The Bleak House - A Commentary

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The Bleak House – A Commentary

Charles Dickens employs certain tools to create particular effects in the opening of ‘The Bleak House’. A combination of these techniques allows for the semantics to be clearly expressed in the passage. I will attempt to explore the ways in which he achieves this clarity by looking at the semantic field.

Dickens makes deliberate use of a financial lexis as the passage is set ‘In Chancery’. The reader is immediately aware of the monetary environment that surrounds them in the heart of London – a vastly industrialised city. ‘Deposits’ and ‘compound interest’ are examples of this lexis, which serves to portray the Chancellor’s surroundings and in turn, the deceit and dishonesty that reigns in this society.

         Language related to religion is also used towards the end of the opening. The last paragraph starts similar to a sermon, as it begins, ‘Never can there be fog too thick, never can there come…’As in a sermon, the repeated use of ‘never’ gives a sense of inevitability. Negative religious words such as ‘most pestilent of hoary sinners’ are used to enhance the cynical image of the High Court of Chancery and alert the reader of their ill intentions. This reinstates the impression of prevailing corruption that seems common at this time.

        Before the end, however, there is a noticeable repetitive use of superlatives, which gives a difference to the text, almost drawing near to a conclusion and a close. This puts great emphasis on the descriptions mentioned. The ‘raw afternoon’ is described as ‘rawest’, the ‘dense fog is densest’ and the ‘muddy streets are muddiest’. Here, the adjectives ‘raw’, ‘dense’ and ‘muddy’ all have negative connotations, further contributing towards the dreary description of The High Court of Chancery, and of course the Lord High Chancellor himself.

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        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 ...

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