Summary: Chapter 31, “Nurse and Patient”
Esther tells us that Charley isn’t making much progress
in her handwriting lessons. Charley asks Esther if she knew a woman
named Jenny. She says that Jenny has been coming to the house hoping
to see Esther and that Charley ran into her at the doctor’s office.
Charley tells Esther that Jenny was buying medicine for a poor orphan boy.
Charley and Esther decide to visit Jenny. As they walk to her cottage,
Esther observes that, on this night, she didn’t yet know what was
going to happen to her.
At the cottage, Esther, with her veil still down, greets
Jenny and looks at the boy on the floor. The boy says immediately
that he won’t take her to the burial ground. Jenny asks him what’s
the matter, calling him Jo. When Esther lifts her veil, Jo says
she looks like the lady he took to the burying ground. Jo tells
Esther and Charley about his sickness. Jenny shows Esther Liz’s
baby, whom she calls her own. She tells Esther that Jo must leave
before her husband gets home. Liz arrives and says both their husbands
are on their way home. Esther takes Jo home with her.
At Bleak House, Esther finds Mr. Skimpole, who tells Mr. Jarndyce
to send Jo away. He says Jo’s illness makes him unsafe to be around.
But Mr. Jarndyce tells Esther to settle him in the stable.
In the morning, Jo is gone. They look for him everywhere,
but to no avail. Charley, meanwhile, has gotten sick (ostensibly
with smallpox) and becomes much sicker very quickly. Esther nurses
her, forbidding anyone else to come into the room, including Ada.
Charley nearly dies, but she slowly recovers. Esther, however, contracts smallpox
and becomes very sick too. She confides in Charley, who agrees to
nurse her. She gets sicker and temporarily goes blind.
Summary: Chapter 32, “The Appointed Time”
The narrator describes nighttime in Lincoln’s Inn. Two
women, Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Perkins, gossip about Krook’s alcoholism,
his lodger, and their own children. Krook has gone to bed, and his lodger,
Mr. Weevle (Jobling), paces restlessly from his room to the street
and back. Mr. Snagsby, uneasy at the mystery he has somehow become
involved in, comes to Krook’s shop and is surprised to find Weevle
outside. Mr. Snagsby tells Weevle that he would find it troubling
to live in a room where a man died. He tells Weevle how strange
it is that the lodger had been a writer for him, just as Weevle is.
Mr. Snagsby hurries home. Meanwhile, Mrs. Snagsby has followed him.
Weevle was waiting for Mr. Guppy, who arrives after Mr. Snagsby
has left. They go inside. Weevle tells Guppy he is depressed in
his room. Guppy says he saw Mr. Snagsby talking to him but thought
it best to stay hidden until he left. Weevle asserts that they are
as secretive as they’d be if they were murdering someone.
Guppy looks around Weevle’s room and sees a portrait of
Lady Dedlock, believing it to be a good likeness. Guppy tells Weevle
his attitude isn’t appropriate for the matter at hand, picking up
the lodger’s letters from Krook. Krook has arranged to meet them
at midnight. Weevle assures Guppy that Krook can’t read. Guppy notices
that his coat sleeve is covered in soot, and it won’t brush off. The
men agree to make copies of the letters as soon as Krook turns them
over. When Guppy sits on the windowsill, he gets yellow liquor all
over his hands. Weevle denies pouring anything out of the window,
even though the liquor is dripping from the windowsill.
At midnight, Weevle goes to Krook’s to get the letters,
but he comes back quickly and says that Krook is gone. Both men
go back downstairs to Krook’s and look around. They find a burnt
patch on the floor and some other evidence of burning. What they
think is a burnt log is actually a piece of Krook, and the men run
screaming into the street. Krook has spontaneously combusted.
Summary: Chapter 33, “Interlopers”
Weevle and Guppy give their statements at a tavern called
Sol’s Arms. No one sleeps that night; everyone goes to look at Krook’s house.
Miss Flite stays at a room at the Sol’s Arms. Sol’s Arms stays open
all night, and Weevle and Guppy tell everyone about what they saw.
Mr. Snagsby arrives, along with Mrs. Snagsby. She tells him she can’t
say for sure he wouldn’t spontaneously combust. Mr. Snagsby secretly
wonders if he was in some way responsible for what happened.
