"Save England before it blows up, like the springing of a mine" (Hillis-Miller 1998, 31) is the warning embedded in Charles Dickens's Bleak House, though it seems far from the time in which the novel was born. The 1850's saw the staging of the Great Exhibition, an event through which England could boast, according to the Times, "of that day when all ages and climes shall be gathered round the throne of the maker" (Schlicke, p48). Dickens was most certainly not to be found amongst this inertia of idol worship. For the novelist, the year was not one that should inspire celebration or self-approval. He sharply wondered when "another Exhibition - for the great display of England's sins and negligence's [would be presented to the] steady contemplation of all eyes". (Schlicke, p48). Such keen statements, within his literature and journalism has for many years shaped Dickens as a pioneer of the working-class movments, and almost voice box for their many grievances and sufferings. However it is debatable how far Dickens can actually be considered as this advocate of working class identity and point of view. At times his impassioned tone stops short of being anything but a sympathetic and pitying sentiment. By exploring the potential threat of the lower classes, the exclusion from the political and literary world, the bonds that exist between them and ultimately the patronising narrator one can build picture of the lower class point of view as one that was always interpreted by others, even ignored, and rarely given a chance to hold its own. .
One such movement that attempted to address this problem were the Chartists. Active in the 1830's and 40's, they attemtped to voice the political point of view of the lower orders. Certainly such a voice is largely excluded from those of Bleak House. Simply the state fails to represent the people that their job actually obiliges them to protect. The masses are merely a "large number of supernumeracies, who are to be occassionally addressed, and relied upon for shouts and choruses, as on a theatrical stage" (BH 191).
