Bleak House Commentary

The following is an analysis of a passage from Charles Dickens’ novel, Bleak House, in which a bleak and dreary atmosphere is conveyed.  

        The first thing that is mentioned by the narrator in the first paragraph of the passage is mud, and this plays a significant part in the depiction of a filthy, dirty environment. The beginning line, ‘As much mud in the streets…and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill’ uses hyperbole to suggest that the streets are so muddy that it’s almost like the beginning of the world, and it wouldn’t be strange to see a dinosaur roaming around because of that. Also, the line ‘Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers’ is an exaggeration of how the streets are so dirty that one cannot tell the different between the mud and the dogs, and even horses are up to their eyes in it. This shows us just how much mud and grime there is, and how dirty everything is.

        Another aspect in this passage is the dreariness and the bleak environment. This is expressed in the line ‘Foot-passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas, in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud…’ Firstly, the line ‘jostling one another’s umbrellas’ suggests that the place is so overcrowded and uncomfortable that people are all bumping into each other, and that their ‘ill temper’ is spread like a disease every time they come into contact, and it stirs in us a sense of claustrophobia because the people are all packed together. This adds to the implication that it’s a miserable and unpleasant place to be. Also, the fact that the foot-passengers are using umbrellas suggests that it is or has been raining, strengthening the general feeling of gloominess.  

Join now!

        Furthermore, the fact that the part of the line ‘…slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke)’ is written in parenthesis suggests the sarcastic voice of the narrator, that he is mocking the foot-passenger’s ill temper and derisively commenting on the cold and depressing atmosphere, and this in turn reinforces that very fact. The use of sibilance in ‘slipping and sliding’ further increases the effect of the dismal environment.

        The following line, ‘Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle with flakes of soot in ...

This is a preview of the whole essay