Emily Messer
ENG 491
Bleak House Installment Eleven
02/02/2020
Bleak House Installment Eleven and its Thematic Relevance
Installment eleven of Bleak House by Charles Dickens begins with chapter thirty-three and ends with chapter thirty-five of forty-eight chapters total. There are twenty installments which were released monthly, making Bleak House an almost two-year endeavor. Situated between a case of spontaneous combustion in installment ten and Esther learning the true identity of her mother in installment twelve, installment eleven runs along a track of eventful and emotion packed installments, just after the middle of the novel. Though it does occur more than halfway through the story, a few of the events in installment eleven set up the later events of the novel, all the way up until the ending. Esther’s illness and recovery, which is the driving force of chapter 35, influence multiple plotlines that lie at the heart Bleak House. Similarly, the confession of love for Mr. Woodcourt, which also takes place at the close of chapter 35, is integral to the ending of Bleak House and its emotional weight.
Installment eleven begins with the omniscient narrator describing the court directly after Krooks dies of spontaneous combustion. We learn that Krooks was Mrs. Smallweed’s brother, and therefore the Smallweeds want to inherit Krook’s belongings. We remember that Krooks had a stack of Nemo’s letters and wonder if any may have survived. We also meet the Bagnet family and their learn connection to George Rouncewell while Mr. Tulkhinghorn attempts to collect Mr. George’s debt. Then we switch back to Esther’s narrative, where we learn of her illness and her recovery with resulting scars, her absence from Ada, and an admission of her love for Mr. Woodcourt. Esther writes, “And now I must part with a little secret I have thus far tried to keep. I had thought, sometimes, that Mr. Wood Court loved me; and that if he had been richer, he would perhaps have told me that he loved me, before he went away. I had thought, sometimes, that if he had done so, I should have been glad of it,“ (pg. 570).
The illness that Esther has contacted, which is decidedly smallpox, was passed down from Jo, to Charley, to her. We learn of all three of these illnesses in installment number ten, and their significance and thematic importance comes to light in installment eleven. Jo, who is poor and resides in Tom All Alone’s, a very impoverished and dirty neighborhood in London, gets the disease first. Then Charley, who is still a poor girl and one of the lower-class characters in Bleak House contracts it from caring for Jo. Then, Esther falls ill after caring for both Jo and Charley. From this, there are two thematic takeaways. First, there is the infection of disease moving its way up the social class but ends with the class just below Ada: people whose perceived birth is low ranking. The disease is not allowed to continue spreading into the upper classed members of the character list. This could be read as a social critique of the idea of birth ranks, calling out how lower classed members of society are seen as a kind of self-contained infection. Secondly, this could fit into the novel’s larger conception of charity. Esther and Charley care for Jo out of compassion: a kind of charity. However, this charitable act winds up giving them smallpox. Similar to the portrayal of Mrs. Jellyby’s neglect at the hands of charity and Mr. Jarndyce’s inability to recognize thanks for his charity, the contraction of disease as a result of charity might be another way Dickens conveys that there is no good or pure form of charity – at least not without consequence. In regard to the effects of her illness, Esther writes “I had heard my Ada crying at the door day and night I had heard her calling to me that I was cruel and did not love her… But I had only said when I could speak, ‘Never my sweet girl never!’ And I had over and over again reminded Charley that she was to keep my darling from the room whether I lived or died. Charley had been true to me in that time of need, and with her little hand and her great heart had kept the door fast,” (pg. 556).
Beyond the illness itself, the scars that result from the illness do quite a bit of work for the overall plot going forward from installment eleven. In installment twelve, Lady Dedlock reveals to Esther that she is, in fact, her mother. However, no kind of mother-daughter relationship results from that conversation. This could, in part, be explained by Esther’s complete facial change from the scarring that comes from the illness. Esther’s familiarity to Lady Dedlock is tainted by the scarring, and therefore the scarring becomes a symbol for the years of separation and emotional trauma (especially Esther but also somewhat Lady Dedlock as well) endured. Esther’s scars also inform her decision to accept the proposal made to her by Jarndyce in installment number fourteen, for marriage. Esther believes that her beauty has completely left her as a result of the scarring, and when Jarndyce proposes to her, she feels as though that may be her only chance at marriage. Yes, Esther loves Jarndyce almost like a father, but we have never had any inkling that she is romantically interested in Jarndyce. Therefore, when Jarndyce gives Esther a letter asking her to be his wife, we almost expect, or perhaps wish Esther to say something like, “No! I’m a young and beautiful woman and should not give away a chance at a fulfilling relationship to be the pet of an old man!” However, Esther does not think she is beautiful anymore, not after the scars. When speaking of her scars, Esther writes, “I have thought of this very often. I was now certain of it. I could thank God that it was not a shock to me now. I called Charley back; and when she came – at first pretending to smile, but as she drew nearer to me looking grieved – I took her in my arms and said, ‘it matters very little Charley I hope I can do without my old face very well,’” (pg. 558).
Another revelation that comes with installment eleven is the admission of love between Allan Woodcourt and Esther. This has been heavily hinted at, but never outright said until this point. We have already had hurdles to a respective relationship introduced earlier in the novel, such as Mrs. Woodcourt’s assertion that Allan should not marry a woman who is not of good birth. This, of course, would not apply to Esther after she learns that she is a Deadlock, but at the time is a clear threat. There is also Mr. Woodcourt’s prolonged absence from Bleak House at the hands of his work as a physician. However, none of the other threats seem as concrete and final as the threat that Woodcourt simply could not be with Esther after she has lost her beauty. This thought leaves the reader with a sadness, which is a perfect setup for the close of the novel where Jarndyce releases Esther from her betrothment and allows her to marry Woodcourt. The emotional weight of learning that Esther, a beloved narrator, can finally be happy with a man she could truly love as a husband is only possible through the many chapters of concealment which lead to the admission at the end of instalment eleven along with the seemingly assured end of any hope with the dramatic change in Esther’s appearance. In reference to how her change in appearance will affect a potential relationship with Woodcourt, Esther writes, “What should I have suffered, if I had had to write to him, and tell him that the poor face he had known as mine was quite gone for me, and then I freely released him from his bondage to one and he had never seen!” (pg. 570).
Thematically, the illness and scarring work together to draw parallels between infection and poverty, charity and consequences, emotional scars and physical markings, and loss of beauty and strength of love. The preceding events of the installment, such as the introduction of the Bagnet family and the Smallweed’s connection to Krooks have their importance in the plot of the novel, but the larger thematic overtones of those sections pale in comparison to the importance of the illness. While the illness does first appear in an earlier installment, the resulting scarring and connection to the romance between Woodcourt and Esther does not appear until installment eleven, making this thematic and symbolic groundwork anchored in the eleventh installment.