Other disheartening images are created through personification. Fog is attributed to conscious action, as Dickens writes that fog was ‘cruelly pinching the toes…of his…‘prentice boy.’ This makes the fog seem like a wicked character that the readers can visualise in their minds, rather than an intangible substance, therefore highlighting the negativity of its presence. Gas is another unseen subject that is materialised through personifying it to give it human features. Again, not associated with anything positive, it wears a ‘haggard and unwilling look’. Gas is unseen, unheard, and is impossible to relate to, so Dickens creates a ‘bleak’ and downcast environment by giving even the gas an evil part to play.
Certain syntactical features that are employed contribute towards the success of the portrayal of London in the opening. Firstly, there is a specific use of the present tense, which immediately limits the knowledge that readers gain, keeping them partly in the dark so that Dickens himself controls what they know. For example, instead of the raw afternoon was rawest, Dickens writes that the ‘raw afternoon is rawest’ (emphasis added). Using this tense allows for the readers to live through with the text, rather than having it related to them by the narrator. The readers feel more involved, although they do not have any understanding of the past, but this adds to the element of mystery.
The opening evidently lacks any dialogue and the entire text is descriptive. The objective here is to clearly set the scene, rather than set the plot. We are told that the scene is located ‘In Chancery. London’ and that the ‘Michaelmas term (is) lately over.’ Dickens at once gives us a sense of time and place. The description of the scene takes priority, as the plot is yet to be unravelled. Dickens has spent much detail into this delicate description and so this shows that the location has a vital part to play throughout the novel. There are certain hints in the semantics – e.g. through the use of certain lexis: ‘most pestilent of hoary sinners’ – that we have been introduced to a fundamental theme that will most likely run throughout the book, that is, a corrupt and deceitful society, and perhaps more specifically, corruption in the upper classes.
Dickens intentionally leaves out the determiners for some plural nouns, thus indicating the mass amount of ‘Horses’, ‘Dogs’ and ‘Foot Passengers’. This noticeably suggests that the masses have become such that it has begun to go out of control and it is a clear indication of the chaotic atmosphere in London. Located in the opening paragraph, this method is simply used to give the readers a mental picture of the frantic flurrying that surrounds them.
‘Fog’ also lacks a determiner, and as Dickens focuses on it in paragraph 2, he also uses repetition of the word ‘fog’ to create an enhanced image of mass. It engulfs the text, just as we would assume it engulfed the people. There is an extensive description of fog showing it in various actions. The fog ‘flows’, it is ‘creeping’, ‘lying’, and ‘drooping’. This all allows for a clear and concise image to be created. Such an image cannot be easily ignored and so there is a subtle hint that the fog is more than a mere mist that surrounds people; it is also threatening.
Dickens has used sound to his advantage when using alliteration to emphasise the impact of some sentences. For example, the amount of mud is accentuated when he writes ‘much mud’, as the sound of the words enable an image to be made of the muddy conditions, which contributes to the overall picture.
Onomatopoeia is another phonological technique that Dickens uses. It has a distinct effect as words that are associated with sounds, like ‘slipping and sliding’ are particularly powerful in illustrating text. The reader can interact with the text, hearing it as well as seeing it, and does not have to remain an outsider.
Having explored the main features of Dickens’ ‘Bleak House’, some conclusions can be drawn about the semantic field. It is clear that his methods have resulted in an obvious negative representation of Chancery, the Lord High Chancellor and things that are generally related to finance. References to finance using financial and religious lexis contribute towards turning a potentially optimistic image into a negative one. Lexical techniques like the use of superlatives and personification serve to enhance the cynical impression that Dickens wishes to convey. Clever use of sentence structure, such as using the present tense, lack of dialogue and description and repetition of certain words, add subtle qualities to the passage that contribute to the success of Dickens communicating his fundamental message to the readers. Phonological features influence us to become involved with the text and the underlying meanings of the passage.
These various linguistic qualities allow the reader to understand the strong view that Dickens possesses, and to understand his disgust with the bigotry within the upper financial sector of society. Moreover, we understand that his ‘bleak’ view of the monetary world is deeply influenced by the immorality and corruption of those in the ‘High Court of Chancery’.