Charles Dickens, “Bleak House”

Bleak House, 1853

“Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ’prentice boy on deck.” (Chapter 1)

The opening of Bleak House introduces the spirit of London. Generally very unhygenic, dirty, and dispirited, Dickens emphasizes the condition of London as very poor indeed. The fog represents all that is wrong with London in the Victorian Era, Dickens proposes that even nature is displeased with the course of society. It symbolizes human misery, and Dickens connects it to the highest and lowest parts of society (“‘prentice boy” and “pensioners”). Thus, this spirit sets the theme and tone of the entire novel. Not only does Dickens portray the state of London, it drives home the consequences of actions that have already been taken.

On another layer, the fog also represents the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. As the metaphorical fog reduces visibility, so is the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce muddled. The reader’s understanding of the case is limited to very few details as well. In the end, one can think twofold about the fog surrounding London — as a historical representation as well as an important symbol in Bleak House.