The East Wind
The east wind represents any vexing event, person, or
possibility that upsets or threatens to upset Mr. Jarndyce. Mr.
Jarndyce, steadfast and good-natured, rarely expresses displeasure
with anyone or voices his unhappiness or worry. Instead, when he
is agitated, he remarks that the wind is in the east, and those
who know him understand what he means. Mr. Jarndyce refers to the
east wind frequently when Esther first meets him, but as the novel
progresses, the wind, so to speak, seems to die down. At one point,
Mr. Jarndyce even tells Esther that there can be no east wind when
she is around, which reveals the extent of her influence on him
and in Bleak House. The use of wind to represent troubling issues
also suggests how changeable and unpredictable life can be. Just
as the wind can change direction without warning, lives are set
on new courses when secrets are revealed or when long-absent people
return unexpectedly.
Miss Flite’s Birds
Miss Flite’s remarkable collection of caged birds represents
the unfortunate people who have been trapped after becoming involved with
the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. Miss Flite, who has followed
the suit faithfully for years and has never stopped expecting a judgment,
plans to release her birds when the judgment finally comes. The
lawsuit, however, has gone on so long that the birds keep dying,
at which point she then gets new ones, which eventually die as well.
The birds, dying before a judgment is rendered, represent the people
who have also died while waiting for a judgment, including members
of Miss Flite’s family. Miss Flite has given her birds names that
suggest the things that have also died as Jarndyce and Jarndyce
has droned on, such as Hope, Joy, and Youth, or that have been brought
about by the suit, including Waste, Ruin, Despair, Madness, and
Death. Miss Flite does eventually release the birds after Richard
dies and the suit has been dismissed, but their freedom comes at
the expense of many lives.
Mr. Woodcourt’s Flowers
The flowers Mr. Woodcourt gives Esther before he goes
to sea initially represent a secret burgeoning love but later represent
a past that can never be revisited. Esther doesn’t tell us very
much about the flowers, only hinting at who gave them to her and
what they signify. After her face has been scarred by smallpox,
however, she confronts the flowers directly in her narrative. After
Mr. Woodcourt gave them to her, she dried them and saved them in
a book, but she now feels as though she shouldn’t keep them since
she looks so different from before. Instead, she decides to keep
them to remember the past, not as a romantic keepsake from a man
she once loved, but as a reminder of the woman she used to be and
the possibilities that had been open to that woman but have now
been lost forever. Esther doesn’t make many overtly romantic gestures
in the novel, so this admission of her affection for Mr. Woodcourt,
as well as the suggestion that she really does mourn the loss of
her beauty, makes the flowers all the more significant. Later in
the novel, after accepting Mr. Jarndyce’s proposal, she burns the
flowers, which testifies to the depth of her devotion.
