Lady Dedlock

How can a review be written of Bleak House with no mention of it's central character, Lady Dedlock? And if you are to talk about fog, her life of all characters in the book, is the one most beset by fog. She does not know that her lover is yet alive - and even once she sifts through the fog, she finds only his grave. She does not know that her daughter is still alive, yet once she finds her she must continue life without her. And the great tragedy of Lady Dedlock is that she cannot see through the fog of her husband's arrogant exterior, to the deep love that he has for her. Richard Carson may die ultimately because of the fog of Chancery. But Lady Dedlock dies because of the fog of her own perceptions. She cannot see her way through the pain that clouds her senses to self forgiveness and so cannot imagine that anyone else could forgive her either. Surely she, not the hollow Richard Carstone, is the tragic character of Bleak House?

I have been reading Bleak House and I absolutely agree. I found her character to be most tragic in the sense that she is, in a way, her own downfall.

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Surely she, not the hollow Richard Carstone, is the tragic character of Bleak House?

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I agree. I thought Esther's pursuit of her in the company of inspector Bucket made up the most touching and dramatic chapters in the book. I wish she hadn't died. I was a bit disappointed with the way Esther seems to completely forget her in the final chapters.

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Originally Posted by mona amon

I was a bit disappointed with the way Esther seems to completely forget her in the final chapters.

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But maybe Esther's method of honouring her memory is to build for herself a happy and fulfilled life with Dr Woodcourt...

I think you're right in saying that Lady Dedlock is a tragic character, but I don't think she's the most tragic or most central in the novel. First, I think any notion of tragedy in Lady Dedlock's failed perceptions is complicated by Esther's entire narrative. The conclusion of her narrative draws positives, almost absurdly, out of negative events like Prince Turveydrop's lameness, Richard's death, and her own disfigurement. The tone and conclusion of her narrative--and any redeeming sentiments they might bring to the novel as a whole--depend on foggy perceptions.

I don't think the novel's main tragedy is the interior struggle of any character, even the sympathetic and powerless Lady Dedlock, who has no control over the events that mould her perceptions. I think the real tragedies are the large-scale ills of the System--Chancery, and society itself--and that Jo, if anyone, is the novel's most tragic character. Unlike Richard, he has no hand in his own downfall, but never has a chance to create a life for himself. Moreso than Lady Dedlock, his character represents an imposed, inescapable helplessness, and the gravity of his death is highlighted over the other character's by the narrator's unique address to contemporary society. Lady Dedlock is important to the novel in countless ways, but the great tragedy of it all is the big picture, the ills of social structures, rather than one character's more personally-oriented downfall.

I wonder how Lady Dedlock knew that Nemo was her old lover, Captain Hawdon. Didn't everyone believe he had fallen down the ship at an Irish port? She apparently read a report of the coroner's verdict in a newspaper, and somehow worked out who the dead person was.

I cannot remember how she made contact with the brickmakers' wives. I remember she took away Esther's handkerchief from them, leaving some money, but I cannot remember why she tracked them down in the first place.

Surely she recognised Nemo's handwriting from a legal document Mr Tulkinghorn brings to her?

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Originally Posted by JonathanB

Surely she recognised Nemo's handwriting from a legal document Mr Tulkinghorn brings to her?

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Yes, it was so long since the start of the book, I couldn't remember.

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Originally Posted by kev67

Yes, it was so long since the start of the book, I couldn't remember.

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That's a problem with Dickens and long Victorian novels generally, isn't it? But the first readers would have been reading in episodes over a period of eighteen months to two years. How on earth did they remember the give-away details in the first episode? I can't remember how Lady D knows about the bricklayers' wives, either

I know Lady Dedlock was a resourceful woman who got around, but I wondered how she came to make contact with Jenny, the brickmaker's wife. In chapter 35, when Esther is recovering from smallpox. Miss Flite, who has come down to visit, says Jenny had followed her and Charley back from the coach to say a lady had come to their home, and had taken away the handkerchief that Esther had left there previously, leaving some money. How did Lady Dedlock know that Esther had left her handkerchief at Jenny's? St Alban's is quite some way from the Dedlock's houses in Lincolnshire and London. I suppose she may have got wind that Esther was very ill, and came down to visit her at Bleak House (although wouldn't that arouse suspicion?). Esther being so ill and infectious, Lady Dedlock might have been refused permission to see Esther, but heard about the handkerchief from Ada. But why wouldn't Ada have told Esther about it?