Fog Symbol Analysis

In Bleak House, fog symbolizes confusion and illusion—in other words, the inability to see clearly. In the opening of the novel, London is wrapped in fog so thick that it enters people’s houses and even surrounds the court, the lawyers, and the Judge who sit inside the court of Chancery; which specializes in cases based on property and inheritance and around which much of the novel revolves. The court of Chancery is both wrapped in literal fog and surrounded by a haze of confusion and misunderstanding. This is epitomized by the court case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which is in session during the fog. The case has dragged on over several generations and is a joke among the lawyers because of how complicated and incomprehensible it has become.

The fog is also present when Esther, Richard, and Ada are brought to London, foreshadowing their entanglement with Jarndyce and Jarndyce and the complications that this will bring about in their own lives. Richard and Ada are “wards” of the court in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which means that they expect to inherit property and must await the verdict. Throughout the novel, Richard’s hopes and ambitions become obscured by the Chancery case, which takes over his life, just as a fog clouds one’s field of vision, engulfing everything else in sight. Similarly, Esther’s identity and past are murky and are called into question when she is brought to London to act as a companion to Ada.