Abstract
This paper considers Charles Dickens' novel "Bleak House" in reference to other works. The paper highlights the major conflict in the novel, which involves a lawsuit. Many quotes are used to support the paper's comparisons and contrasts. The paper also analyzes various symbols that appear in "Bleak House." Finally, the paper evaluates women's roles in Victorian society, giving a general history of those roles and citing examples from the novel.

From the Paper
"In the representation of gender in relation to crime, men are usually those that are acitvely involved in society and the institutions of law, like Mr. Tulkinghorn or Detective Bucket or Krook, who is called " Lord Chancellor " because of his habit to collect a lot of useless things, thus making a mess out of his home, and whose death by " spontaneous combustion" is very significant because it is as if the evil purges itself. Many of the men in the novel are part of the "system " and thus play their part in the crimes."

Tags:Charles, Dickens, Bleak House, Victorian, literature, women

Abstract
This paper discusses how in "Bleak House", Dickens' expressed opinion of the entire British legal system is bleak, at best. It looks at how Dickens' long-winded story, although interestingly woven with plot and characters, paints a portrait of a corrupt, confused and hopeless legal justice system. In particular, it examines how the case, Jarndyce & Jarndyce, which has been in litigation for so many years that no one alive, except one person knows what it is about, is the centerpiece for Dickens' portrait of a system gone to seed and how the local chancery, under whose jurisdiction Jarndyce & Jarndyce languishes, is a portrait of bureaucratic waste and greed.

From the Paper
"Dickens treated the issue of poverty very seriously, and the appalling conditions that prevailed at Tom-all-Alone's reveal his great compassion and even anger over England's poor. One review points out that by describing areas such as Tom-all-Aloe's, Dickens " shows that, had the court used the money that was tied up in foolish legal issues on repairing and maintaining such areas as these, many citizens could have found some hope" (Lecki). In 1853 in a review of the story, Henry Chorley comments on Dickens' poor young character, Jo, saying that , "Perhaps among all the waifs and strays, the beggars and the outcasts, in behalf of whose humanity our author has again and again appealed to a world too apt to forget their existence, he has never produced anything more rueful, more pitiable....The dying scene with its terrible morals and impetuous protest, Mr. Dickens has nowhere in all his works excelled" (Jecki). "

Tags:Jarndyce, &, Jarndyce, British, legal, system, chancery

Abstract
This paper discusses Charles Dickens' book "Bleak House" , focusing particularly on the significance of the character Jo and the way in which he met his death.

From the Paper
"In Bleak House, Dickens paints a portrait of England with the broad strokes of fiction dwelling, as he himself admits, "upon the romantic side of familiar things"(6). As the title of the novel suggests, Dickens shows his audience a bleak portrayal of their homeland that is shrouded in imagery of fog, mire, and darkness. These images of physical obscurity represent the less tangible obscurity present in English institutions, such as in government, organized religion, and the legal system, in particular the Court of Chancery. The original purpose of these institutions, which was to serve the people who had created them, has been so obscured by a distortion of human values that these institutions have lapsed into a state of inertia, serving no one but themselves. It is of this inert society that Bleak House is a model. The novel also illustrates, through the theme of convergence, the interdependent structure of society, as characters of all social levels are seen to interconnect. Of all these characters whose existences infringe upon each other's, perhaps the darkest is the homeless little cross-sweeper Jo. In his appalling mental and physical darkness, Jo represents all of those who live and grow in the neglect produced by the inertia of his country's institutions."

Tags:imagery, institutions, society

Abstract
This paper explains that the Ghost's Walk, which is a symbol for Lady Dedlock's secret past, is one of the most haunting images in Charles Dickens' "Bleak House". Specifically, the paper relates the ways that Dickens uses this literary device to create an overall tension, to foreshadow connections between characters and to symbolize Lady Dedlock's guilty conscience. The Ghost's Walk is particularly significant to the book as a whole, the paper relates, because it brings the novel to its main climax.

From the Paper
"Esther's fascination with the Ghost's Walk is fitting, since she is personally a key to the fulfillment of its prophecy. How appropriate, even ironic, that just as Esther is wondering about the family curse, Lady Dedlock arrives to make her aware of her own part in it. This connection becomes blatant and fever-pitched when Esther later decides to explore the Ghost's Walk. "I was passing quickly on...when my echoing footsteps brought it suddenly into my mind that there was a dreadful truth in the legend of the Ghost's Walk; that it was I, who was to bring calamity upon the stately house.""

Tags:transition, guilty conscience, foreshadow, personified curse, climax

Abstract
The paper describes how Dickens, in "Bleak House", employs the neighborhood, the building, the store and its wares and the character of Mr. Krook himself, as caricatured reflections of the court of Chancery and the Lord Chancellor. In particular, the paper portrays how the use of Mr. Krook as a counterpoint to the High Chancellor allows Dickens to satirize and mock the court of Chancery.

From the Paper
"Additionally, both the Lord Chancellor and Krook are creatures of habit and resistant to change; the chancery suits over which the Lord Chancellor presides are intentionally extended and artificially lengthened by both the barristers on either side of the court case and the Lord Chancellor himself, so as to increase their legal fees, and thus are plodding, almost never-ending affairs which work against change as hard as possible; change is in fact against their best interest, as the faster the suit gets resolved the less pay they get. Their entire existence depends upon their ability to create their own work, as it were, by taking a simple chancery suit and turning it into a "perennially hopeless" quagmire (17). Krook, in the same fashion, is very hesitant to change his ways, or the things around him: "I can't abear ... to alter anything, or to have any sweeping, nor scouring, nor cleaning, nor repairing done around me" (70). This goes so far as to stop Krook, nominally a store-owner who profits from the sale of things, from ever parting with any of his possessions."

