case are announced to be Richard Carstone and Ada Clare; both orphans who end up falling in love with each other. Ada is given a companion named Esther Summerson to accompany them to their new home, Bleak House. Mr. John Jarndyce owns this estate and he's a very fun guy, but he has seen too much of the J&J case that he wants nothing to do with it. He has made his own way in the world without relying on the possibility of it ever being solved. Anyway this book has so many different parts to it and sooo many other characters to track, that I’ll skip to the near end. Mr. John wants Esther to marry him, but she is in love with Mr. Woodcourt. In the end he sees this and releases Esther from her acceptance of his proposal. Many people die for example Lady Dedlock herself, Mr. Tolkienhorn, Jo, Richard and at the beginning, Captain Nemo who was the start of this whole investigation in the first place. The J&J case if FINALLY solved after a more recent will is found by Mr. Smallweed under Mr. Krook’s cat. Sadly, however, what everyone expected to be a happy day for the wards in J&J (they were supposed to get a large amount of money) ended badly as the cost of the case had eaten up the inheritance money because it had gone on for so long. This is what kills Richard. Ada has his baby, but is a single mother and Esther marries Mr. Woodcourt.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
"And yet, in the clouded, eager, seeking look that passed over him..." (ch.37) There certainly is something to say about obsession in this book. It shows the reader the difference between passion and obsession. Richard becomes obsessed with the case while Mr. Jarndyce has a passionate love for Esther. Rich sadly went too far and because of his infatuation he ended up not taking good care of himself and dying.

3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
I have always loved reading Dickens novels because you know that everyone will get what they deserve, in the end. However he writes to my vision of London. Dank, rank, putrid, cruel, cold, foggy, and unrelenting. His tone is knowledgeable. He grew up with all that bad stuff and he knows what the world is like, therefore he writes from his own experience with the knowledge that there are evils in this world AND at the same time, goodness. "With so much of itself abandoned to darkness and vacancy. With so little change under the summer shining or the wintry lowering; so sombre and motionless always." Truth. "And don't you know that you are prettier than you ever were?" 
Harsh truth and yet love and hope. "Allan, standing at the window, was as pleased as Caddy; and I was as pleased as either of them; and I wonder that I got away as I did, rather than that I came off
laughing, and red, and anything but tidy, and looking after Caddy, who looked after us out of the coach-window as long as she could see us." The people who do find each other as friends love each other so much and are so contented in each others company that they remain friends through out the story. I wonder if that's possible today...



4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthen your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts (for each element) that will help your reader understand each one.

Many symbols were used in this story:
- Miss Flite’s birds, all with names like Hope, Joy, Freedom, Despair, Ruin, Dust, Disease, and         
The Wards of Jarndyce. Only to be set free from their cages when J&J is concluded.
- Mothers, to me were also a very big symbol. In many of Dickens’ books he writes about mother figures being extremely negligent and treating their children horribly. Lady Deadlock gave Esther away and put her in a house where the nanny dashed her self esteem greatly. Then there’s Mrs. Jellyby who is so obsessed with her mission to “save Africa” that she neglects her children. The irony is she is so wound up with the children of Africa that she scars her own children very deeply. She isn’t even the slightest bit interested when Caddy tells her she’s marrying Mr. Turveydrop.
- The Jarndyce and Jardyce case itself is a symbol of ruin and despair for all those who become entangled in its web. It has made people obsess over its verdict that they forgot how to live, eat, and sleep, killing them with each passing moment of its dreary life-time.

Dickens uses very interesting and descriptive language:
- “There is much good in it; there are many good and true people in it; it has its appointed place. But the evil of it is that it is a world wrapped up in too much jeweller's cotton and fine wool, and cannot hear the rushing of the larger worlds, and cannot see them as they circle round the sun.
It is a deadened world, and its growth is sometimes unhealthy for want of air.” (ch2)
- “I say seemed, for the windows were so encrusted with dirt that they would have made midsummer sunshine dim.” (ch. 5) Stopping in mid-sentence to help the reader better understand what Esther was looking at.
- ”In the shade of Cook's Court, at most times a shady place, Mr. Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper--foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey- brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India-
rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape and green ferret; in pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands--glass and leaden--pen-knives, scissors, bodkins, and other small office-cutlery; in short, in articles too numerous to mention, ever since he was out of his time and went into partnership with Peffer.” (ch. 10)

Repetition:
- “I had never heard my mama spoken of. I had never heard of my papa either, but I felt more interested about my mama. I had never worn a black frock, that I could recollect. I had never been shown my mama's grave. I had never been told where it was. Yet I had never been taught to pray for any relation but my godmother. I had...” (ch.2)
- “... like inferior blood unlawfully shed, WILL cry aloud and
WILL be heard. Sir Leicester's cousins, in the remotest degree,
are so many murders in the respect that they.” (ch. 27)
- “Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls deified among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights.” (ch. 1)

Allusions:
- Many Shakespeare references, "will out." and quoting some of the Tempest.
- Referencing to Rip Van Winkle
- The Flying Dutchman, “with a crew of ghostly clients imploring”

Foreshadowing:
- Many people were worried about Richard and we learned about his obsession through Ada's worried looks, Mr. & Mrs. Badger warning Mr. John that if Rich doesn't settle down soon he we become too entangled and Esther warning him against letting Mr. Skimpole run his affairs.
- We can tell that Mr. Jandyce likes Esther when they have their talk about Esther being unhappy. She says she sees him as a father figure only to make a connection and reassure him that he wasn't doing anything wrong. When she says this, however Mr. John gets pretty upset and she doesn't know why, but later she understands it when he tells her how he feels.
- Lady Dedlock's obsession with the hand writing of a particular law document suggested she had a much deeper past than her husband gave her credit for.
- The final one is dear Mr. Guppy. Having been rejected once by Miss Summerson he would stalk her
and try to find out everything he could about her past, this only meant that he was still in love with her and would try again, soon, to see if her mind had changed.