Narrative Strategies in Dicken's 'Bleak House'

Briefly locate the passage below from Chapter 31 of Bleak House in the context of the novel and analyse Dickens’s use of language and narrative strategies.

(From ‘I had not lifted my veil …’ to ‘… Hark! Here comes Liz back!’ Dickens (2003 [1853], pp. 489–91).

Chapter 31 of Bleak House[1] entitled ‘Nurse and Patient’ begins with Esther accompanying Charley to see a sick boy at the request of Jenny and Liz (lower class bricklayers’ family who Esther showed kindness to when arriving in Hertfordshire). This chapter takes place at a pivotal moment in the story before Esther contracts a disease (most likely smallpox) and undergoes serious physical and psychological transformation. This analysis will explore the ways that Dickens uses this passage to highlight poverty and the consequences of a poor government via characters, language and storytelling. It will also investigate his narrative strategies, and demonstrate how suffering, pathos and melodrama have been used to build momentum and drive plot.

The passage begins in Esther’s first-person narrative as she enters the Bricklayer’s household, starting ‘I had not lifted my veil when I first spoke to the woman, which was at the moment of our going in. The boy staggered up instantly and stared at me with a remarkable expression of surprise and terror.’ (p367). This is a fantastic excerpt to start with as it gives us so much. Not only are there themes of identity and warning of Esther’s dramatic change in appearance, a major plotline is foreshadowed in Jo’s reaction to her; Lady Dedlock’s revelation that Esther is her daughter. Jo mistakes Esther for Lady Dedlock in his fever induced hysteria- ‘She’s come to get me to go along with her to the berryin-ground… I don’t like the name on it. She might go a-berrying me.’ (p367). Dickens intentionally does this to create suspense; we are already waiting for our suspicions about Lady Dedlock to be confirmed, and this clue adds to the momentum the novel is rapidly building. This plot device is typical of mystery and melodrama, two genres that Bleak House embodies. This chapter also emphasises Dicken’s ability to weave multiple different characters and stories into one plot, which Bleak House is famed for. The bricklayer’s family, the street-sweeper and the wards of Jarndyce are brought together by illness and misfortune, suggesting that disease knows no class. ‘I know no more than the dead. Perhaps the dead know better, if they could only tell us.’ (p369), Jenny says, reminding the reader of the helpless death of her child earlier in the story. Then there is Jo, who is in some ways the stories most important character in the sense that he is the catalyst for the reveal of Lady Dedlock’s true identity.

The most obvious uses of Dicken’s ability to reflect character and plot through language are with Jo’s dialogue. His speech is very broken-up and disjointed, not just because of his illiteracy but because of his fever. He jumps between exclamatory sentences ‘I say!’, ‘You tell me. Ain’t the lady the t’other lady?’ (p368), and short replies ‘Tom-all-Alone’s.’, whilst Esther describes ‘He soon began to droop his head again, and roll it heavily, and speak as if he were half awake.’(p368). It is apparent that this unnamed disease has hit Jo first because of his low class and poor health. His class is reflected in his illiteracy – ‘I’m a-being froze.’(p68), his combination of words ‘t’other’ and his elliptical speech. Dickens’ uses a semantic field of descriptive words with negative connotations to emphasize the severity of Jo’s illness – ‘froze, burnt up, hoarse, flushed, haggard.’ These words conjure up imagery of sickness and specifically, hysteria. His dialogue is also very abrupt and sporadic, his disposition seemingly changing with his temperature in a mixture of short and long sentences. The fact that Jo only responds directly to Charley who is taking care of him, suggests that he isn’t very spatially aware – ‘He always concluded by addressing Charley’ (p368). I believe that in this instance Charley and Jo’s identities have been taken, and that they are simply ‘Nurse and Patient’, the Chapter’s title. The tragedy of this is that both characters are so young to be in the positions they are in. Esther describes Charley dutifully taking care of Jo when they arrive, ‘My Charley, with her premature experience of illness and trouble… went quietly up to him with a chair and sat him down in it like an old sick nurse.’ (p368). The parallels between the two unfortunate children show how early in life Victorian children were forced upon hard times, and they seem to share an understanding of each other in their easy manner around each other. Jo is comfortable around Charley, whereas the mere sight of Esther in her veil frightened him.

The last few lines of the passage are a compassionate exchange between Esther and Jenny as they discuss what is to be done with Jo as ‘He could not travel in this state, even if he had a purpose and knew where he was going’ (p369). Things are looking bleak for Jo. His character’s story is arguably the saddest part of the novel, embodying tragedy and reflecting Victorian society’s flaws. Jo has been ‘moved on’ multiple times in his short life – ‘I have been moved on, and moved on, more nor ever I was afore, since the t’other one giv’ me the sov’ring.’ (p368). Dickens uses Jo to portray the harsh realities of living in poverty. Jo is stuck in a vicious cycle because of his upbringing – orphaned, homeless and without education or money – a situation he will never get out of. This is reflected in the continuous referral to Jo’s home ‘Tom-all-Alone’s’, the dilapidated slum area he has no choice but to live in. Esther and Jenny show how empathetic and compassionate people of a poorer upbringing can be, giving what little they have to care for an almost stranger. These two are a far cry from characters such as Mrs Jellyby, whose misguided philanthropy and fashionable charity-giving are ultimately of no help to people like Jo who really need it.

Taking all of the above into account, it is possible that we could accept Bleak House’s unnamed second narrator (the omniscient third person narrative) to be Dickens himself, as was widely believed during publishing. Dicken’s work came out in 19 instalments over the course of almost two years and was published in newspapers, meaning that he had the chance to present his ideas about society to a wide audience that would likely return every month. When you piece together the format of Dicken’s original publication with his diverse range of characters and ideas, it becomes clear that Bleak House was not intended to be read in one daunting chunk, but to be enjoyed for its slowly developing microcosm of society. As a writer with a keen interest in politics, current affairs and experience as a Lawyer’s assistant, it seems that Dicken’s uses Bleak House not only to offer a long criticism of the judicial system, but to share his ideas on class and poverty.

To conclude, Dicken’s mode of storytelling is classically Dickensian, centring around tension, misery and tragedy, of which this chapter contains plenty. Dickens exercises his ability to tell believable stories with accurately portrayed characters through his choice of language, dialect and character backstories. It is the combination of this and his dual narrative that gives Bleak House its authenticity. ‘Nurse and Patient’ is thus one of the books most heartfelt and realistic chapters and comes right at the time where the story really starts to come together.

[1] Dickens, C., 1853. Bleak house (Vol. 11). Getz and Buck.