Tags:Lord, Chancellor, Chancery, court

Abstract
The paper discusses "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens. The paper examines the main themes of the book - the disconnection of society, the complexity of society, and the difficulty present in understanding and managing society. The paper further discusses the structure of the novel and the impact of the structure on the novel's interpretation. The writer examines how people live in the society described in the novel. The paper concludes with an analysis of how the government appears to have lost control and what the reasons for this could be.

From the Paper
"Daniel Hack describes how this point is made by performing a close analysis of the portion of the novel where an observer watches a civic parade and tries to understand the meaning of it. The observer describes the parade as "a kind of practical riddle for all beholders to make guesses at" (Dickens 234). The observer then takes advantage of the opportunity to interpret the events as he sees fit and develops a strange and amusing theory on what it means. In the end, it is revealed that the real meaning of the parade was to represent the coming together of various cultures into one unified whole. The problem is that the only person who can understand this meaning of the parade is the person who created the parade and the meaning, which is the mayor."

Tags:Richard, Carstone, Ada, Clare

Abstract
Moving from close analysis of the style and flow of the text to new and original interpretations of the main characters and subplots, this paper explores how language is used and abused in "Bleak House". It looks at how it can obscure as well as clarify and how it can express little or nothing even in, or especially in, enormous quantities. It explains that, ultimately, the novel redefines 'language', from its ideological throne as the cornerstone of civilisation, to a hindrance to expression and to society as a whole.

From the Paper
"Another problem with language in Bleak House is its abundance. The novel is filled with references to writing and paperwork. The significance of Nemo's handwriting, the paperwork of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and Mrs Jellyby's endless correspondence are just a few examples of this. Dickens even takes the quantities of writing to ridiculous levels, with the claim that 'I believe now, Mrs Jellyby, that you have received as many as from one hundred and fifty to two hundred letters respecting Africa in a single day, have you not?' (p. 51). Although writing is an important theme, the contents of the documents are very rarely considered. Lady Dedlock is more interested in the handwriting on a document than what it contains (p. 168), and we constantly encounter enormous piles of forgotten paperwork."

Tags:communication, convention, dedlock, grammar, jarndyce, jellyby, leicester, nemo, satire, sir

Abstract
This paper evaluates the thematic, stylistic and political content of Charles Dickens' more mature work, "Bleak House". This paper discusses the modes of genre in which this novel could be categorized.

From the Paper
"The later works of most creative genii have been construed as practically spiritual manifestations as it is in this period that the definitive masterpieces are known to emerge, such as Shakespeare's late romance play, The Tempest, or Mozart's Magic Flute. Shakespeare's genres grew less palpable, and the music of Beethoven became more unearthly than ever before. In the same manner, a more mature work in Dickens' career, Bleak House, proved to be more obscure in the rendering of genre, and instead, bears its weight equally with the tone of a popular melodrama, a realist novel, moral fairytale, political satire and a hard-boiled detective story, encapsulating the richest elements from his previous works. Dickens' unrelenting concern for harmonious social order, justice, and universal comfort became the major motifs throughout his writing, in which he produced a cross-section of characters from his society, and duly criticized or embraced their behavior in relation to their context. In the Victorian period for which Dickens wrote, London society was notoriously bleak, dank, and disorderly. In Bleak House, Dickens succeeds in revealing the corrupted behavior of the court and the idleness of the general public. Social mayhem marks the predominant hue for his canvas, and the city of London is painted with heavy grey strokes. It could well be that Bleak House represents the highest point of his intellectual maturity."

Tags:detective, fairytale, melodrama, moral, novel, political, popular, realist, satire, victorian

Abstract
The paper focuses on the characters of Emma Woodhouse in Jane Austen's "Emma", Esther Summerson in Charles Dickens' "Bleak House", and Clarissa Dalloway in Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". The paper highlights how Emma, Esther, and Clarissa were most concerned about their social appearance, and they allowed their concern to run their lives. The paper portrays how these women in three different stages of life were not given much room to grow, and were expected to conform to the society around them. The paper further illustrates how none of them really made an effort to fight against this, or to change anything about their situation.

From the Paper
"There is an extreme difference between the self-image of a woman in a novel, and the way the author views a woman. It is possible for an author to present a character in such a way that you are able to understand what that character thinks of themselves, but also see how the author views women and their position in society. Questions area also raised about what a woman's purpose in life really is. Their lives seem to revolve around their husbands, and before they are married, their lives revolve around finding a deserving husband. If this was really the only point to a woman's life, how much intelligence and other skills was wasted during this time? Is it possible that women were cheated out of their full existence, and that women themselves contributed to this by being satisfied with the status quo in their lives?"

Tags:Emma, Esther, Clarissa, stereotypes, marriage, husbands, motherhood

Abstract
The paper discusses how the subsidized housing situation in Chicago is growing bleak, as it is doing in many of America's urban communities. The paper explains that the combination of a reduction in public housing and the increasing reliance on Section 8 has caused public housing situations to become critical. The paper notes that some have seen this development as an opportunity to segregate and a lawsuit has been filed to that effect. The paper discusses that whether or not this kind of accusation has a foundation in the truth is a subject of its own, but maintains that regardless of this, public housing is becoming scarcer and cities like Chicago will feel the negative effect more than most.

Tags:public, housing, chicago