Weevle and Guppy go for a walk. Both men deny that they’ve been
conspiring but agree that they don’t need to mention the letters.
Weevle tells Guppy he can’t stay in his room anymore, but Guppy
tries to convince him to stay and investigate. Weevle says Guppy
can stay there if he wants.
Grandfather and Grandmother Smallweed and Judy arrive
in a coach. Grandfather Smallweed asks them to carry him into the
public house in the court. He is surprised to learn that Guppy discovered Krook’s
death and says Krook was Grandmother Smallweed’s brother. Grandfather
Smallweed has come to deal with Krook’s property. His lawyer is
Mr. Tulkinghorn.
Mr. Guppy eventually meets with Lady Dedlock and tells
her he doesn’t have the letters. He says he believes they were destroyed along
with Krook. On his way out of the room, he runs into Mr. Tulkinghorn,
who gives Lady Dedlock a suspicious look.
Summary: Chapter 34, “A Turn of the Screw”
George looks at a letter, confused by it. He calls Phil
over and reads him the letter. It is from Mr. Smallweed, declaring
that the debts Mr. Bagnet owes George will be due tomorrow. The
Bagnets soon appear at the gallery and are alarmed that they may
be ruined, but George assures them he’ll take care of it. George
wonders if someone would buy the shooting gallery. He and Mr. Bagnet
set out to visit Mr. Smallweed. On the way there, Mr. Bagnet talks
about his wife’s many virtues.
Mr. Smallweed asks Judy to bring the pipe, but George
says he doesn’t want to smoke it. George refers to the understanding
that he has always had with Mr. Smallweed and reminds him that Mr.
Bagnet doesn’t have any money. George asks Mr. Smallweed to explain the
understanding to Mr. Bagnet, but Mr. Smallweed smashes the pipe
on the floor and says he will destroy George. He tells him to go to
his lawyer.
George and Mr. Bagnet visit Tulkinghorn. A client comes
out: it is Mrs. Rouncewell. She greets them, saying that she once
had a son who became a soldier. Tulkinghorn tells the men they must
pay the money and that there’s no other option. George asks to speak
privately with Tulkinghorn. He says that he will provide the handwriting
sample Tulkinghorn had requested if he’ll let the Bagnets off the hook.
Tulkinghorn says that if he leaves the writing, the Bagnets will never
again be bothered about this matter, and that all will be as it once
was. George gives him the writing—a “letter of instructions.”
Later, at dinner at the Bagnets’ house, George is despondent.
He tells the Bagnets’ son, Woolwich, to value his mother and never
to be responsible for turning her hair white. He says that Woolwich should
have this to think of when he is a man.
Summary: Chapter 35, “Esther’s Narrative”
Esther tells us that she was sick for many weeks but doesn’t
want to talk about it much. At one point, she knew she would see
again. Ada had tried to visit her, but Charley forbade her in accordance
with Esther’s instructions. As Esther’s sight returns, she reads
letters from Ada and feels happy in the quiet house. She begins
growing stronger and eventually sits up in bed. She notices the
tidiness of the room but also notices that Charley has removed the
mirror. When she delicately mentions this to Charley, Charley begins
sobbing. Esther reassures Charley that she will be fine even without
her old face.
When Mr. Jarndyce visits her, he is overcome with relief
and affection, despite her changed face. He tells her how miserable
he and Ada were without her and that the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit has
changed Richard. Richard now suspects Mr. Jarndyce of having conflicting
interests. Mr. Jarndyce and Esther hope Richard will come to his
senses.
Esther requests to stay in a country home for a week before
seeing Ada. Mr. Jarndyce says Boythorn has already offered his house. He
also says that Miss Flite is determined to visit her, and they arrange
a time for her to come.
Miss Flite is overcome with happiness to see Esther, and
she borrows a handkerchief to wipe her eyes. She then says that
a poor woman—Charley identifies her as Jenny—followed her and Charley
from the coach and said that a woman in a veil had been at the cottage,
asking after Esther. This woman took a handkerchief from Jenny that
had belonged to Esther. Charley tells Esther that she had left the
handkerchief there when Jenny’s baby died. Miss Flite speculates
that the woman is the lord chancellor’s wife. Esther suspects it is
Caddy Jellyby.
