Esther Summerson describes her childhood and says she is leaving for the home of a new guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, along with Ada Clare and Richard Carstone. On the way to the home, called Bleak House, they stop overnight at the Jellybys’ chaotic home. When they finally reach Bleak House, they meet Mr. Jarndyce and settle in. They meet Mr. Skimpole, a man who acts like a child.

The narrator describes a ghost that lurks around Chesney Wold, the home of Lady and Sir Leicester Dedlock.

Esther meets the overbearing charity worker Mrs. Pardiggle, who introduces her to a poor brickmaker’s wife named Jenny, whose baby is ill. Esther says she is sure that Ada and Richard are falling in love. She meets Mr. Boythorn, as well as Mr. Guppy, who proposes marriage. Esther refuses him.

At Chesney Wold, Tulkinghorn shows the Dedlocks some Jarndyce documents, and Lady Dedlock recognizes the handwriting. Tulkinghorn says he’ll find out who did it. He asks Mr. Snagsby, the law-stationer, who says a man named Nemo wrote the documents. Tulkinghorn visits Nemo, who lives above a shop run by a man named Krook, and finds him dead. At the coroner’s investigation, a street urchin named Jo is questioned and says that Nemo was nice to him. Later, Tulkinghorn tells Lady Dedlock what he’s learned.

 

Richard struggles to find a suitable career, eventually deciding to pursue medicine. But he is more interested in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, which he believes will make him rich. Neither Esther nor the narrator ever fully explains the lawsuit, because nobody remembers what originally prompted the parties to begin the suit.

In London, Esther meets a young girl named Charlotte who is caring for her two young siblings. A lodger who lives in the same building, Mr. Gridley, helps care for the children as well.

A mysterious lady approaches Jo and asks him to show her where Nemo is buried.

Mr. Jarndyce tells Esther some details about her background. He reveals that the woman who raised Esther was her aunt. The next day, a doctor named Mr. Woodcourt visits before leaving on a trip to China and India. An unidentified person leaves a bouquet of flowers for Esther.

Richard begins working in the law. Esther, Ada, and others visit Mr. Boythorn, who lives near Chesney Wold. There, Esther meets Lady Dedlock for the first time and feels a strange connection to her. Lady Dedlock has a French maid, Mademoiselle Hortense, who is jealous that Lady Dedlock has a new young protégée named Rosa.

A man named Mr. Jobling, a friend of Mr. Guppy’s, moves into Nemo’s old room above Krook’s shop.

Two men, George and Grandfather Smallweed, talk about some money that George owes Smallweed. They reach an agreement, and George leaves.

Tulkinghorn introduces Bucket and Snagsby, and Snagsby introduces Bucket to Jo. Bucket figures out that the woman Jo led to the burial ground was disguised in Mademoiselle Hortense’s clothes. Mademoiselle Hortense soon quits her post at Chesney Wold.

Caddy Jellyby tells Esther she is engaged to Prince Turveydrop. Charley Neckett becomes Esther’s maid. Mr. Jarndyce warns Ada and Richard to end their romantic relationship since Richard is joining the army. Gridley dies.

Smallweed visits George and says that Captain Hawdon, a man he thought was dead, is actually alive, and that a lawyer was asking about some handwriting of his. He asks George if he has any handwriting to offer. George visits Tulkinghorn, who explains that George will be rewarded if he gives up some of Hawdon’s handwriting. George refuses.

Guppy visits Lady Dedlock in London and tells her he thinks there is a connection between her and Esther. He says that Esther’s former guardian was someone named Miss Barbary and that Esther’s real name was Esther Hawdon. He says that Nemo was actually named Hawdon, and that he left some letters, which Guppy will get. When Guppy leaves, Lady Dedlock cries: Esther is her daughter, who her sister claimed had died at birth.

Charley and Esther visit Jenny and find Jo lying on the floor. He is sick, and Esther takes him back to Bleak House, putting him up in the stable. In the morning, he has disappeared. Charley gets very ill. Then Esther gets extremely ill.

Guppy and his friend Jobling want to get Hawdon’s letters from Krook. But when they go down to Krook’s shop, they find that he has spontaneously combusted. Later, Grandfather Smallweed arrives to take care of Krook’s property. Guppy eventually tells Lady Dedlock the letters were destroyed.

Smallweed demands payment from George and the Bagnets, on whose behalf he borrowed the money. Desperate, he tells Tulkinghorn he’ll turn over the Hawdon’s handwriting if he’ll leave the Bagnets alone.

