The Importance Of Urban Spaces In Charles Dickens Bleak House

Charles Dickens’ Bleak House is considered to be “one of the most urban texts of the most urban novelists” (Griffith 248). Bleak House uses a variety of urban spaces to progress the plot and build relationships between characters who would otherwise have no reason to interact. The novel first establishes the reader in the panoramic view of London. In the early Victorian era, London was expanding and becoming more industrial. London was a mixture of slums and palaces, law courts and graveyards, shows the variety and sheer number of people living in the city. Given its centrality to the novel, the city itself becomes a character, expanding the characters relationships to include their relationship with the city they live and work in. By exploring the different urban spaces in the novel, we can see …show more content…
The law courts and offices are a place of business and social gathering rather than dwelling, and as such they are paramount to Dickens’ Bleak House. Dickens’ primary aim in Bleak House is to reveal the justice system as ineffective and absurd. This was accomplished by having virtually every character in the novel have a stake in the case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, which would award a large inheritance to whomever was deemed the inheritor by the courts. However, the years the court spent deliberating over who would inherit this fortune ate up the entire sum in legal fees. This meant that Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce had been a was a waste of time for all the characters who were hoping to receive the inheritance and all professional lawyers and justices that entertained the case, but also benefited by divvying up the inheritance among themselves through the legal fees. After all the time and money invested into the law courts, Dickens is representing them as a waste of