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4. Bleak House and the social position of Women.
Charles Dicken’s Bleak House "The Gloomy House" by Charles Dicken is a wonderful, if sometimes a little long novel. For the most part, Dickens is not interested in telling a story, but instead prefers to focus on creating a world within the novel. In this world that he built, society in many ways resembles the time in which Dickens worked and lived, namely the nineteenth century. In this society, there is a generally accepted division between the sexes, as in any other society. This division is the central theme in this work. Thus, the central question is: “How does Bleak House investigate the social status of women in the nineteenth century?". The thesis that will be argued within the framework of this work is as follows: “Bleak House explores the situation of women, giving about half of the novel to a female narrator. Her chapters in the novel are designed to show the reader that a man considered the lot of a woman.” It is important to remember that, despite the fact that Dickens is a phenomenal writer, he still offers society only a one-sided view: the human view.
This male point of view is quite obvious in the way some of the female characters in this novel were created. The most obvious is the fact that every woman is connected to a man in some way. Even Miss Flight depends on Mr. Guppy's financial support, although they have no family ties. The same applies to Esther. She was raised by her aunt, whom Esther considered her guardian. When this woman died, a mysterious man sent Esther to Greenleaf, where she was to be educated for 6 years. Esther is quite happily settled in Greenleaf and would be happy to stay there, but then Mr. Jarndyce, her mysterious benefactor and guardian, sends for Esther so that she can become the guardian of Ada Claire, the overseer of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce trial. In the first few chapters of the novel, Esther's life is completely controlled by a man, Mr. Jarndyce. Despite the fact that Esther is one of the main characters of the novel, she has very little control over her own life. In this sense, Esther can be seen as an archetypal representative of a Victorian middle-class woman. She grew up in this patriarchal society, and as a result, her own self-esteem is in question. As the novel continues, Esther's personality seems to disintegrate. She received so many nicknames that her “own name was soon completely lost among them.” Of course, women had very little control over their lives in the nineteenth century, but having so little control over their lives seems a bit extreme compared to works written by female authors around the same period, such as Jane Austen.
The structure of the novel is ideal for studying the social status of women in the nineteenth century. 32 of the 67 chapters of Bleak House offer this female point of view, narrated by Esther, while an omniscient male narrator manages the rest of the chapters. The male narrator offers readers an analytical overview of the world contained in the novel. This narrator simply observes: nothing is assumed, everything is simply observed: he is rational and detached, never interfering in the story. Esther's narrative, on the other hand, offers a feminine, softer perspective. This gives readers a private, personal point of view. Esther knows nothing about the trial of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, so she cannot provide readers with any information on this matter. The law is set forth exclusively by an omniscient male narrator who makes a clear distinction between the male and female spheres. The division is obvious: Esther's narrative focuses on the inner world: the world of home and hearth, while the man's narrative focuses on the outside world, the city and the law.¹⁰
According to Charles Dickens, women are the keepers of the home and hearth. Pretty soon after her arrival in the Cold House, Esther becomes the housekeeper of the mansion and enjoys her housework. She manages to turn a Gloomy house into a safe and happy, loving home, showing that she is a good hostess. However, many other women in the "Gloomy House" are terrible housewives. Mrs. Jellyby, Mrs. Pardiggle and Lady Dedlock are the most striking examples of bad housewives. Both Mrs. Jellyby and Mrs. Pardiggle are too focused on their charity to see that their own homes are falling apart and that their children are completely unhappy. Lady Dedlock is also said to be a terrible housekeeper, but fortunately, Chesney Wold does not depend on Lady Dedlock's housekeeping skills, since Mrs. Rouncewell manages the mansion.
In the novel "Bleak House" there are many strong women with their own clear opinions, such as Mrs. Badger, but still she puts her own interests in third place after the interests of her husband and her children. Mrs. Badger is described as a strong woman who often speaks for her husband, but only when he asks her to (which almost always happens if she is around). This theme continues throughout the novel and is most clearly seen in Lady Dedlock. At the end of the novel, she tells Esther the secret of her origin and begs her to keep her secret. She begs Esther to do this not for her sake, but for the sake of Sir Lester Dedlock. He would be extremely embarrassed by the whole thing, while Lady Dedlock could lose everything she had spent her entire life creating. She puts her own interests ahead of her husband's because he loves her and she wants to spare him any embarrassment.[The truth about Esther's parentage is another example of the various rules applied to women in Victorian society. If Lady Dedlock had been Lord Dedlock, the mystery would never have caused as much trouble as it does now. Since Lady Dedlock is a woman, she is a fallen woman who lost all rights to a place in society when she had an illegitimate child. The same contagion spread to Esther: if society had known about her origin, she would have been expelled from society. Mother and daughter are forced to renounce each other in order to maintain their place in society.
There is much more to be said on this topic, and perhaps it would have been better to choose one large essay on this topic, but a different choice was made. Upon careful reading of the novel, it became clear that Dickens wanted women to be good educators, but also knew enough about reality to show that this is certainly not always the case. Women obey a completely different set of rules in society than their male counterparts. Women should trust men who take care of them, as evidenced by Esther's blind faith in her guardian, as well as Miss Fleet's trust in Mr. Guppy. Women can be strong and good educators, but they still need to treat “their” men, correlate their interests with their own. The moral rules of society are much more strictly imposed on women than on men. In this novel, Dickens created a traditional ethic of stability and constancy, especially deeply rooted in Esther. Women's property is a home and a hearth, and women who manage to run a household well are described as pleasant women with whom it is pleasant to be around. Women who fail to run a good household are described in a much less friendly way, which makes it quite clear that Charles Dickens considers a good woman.