#bleak house

[eilooxara]

Hmm I'm not liking A Tale of Two Cities as much as Bleak House

Like. Esther Summerson is such a compelling character and we actually get a lot of her perspective, and not just the events that happen but how she feels and thinks about everything and everyone, it really gives a lot of depth to the events. Lucie Manette... is there, and a lot of the stuff happens about her, but her perspective is barely present. Her characteristics as they appear on the page: pretty, kind, loves her dad. That's it. Esther is like, cut from the same cloth as her but in Bleak House we get to see the internality of the sort of person who outwardly seems to others to just be pretty, kind, and loves her [weird pseudo-dad mentor figure]. Like I read Bleak House and I'm like "Esther I know you have opinions about this! stop lying to yourself and also me, I know you are experiencing an emotion other than gratitude, stop repressing" and that was the meat of the book

But if Lucie has any of that going on we don't know about it yet

And I just don't give a shit about any of the other characters, so far. I expect some segment of tumblr loves Sydney Carton because he is 1) a man and 2) pathetic, but I just want to put him in a dumpster and stop reading about him

[darkskytenjiku]

Okay I want to see a real Victorian era squeezed bonnet.

Saw it in bleak house and I am curious to see 🙂

Btw they are so beautiful can we bring back those bonnets 😩🥹

[a-drifting-boat]

Thinking about how Esther's disfigurement happens after Lady Dedlock discovers that she is still alive, but before their actual meeting in the woods. And the way Esther's resemblance to her mother is emphasised by the narrative right before she becomes ill, with Jo confusing the two of them.

Esther's scarring is obviously a visible symbol of the stain of her birth. At the same time - on one hand Esther needs to learn about Lady Dedlock and the mystery of her birth, because on a psychological level she wouldn't have been able to reconcile herself to the idea of marrying Allan Woodcourt and becoming a mother if she hadn't.

But on the other hand Lady Dedlock is a potential danger to Esther. Both in terms of the shame/fear experienced by Esther at the thought of being revealed as her daughter and becoming the cause of her disgrace, and the way she is connected to the threat of Esther being trapped and destroyed by the past like so many other characters in the novel are. Which is why on a narrative level she has to die before Esther can marry.

I think the implication is that Lady Dedlock and Esther's meeting is necessary, because Esther learning about her origins and her past is necessary - but at the same time there needs to be a level of separation in order to make the contact safe for Esther. Not just in the practical sense that Esther's scarring conceals their relationship, but that on a deeper symbolic level, Esther's happy ending is dependent on a certain level of distance being maintained between the two of them. So Esther's illness and scarring has to happen after contact between them becomes a possibility (Lady Dedlock learning about her survival), but before they actually meet.

[a-drifting-boat]

Homoerotic mistress-servant relationships are clearly genetic.

[whateverhappenedtomarymary]

The House of the Seven Gables is like if Bleak House and The Picture of Dorian Gray had a really fucked up kid

[yakkety-yak-art]

I know it’s not actually true that Charles Dickens was paid by the word, but boy oh boy does he make it easy to believe it

[a-drifting-boat]

"Katie Cruel" is a Lady Dedlock song to me.

[atropos-moth]

Did you know that only 5% of college English majors could read and understand the first chapter of Bleak House?