Miss Flite tells Esther that she still expects a judgment
from Jarndyce and Jarndyce, just as all her relatives had before
they died. She warns Esther that someone must rescue Richard from
it.
Miss Flite then tells Esther that her wonderful doctor,
Mr. Woodcourt, has been very kind to her. Esther says Mr. Woodcourt
is far away, and Miss Flite fills her in on what has happened. There
was a shipwreck, but Mr. Woodcourt survived and heroically saved
lives.
Esther then confesses a secret: she thinks Mr. Woodcourt
once loved her and that she would have been happy if he’d told her.
But she is relieved that he doesn’t have to be with her now, since
her face is so changed. There is no need to release him from any
obligation, because there never was an obligation.
Analysis: Chapters 31–35
The idea of contagious illnesses appears twice in Bleak
House: the smallpox that Jo, Charley, and Esther suffer
from, as well as the contagious fervor of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce
case, of which Richard is the latest victim. Both Esther and Richard
are irrevocably changed by their illnesses. Although Esther survives
her smallpox, she suffers greatly—even going temporarily blind—and
emerges with a scarred face. Her appearance is so altered that Charley
removes all the mirrors from her rooms, and for several chapters
Esther doesn’t attempt to see what she looks like. Although she
puts up her usual strong front and resists the urge to indulge in
self-pity, the very absence of any melancholy wallowing in her narrative
is itself evidence of her sadness. For his part, Richard has ceased
to be the loving, warm young man Mr. Jarndyce, Esther, and Ada know
and love. Instead, his passion for Jarndyce and Jarndyce has made
him suspicious, angry, and distant. Esther knows that she’ll never
be beautiful again, but she retains the hope that Richard will see
the error of his ways.
The complicated financial arrangement between George,
Mr. Smallweed, and the Bagnets, which is nearly impossible to understand,
reflects both the tangled web of Jarndyce and Jarndyce as well as
the interconnecting threads of the novel’s many storylines. We have
the facts, or what seem to be the facts: George once borrowed money
from Mr. Bagnet to buy his shooting gallery; Mr. Bagnet borrowed
this money from Mr. Smallweed with the understanding that George
would repay it; and Mr. Smallweed, generally willing to collect
interest instead of demanding repayment, is now demanding payment
in full because he’s upset that George wouldn’t provide the lodger’s
handwriting. The vaguer aspects of this situation include the many
references to the “arrangement” George has with Mr. Smallweed; Mr.
Smallweed’s “friend in the city,” who may be Richard or who may
be no one at all; and George’s deep devotion to the Bagnets. Dickens
does not spend much time elaborating on every element of this messy
grouping, and a full understanding of the particulars isn’t the
point. Instead, we get a clear sense that characters are linked
to each other in complicated ways, that loyalties can be tested,
and that motivations are not always what they seem. The shadowy
dealings of Mr. Smallweed and George’s growing desperation add more
sinister tones to the developing plot.
Esther’s confession about Mr. Woodcourt at the end of
chapter 35 isn’t a complete surprise, but
it is remarkable in that it reveals the skill and agility of Esther’s
storytelling. Although Esther had dropped hints earlier in her narrative
about her feelings for Mr. Woodcourt, confirming those feelings
here—at the moment when she knows she is no longer beautiful—heightens
the emotional effect. Now we understand, in part, why she never
revealed her feelings before—as the narrator, she knew that she
would get smallpox and indulging in romantic speculations and digressions
may therefore have been painful or even irrelevant to her. Only
at this point, when discussing Mr. Woodcourt’s heroics and return
does Esther finally reveal that he may have loved her. This confession
threatens to be egotistical, since she has just been told what a
valiant hero Mr. Woodcourt is. However, the twist to her confession—that
she is happy he never told her his feelings—stops it from being
so. Instead, Esther reveals that she is glad she would not have
to be a “chain” for him to “drag,” assuming he would never love
her in her changed state. This assumption, and her selfless relief
that Mr. Woodcourt is free, are moving, even more so because Esther
states her case so briefly and simply, almost as a reluctant afterthought.
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