Dickens Properly Represents Poor

With Charles Dickens’ serial installments of Bleak House it is not only a good story but, it has brought up the poor quite a lot. With these installments he accurately represents the living situation of the less fortunate. Dickens, first describes the Jellyby Household where many children reside and their needs are not attended to because their mother cares too bloody much for Africa. While many poor families do not care much for Africa in reality, many cannot sufficiently provide for their many children. “The poor mother sat with the baby in her lap on one of the two chairs that the room contained: there was a sick boy in the other. Five more children cowered round the grate” (Household Words Vol XI, 194). With so many children, any person would struggle to support a family that big. There are many children depending on their parents to have their needs met. The Jellyby Household represents how the children are treated in a poor family.

Furthermore, Dickens represents how a poor household is set up with the Brickmakers’ house as shown by the illustration. The household is very plain other than some little bits of furniture. It is similar to the Sullivan household which I have recently visited. “The Sullivans, though they were starving, had not yet sold their table and their chairs for food. They had clothes, too” (Household Words Vol XI, 194). Dickens does give mind to the poor and their actual living situation when writing Bleak House and shows it with his construction of families, such as the Jellybys and the Brickmaker’s family.

   Image from:

http://charlesdickenspage.com/illustrations_web/Bleak_House/Bleak_House_05.jpg

Michael Uhl