The Search for Love
Almost every character in Bleak House is
searching for love, a search that proves to be equally rewarding
and difficult. Esther quietly searches for love, even though she
seems too busy taking care of others to think much about her own
romantic situation. She refrains from focusing on her romantic feelings
in her narrative, often revealing her feelings only through her
stammering evasions of the subject. When she first meets Mr. Woodcourt,
she barely mentions him or describes him, which is in stark contrast
to the thorough treatment she gives everyone else who crosses her
path. Only when her search for love is over, culminating in her
marrying Mr. Woodcourt, does she devote explicit attention to it.
Other characters carry on their searches more openly. Caddy Jellyby
gleefully marries Prince Turveydrop, for example, and Rosa and Watt
Rouncewell intend to marry.
The search for love is not successful for everyone, and
it even ends with heartbreak for some. Mr. Guppy tries and fails
to become engaged to Esther, making two ridiculous proposals that
Esther roundly rejects. Esther accepts Mr. Jarndyce’s proposal,
but he calls off his search for love when he acknowledges that the
love between them is not the kind of love that will make Esther
truly happy. Ada, although she finds true love with Richard, is
eventually heartbroken when Richard dies. Sometimes the search for
love is literal, and these searches never end well. For example,
Lady Dedlock engages in a literal search for love when she tries
to find out where her former lover is, and Sir Leicester endeavors
to find Lady Dedlock when she disappears from Chesney Wold. Whether
pleasing or tragic, the search for love always proves to be a force
that changes characters dramatically.
The Importance and Danger of Passion
In Bleak House, passion is both important
and dangerous, sometimes healthy and satisfying, sometimes harmful
and destructive. Many characters recognize the importance of passion
for a fulfilling life. For example, Mr. Jarndyce and Esther worry
when Richard can’t find a career. Both hope he’ll settle on a career
that he’ll feel passionate about, but Richard flits from one thing
to the next, never finding anything truly compelling. Esther recognizes
the importance of passion in love, which is why she cries as she
decides to accept Mr. Jarndyce’s proposal—she loves him, but not
in the passionate, romantic way she’s dreamed of loving someone.
Even Mr. Jarndyce understands the importance of passion. Although
he knows he and Esther could have a happy life together at Bleak
House, he also knows their love is built on affection rather than
passion. He releases her from her acceptance and settles her with
Mr. Woodcourt, who he knows is Esther’s true love.
Although passion is a key element in a fulfilling life,
it can be destructive when it is taken to an unhealthy level. Mrs.
Jellyby, who is obsessed with her “mission” to help Africa, is criminally
negligent of her family and has removed herself from them so much
that she barely cares about Caddy’s engagement and wedding. Mrs.
Pardiggle, the charity worker who forces her young sons to give
up their money for her causes, is oblivious to her sons’ unhappiness
and can’t see that she is an intolerable person. More sinister is
the violent passion Richard feels for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce
lawsuit. For the first time, he is excited about something, willing
to devote himself wholeheartedly to it and make it his single goal.
This passion was absent from all his previous pursuits, but it is
not welcome or healthy here. Rather than enliven and satisfy him,
it robs him of reason and moderation and, eventually, his life.
Passion, though essential, can be dangerous when it becomes all
consuming.
The Ambiguous Definition of “Mother”
Throughout Bleak House, the role of mother
is filled by women who often are not “real” mothers at all. Charley,
a child herself, cares for her two young siblings, all of them orphaned
and struggling. Jenny and Liz, the brickmakers’ wives, care for
each other’s children. Liz cares for Jenny’s child when it is sick,
and after it dies, Jenny takes to calling Liz’s child her own. Lady
Dedlock reveals a motherly side in her affection for Rosa. And Mrs.
Rouncewell becomes a kind of mother figure to Sir Leicester when
he becomes ill at the end of the novel.
Esther is undoubtedly the character who best knows the
true flexibility of the title “mother.” Esther fills the role of
mother for several people, including Ada, Richard, Caddy, and Charley.
To a lesser extent, she mothers Jo, Jenny’s sick baby, and Peepy
Jellyby—in other words, nearly every child who crosses her path.
When Ada has her child after Richard dies, Esther is so involved
in the child’s upbringing that the child says it has two mothers.
Esther herself is raised by Miss Barbary and Mrs. Rachael, neither
of whom is her “real” mother. Occasionally, other women tend to
Esther, including Mrs. Woodcourt, the women at the inn she meets
when she goes in search for Lady Dedlock, and, in a reversal of
roles, Charley, who tends to Esther when Esther gets smallpox. Lady
Dedlock, Esther’s real mother, is actually the least motherly figure
in Esther’s life. Their interaction is fleeting, and though Esther
finds comfort when Lady Dedlock hugs her, it is temporary at best.
When Lady Dedlock disappears, Esther takes up the mothering role
once again, frantically searching for Lady Dedlock in the middle
of the night.
