Dickens makes two unusual choices in his method of narration in Bleak House. First, there are two narrators, and secondly, those narrators actually work as foils for one another, each amplifying and emphasizing traits of their counterpart. For example, the first voice readers encounter is that of Dickens's muscular and forceful third-person omniscient narrator. This "speaker" begins with the following fragment:
LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather.
This majestic introduction invokes most of the novel's major themes in under two lines:"LONDON" is the setting, main source of problems, and in many ways the main character of Bleak House."Michaelmas Term" is the first quarter of the legal year (when lawyers traditionally practice), spanning from October to December. It's also the first term for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, invoking those storied institutions and their venerable histories for the reader. The Lord Chancellor is the central figure of the dilapidated legal system of Chancery, and the narrator casually envelops him here among other stately descriptions. Finally, the "November weather" is described as "implacable," meaning it can't be affected or appeased. This refers to the novel's harsh weather systems in general, and to the book's famous fogs in particular. The omniscient narrator makes all these references in the span of one tiny sentence, demonstrating their control over the narrative and their encyclopedic knowledge of the world of Bleak House.
By contrast, when Esther, a young, first-person narrator, introduces herself in Chapter 3, it seems she can barely get the words out, let alone concisely summarize the span of the book:
I have a great deal of difficulty in beginning to write my portion of these pages, for I know I am not clever. I always knew that.
When Esther tells the reader she is "not clever," she elaborates here that her "noticing way" is merely a method of trying to absorb as much information as possible. This modesty is the total opposite of the other narrator, who "notices" everything from "LONDON" to the inner thoughts of minor characters.
Esther's "modesty" makes the austere and sometimes pompous narrative voice of the third-person narrator seem even grander. Her "voice" is the emotional center of the novel; "her" chapters are almost all delineated with the common title "Esther's Narrative." The other narrator's "chapters" all begin by signaling more ponderous and less personal topics like "Dutiful Friendship."
Dickens makes two unusual choices in his method of narration in Bleak House. First, there are two narrators, and secondly, those narrators actually work as foils for one another, each amplifying and emphasizing traits of their counterpart. For example, the first voice readers encounter is that of Dickens's muscular and forceful third-person omniscient narrator. This "speaker" begins with the following fragment:
LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather.
This majestic introduction invokes most of the novel's major themes in under two lines:"LONDON" is the setting, main source of problems, and in many ways the main character of Bleak House."Michaelmas Term" is the first quarter of the legal year (when lawyers traditionally practice), spanning from October to December. It's also the first term for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, invoking those storied institutions and their venerable histories for the reader. The Lord Chancellor is the central figure of the dilapidated legal system of Chancery, and the narrator casually envelops him here among other stately descriptions. Finally, the "November weather" is described as "implacable," meaning it can't be affected or appeased. This refers to the novel's harsh weather systems in general, and to the book's famous fogs in particular. The omniscient narrator makes all these references in the span of one tiny sentence, demonstrating their control over the narrative and their encyclopedic knowledge of the world of Bleak House.
By contrast, when Esther, a young, first-person narrator, introduces herself in Chapter 3, it seems she can barely get the words out, let alone concisely summarize the span of the book:
I have a great deal of difficulty in beginning to write my portion of these pages, for I know I am not clever. I always knew that.
When Esther tells the reader she is "not clever," she elaborates here that her "noticing way" is merely a method of trying to absorb as much information as possible. This modesty is the total opposite of the other narrator, who "notices" everything from "LONDON" to the inner thoughts of minor characters.
Esther's "modesty" makes the austere and sometimes pompous narrative voice of the third-person narrator seem even grander. Her "voice" is the emotional center of the novel; "her" chapters are almost all delineated with the common title "Esther's Narrative." The other narrator's "chapters" all begin by signaling more ponderous and less personal topics like "Dutiful Friendship."
