Anthropomorphism
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens

Bleak House: Anthropomorphism 1 key example

Definition of Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous examples of anthropomorphism include Winnie the Pooh, the Little Engine... read full definition
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous examples of anthropomorphism include Winnie... read full definition
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). Some famous... read full definition

Key Examples in Bleak House

Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Lonely Animals:

In Chapter 7, Dickens's third-person omniscient narrator uses anthropomorphism to imply that the Dedlocks are less happy than the animals who live at their house, as remembering the past is only safe for the dumb animals of the estate:

There may be some motions of fancy among the lower animals at Chesney Wold. [...] So, the mastiff, dozing in his kennel [...] may think of the hot sunshine [...] So the rabbits with their self-betraying tails, frisking in and out of holes at roots of trees, may be lively with ideas of the breezy days when their ears are blown about [...] 

Be this as it may, there is not much fancy otherwise stirring at Chesney Wold. If there be a little at any odd moment, it goes, like a little noise in that old echoing place, a long way, and usually leads off to ghosts and mystery.