Dickens, Religion and Society pp 95-109 | Cite as
‘Oh my Friends and Brothers’: Industrialism and Trade Unionism in Hard Times
Abstract
Bleak House depicts a society that lives under the legacy of the past. Individual lives are shaped by the past in a number of ways. As regards the central characters, the Jarndyce versus Jarndyce case is an inherited incubus on the life of John Jarndyce; he wants nothing to do with it because of the way it destroyed his brother, in a course of events over before the novel begins. This legacy of the past comes to obsess and destroy Richard Carstone. Esther grows up in the dark shadow of the illegitimacy of her birth. Lady Dedlock is eventually destroyed when her past catches up with her. The lesser characters also live with inheritances from the past. Mr Turveydrop lives his life in the present inspired by a way of life that belongs to the past. The Bayham Badgers conduct their marriage in the shadow of Mrs Bayham Badger’s two previous marriages. Krook’s natural habitat is among ‘old parchementses and papers’ and this is where he feels comfortable: ‘I have a liking for rust and must and cobwebs’ (p. 70).1
Keywords
Political Economy Hard Time Union Leader Industrial World Dark ShadowPreview
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Notes
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- 22.Henry Ashworth, The Preston Strike, an Enquiry into its Causes and Consequences (Manchester: Simms, 1854), p. 27.Google Scholar
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