Charles Dickens worked with many complicated ideas and it is shown in Bleak House in more than one instance. These opening paragraphs show just some of the subtlety in his work. He manages to set the scene as well as set in motion the ideas that will be explored within the novel.
He describes London as a dirty, backwards place where it would not be a surprise to see a prehistoric creature prowling the streets - it is as muddy and unclean as if it were not the great city it is supposed to be. While it is dirty and muddy, this idea of uncleanliness extends further than the literal being dirty. It is an attack on the city, and Bleak House did very well in attacking London and what transpired within its walls in terms of government and social ideas. It shows something almost chaotic in the people 'slipping and sliding since the day broke (if they day ever broke)', and this chaos, again, shows what Dickens thought of the city. He talks of the London fog (or the London Particular) in the same way. It's a literal darkness, in that where there is fog there is a lack of light, 'black drizzle' and 'the death of the sun'. There is also a metaphorical darkness in that the city's physical bleeds into the mood and the life, where 'crust upon crust of mud' is added to daily, where dogs are 'undistinguishable' and 'horses, scarcely better'. This conjures a depressing and bleak picture of the city, a cycle that doesn't end because nothing is given the chance to be cleaned, the 'tens of thousands of other foot passengers' not given the chance to see cleanliness and light, or goodness.
Dickens blurs the lines of metaphor and metonymy to great effect. There is 'fog up the river' and 'fog on the Essex marshes', there are literal, and it carries on as such for a little while, until the switch comes with the fog being 'in the eyes and throats' and 'cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little 'prentice boy on deck' to the metaphorical.
The inside of the house is just as spooky as the outside. ... The narrator flees from the house. ... Commentary In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting to enhance the plot. In beginning the story with a long description of the house and vicinity, Poe sets the scene for an eerie, diseased, and bleak tale. ... Moreover, the house is crumbling just as the family is. ...
Pride and Prejudice Commentary I.i-v Commentary The initial conversation between Mr. and Mrs. ... Lords and ladies who owned large estates did not own merely their own large houses and grounds; they also owned the buildings in which their farmers lived. ... This position of parish priest was called a living, and once a clergyman received it (together with the house, income, and social importance that came with it), he had it for life, barring gross incompetence or negligence. ... I.xix-xxiii Commentary Mr. ... Charlotte's representations of the horrors of dying an "old maid" are ...
Relevance to modern day is echoed throughout the novel with the use of social commentary throughout. ... In my eyes Nick embodies the middle class with a white collar job and a decent house in West Egg. ... Fitzgerald gives us a great social commentary on these lavish individuals. ... But some of it is merely Fitzgerald's use of social commentary that simply implies ideas about it. ... In that sense a truly bleak and eerily accurate picture is painted. ...
Social commentary and political discourse are good themes for a novel to have, as it addresses a more topical issue, but there is nothing like humor and more importantly, satire to appeal to the mass audience. ... The caricaturization of the characters and social commentary. ... Just as the Dedlocks in Bleak House were oppressive and a source of fear, so are the beadles a source of fear to the children and the other workers in the workhouse. ... As unreal as the situation might be, he is an optimist, in a world that breeds pessimism, and the social commentary comes from his optimism, and his b...
Commentary on Popular Mechanics In Raymond Carver's short story Popular Mechanics, the meticulous focus on details is immediately obvious to the reader, whether it be the integrated symbols, the characterization, or even the title. ... A bleak atmosphere is created by snow, normally white and pure, melting away into dirtiness. ... Once again the setting gives the reader a bleak feeling. ... However, with the darkness engulfing the safety of the house as well, one must know that trouble is ahead. ...
Swift's Laputian characters are brilliant in the fields of science and mathematics, yet they cannot seem to build a simple house correctly - when they attempt to create actual structures instead of vague theories, they find that the walls are crooked and the corners don't match! Instead of learning these basic skills, they spend their time planning methods of building houses from the roof downward, pondering how to pull sunbeams out of vegetables, and worrying about comets hitting the earth. ... One of the funniest of Swift's commentaries - which most would agree with to this da...
He seemed duplicated, that he was reproducing, himself all through the house, and the exasperated and unhinged Elisenda shouted that it was awful living in that hell full of Angels"(237). This Angel has brought a lot of good fortune to this family and they repay him by kicking him out of the house and then complaining about everything he does. ... "Elisenda let out a sigh of relief, for herself, and for him when she saw him pass over the last houses, holding himself up in some way with the risky flapping of a senile vulture"(237). ... Marquez doesn't offer a totally bleak image of l...
After a visit from some relatives they are given the money to return to Limerick on the west coast of Ireland, as prospects in New York are bleak (it is the middle of the Depression). ... The family moves from the room to a terraced house next to the river, although hovel is a more apt description. ... Frank's mother, Angela, is often shown queuing at the poor house, the charity of St Vincent, for food or clothes or furniture, where those dispensing the charity are often less than charitable in their attitudes. ... Things become so bad financially that the family start chopping down the ...
The twentieth century really begins before the end of the nineteenth century. Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent the end of an era. An end-of-century stoicism, and a growing pessimism among writers and intellectuals, may be traced to several sources, not least the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species which put the existence of God into radical question. Across the whole population, and in the face of rapid economic and social changes, radical doubts about the stability of the existing order were expressed. By the end of the nine...
