THE CHARACTERS
Mr. Bayham Badger, a medical practitioner in London
Matthew Bagnet (Lignum Vitae), an ex-artilleryman and bassoon-player.
Woolwich Bagnet, his son
Lawrence Boythorn, the impetuous, hearty friend of Mr Jarndyce.
Bucket: Detective in charge of finding Tulkinghorn's murderer. After Lady Dedlock's disappearance Sir Leicester hires Bucket to find her. He later uncovers the will that is instrumental in clearing up the Jarndyce and Jarndyce chancery case.
Right Hon. William Buffy, M.P., a friend of Sir Leicester Dedlock’s.
Carstone, Richard: Ward of Mr. Jarndyce and a party to the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. He marries Ada Clare and later dies when his health declines as the estate he hopes to acquire is consumed in court costs.
The Rev. Mr. Chadband, a large, greasy, self-satisfied man, of no particular denomination.
Clare, Ada: Ward of John Jarndyce, friend of Esther Summerson, cousin of Richard Carstone, who she marries and is soon widowed as Richard's health fails in the wake of the unhappy conclusion of the Chancery suit.
Dedlock, Lady: Wife of Sir Leicester Dedlock and, unknown to her husband, mother of Esther Summerson. When Tulkinghorn, the family lawyer, learns the secret she runs away and is found dead by Esther at the gates of the cemetery in which Esther's father, Captain Hawdon, lies buried.
Dedlock, Leicester: Husband of Lady Dedlock and owner of Chesney Wold.
Flite, Miss: A slightly mad old woman who is a regular attendant at the court of Chancery expecting to receive a favorable judgement in a case that no one is sure has ever existed.
Mr. Gridley (The man from Shropshire), a ruined suitor in Chancery.
Captain Hawdon (Nemo), a military officer; afterwards a law-writer.
Hortense: Lady Dedlock's French maid.
She discovers Lady Dedlock's secret that she is the mother of Esther Summerson
and when Mr. Tulkinghorn, the family lawyer, learns the same secret and
threatens blackmail, Hortense murders him.
Finally, there is Hortense.
Like Rosa and Miss Wade, she is dark, proud, and angry. She is initially
described as having a ‘feline mouth’ and as being ‘a very neat She-Wolf
imperfectly tamed’, and subsequently she is often defined by other animal
imagery: To Tulkinghorn she is ‘a vixen’, while the narrator describes
her as ‘that feline personage’, with a ‘tigerish expansion’ about the mouth
and, on one occasion, as ‘panting, tigress-like’, when she hears how Mrs.
Bucket has deceived her. Her discontent is manifested in various scenes
and in a variety of ways earlier in the novel, and she is explicitly associated
with a potential for violence at several points in the book, but it is
of course her murder of Tulkinghorn, Sir Leicester Dedlock’s lawyer and
the representative of the status quo which expresses her rebellion most
concretely. Moreover, in addition to challenging the status quo through
the murder, she also explicitly criticises the hypocrisies and suppressions
on which the status quo relies. At the very moment when Bucket, the detective,
is about to lead her away to prison, she challenges him to tell her that
he can reassert the rightness and stability of the old order of things
after the murder has forced out the truth that Lady Dedlock had a lover
and an illegitimate child before she married Sir Leicester, and that her
noble husband has been deceived and betrayed. ‘“Can you restore [Tulkinghorn]
back to life?”’ ‘“Can you make a honourable lady of Her?”’, ‘“Or a haughty
gentleman of Him?”’ she asks. Neither Bucket, nor the narrator, nor presumably
Dickens, has an answer to any of these questions. All Bucket can do is
to say, rather helplessly, ‘“Come, come, why this is worse Parlaying than
the other”’, before he leads her away. Hortense may have been found out
and arrested, but she has forced out into the open the dirty secrets which
Bucket, Tulkinghorn and Sir Leicester would have much preferred to keep
silent. Perhaps Dickens can imagine such a crime since Hortense is French,
and therefore different or ‘Other’ not only in terms of gender but also
in terms of race. As a French woman, she is, as it were, double beyond
the pale.
Jarndyce, John: Owner of Bleak House and party in the Chancery suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.He adopts Esther Summerson who becomes close friends with John's cousins, Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. John hates the lawsuit which has gone on for so long with no end in sight. Richard, however, becomes consumed with the case hoping it will make him his fortune. This obsession causes Carstone and Jarndyce suffer a falling out. Jarndyce falls in love with Esther and asked her to marry him, she accents because of her respect for him. Jarndyce later later finds that Esther is in love with Woodcourt and releases her from their engagement.
Jellyby: Mrs. Jellyby is involved in many causes and charities but neglects her large family. Her eldest daughter, Caddy, marries Prince Turveydrop, the dance instructor.
Mr Jellyby, the mild, quiet husband os Mrs Jellyby.
`Peepy´Jellyby, the neglected and unfortunate son of the preceding.
Jo: The crossing sweeper. When Jo shows Lady Dedlock the haunts of Captain Hawdon lawyer Tulkinghorn has Jo kept moving from place to place. He befriends Esther Summerson at Bleak House and communicates smallpox to Charlie, and then Esther. Jo later dies at the shooting gallery of George Rouncewell.
Summerson, Esther: Principal character in the story. She is brought up an orphan by her aunt, Miss Barbery. On her aunt's death she is adopted by John Jarndyce and becomes companions to his wards, Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. Later in the story it is revealed that Esther is the illegitimate daughter of Captain Hawdon and Lady Dedlock. John Jarndyce falls in love with her and asked her to marry him. She consents out of respect for Jarndyce but during the engagement she falls in love with Allan Woodcourt. When Jarndyce learns of her feelings for Allan he releases her from the engagement and she marries Woodcourt.
Tulkinghorn: Family lawyer to the Dedlocks.
When he finds out Lady Dedlocks secret past and tries to gain from it he
is murdered by Lady Dedlocks maid, Hortense.
This page has been created with both
Curso Académico
1999/2000
Narrativa
en lengua inglesa I
© Ioana Basterra López
© a.r.e.a/ Dr. Vicente Forés López
Universitat de València Press
jobaslo@alumni.uv.es