Favourite character in Bleak House

[kev67]

I am about 40% through the Bleak House. There are many strands in the book. There are also many characters. My favourites so far are Jo the street sweeper, and Mr Guppy. I cannot tell yet whether Mr Guppy is a goodie or a baddie, or whether he is shallow or deep. He is a comic character. I think he may be shallow, but I do not think he is very bad, or even wearisome. Dickens' shallow characters tended to be wearisome. No doubt I will find out what he is up to in the rest of the book. Jo is a very sympathetic character, being so poor and an orphan. He says he don't know nuffink, and he is illiterate, but he knows his way around and he knows his own mind. He is maybe a bit too open.

[Jackson Richardson]

Harold Skimpole, Mr Chadband, Mrs Jelllyby are all selfish and seen through, but wonderfully entertaining.

Poor Mr Snagsby is both amusing and sympathetic.

Miss Flite and her birds.

[kev67]

I like the older Mr Smallweed. He is a malevolent, grotesque character.

[Jackson Richardson]

Notice the scene in which Dickens introduces him with a description of the street scape of the area in which he lives, as dry and dusty as he is. Dickens will not satisfy readers who like the interior life of characters, but the exterior description stands in for any interior description.

But you never see the interior life of Lady Dedlock precisely because she cannot allow any interior life to show. (I don't want to spoil the plot.)

[kev67]

I was a little disappointed one of my favourite characters died about half way through, and the other inadvertently contributed to Lady Dedlock's sad end. I still like Mr Guppy. He provides some much needed comedy. Lady Dedlock was a good character. A woman with a lot on her mind.

[kev67]

I was reading Henry Mayhew's London Labour and London Poor yesterday, which gave a figure for a crossing sweep's earnings: 8d a day. This works out about 4s a week. This was earned by an Irishman who had a family to support, although his wife worked too. I wonder if Jo could have made 8d a day, being a child. For comparison, Henry Mayhew estimated the average earnings for a costermonger (someone who sold fish, fruit or vegetables from a barrow) was 10s a week, some months more, some months less. This is about the same as the farm labourers in Far From the Madding Crowd, but about five shillings less than the factory workers in North and South or Bob Cratchet from A Christmas Carol.