Esther recovers slowly. Miss Flite visits her, telling her that a mysterious woman visited Jenny’s cottage, asking about Esther and taking away a handkerchief Esther had left. She also tells Esther that Mr. Woodcourt has returned. Esther goes to Mr. Boythorn’s house to recover fully. She looks in a mirror for the first time and sees that her face is terribly scarred from the smallpox. While there, Lady Dedlock confronts her and tells her she’s Esther’s mother. She orders Esther to never speak to her again, since this must remain a secret.

Richard pursues the Jarndyce lawsuit more earnestly, aided by a lawyer named Vholes. He no longer speaks to Mr. Jarndyce, who doesn’t want anything to do with the suit.

Esther visits Guppy and instructs him to stop investigating her.

Tulkinghorn visits Chesney Wold and hints that he knows Lady Dedlock’s secret. She confronts him and says she will leave Chesney Wold immediately because she knows her secret will destroy Rosa’s marriage prospects. Tulkinghorn convinces her to stay, since fleeing will make her secret known too fast. When Tulkinghorn is back home, he is visited by Mademoiselle Hortense, who demands he help her find a job. He threatens to arrest her if she keeps harassing him.

Esther tells Mr. Jarndyce about Lady Dedlock. He reveals that Boythorn was once in love with Miss Barbary, who left him when she decided to raise Esther in secret. Mr. Jarndyce gives Esther a letter that asks her to marry him. Esther accepts.

Esther tries to convince Richard to abandon the Jarndyce suit. While she is visiting him, he tells her he has left the army and devoted himself entirely to the lawsuit. Esther sees Mr. Woodcourt on the street. She asks Mr. Woodcourt to befriend Richard in London, and he agrees.

In London, Woodcourt runs into Jo on the street and gives him some food. He discovers that Jo once stayed with Esther. Jo tells him that a man forced him to leave and that he’s now scared of running into him. Woodcourt helps Jo find a hiding place at George’s Shooting Gallery. Jo soon dies.

Lady Dedlock dismisses Rosa with no explanation in order to protect her. Tulkinghorn is enraged and says he’ll reveal the secret. That night, Tulkinghorn is shot through the heart. The next day, Bucket arrests George for the murder.

Ada reveals to Esther that she and Richard have been secretly married.

Bucket investigates Tulkinghorn’s murder. He receives a few letters that say only “Lady Dedlock.” He confronts Sir Leicester and tells him what he knows about Lady Dedlock’s past. Instead of arresting Lady Dedlock, however, he arrests Mademoiselle Hortense, who killed Tulkinghorn and tried to frame Lady Dedlock.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Rouncewell, the housekeeper at Chesney Wold, finds out that George is her long-lost son. She begs Lady Dedlock to do anything she can to help him. Guppy arrives and tells Lady Dedlock that the letters were actually not destroyed. Lady Dedlock writes a note to Sir Leicester, saying she didn’t murder Tulkinghorn, and then she flees.

Sir Leicester collapses from a stroke. Mrs. Rouncewell gives him Lady Dedlock’s letter, and he orders Bucket to find her, saying he forgives her for everything. Bucket asks Esther to join him, and they set out in search of Lady Dedlock in the middle of the night. While Sir Leicester waits at home, unable to speak clearly, Esther and Bucket search. Eventually Bucket figures out where to find her. They finally find Lady Dedlock at the gate of the burial ground where Hawdon is buried. She is dead.

Richard is sick and still obsessed with Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Ada is pregnant and hopes the baby will distract Richard from his obsession with the lawsuit. After visiting Richard one night, Woodcourt walks Esther home and confesses he still loves her as he once did. She tells him she is engaged to Mr. Jarndyce.

Smallweed finds a Jarndyce will among Krook’s property and gives it to Vholes.

George moves to Chesney Wold, where he helps tend to Sir Leicester.

Esther begins to plan the wedding. Mr. Jarndyce goes to Yorkshire on business and then sends for her. When she arrives, she finds out that Mr. Jarndyce has bought a house for Woodcourt out of gratitude. He shows her the house, which is decorated in Esther’s style, and tells her that he’s named the house Bleak House. Then he reveals that he knows she loves Woodcourt and that they should be married. He says he will always be her guardian. Woodcourt appears, and he and Esther reunite.

The Jarndyce and Jarndyce case is finally dismissed. No one gets any money since the inheritance had been used up to pay the legal fees. Richard dies.

Esther says she and Woodcourt have two daughters and that Ada had a son. She is very happy.

The narrator and protagonist. Esther, an orphan, becomes the housekeeper at Bleak House when she, Ada, and Richard are taken in by Mr. Jarndyce. Everyone loves Esther, who is selfless and nurturing, and she becomes the confidante of several young women. Although she eventually does find her mother, circumstances prevent them from developing a relationship. At first a hesitant, insecure narrator, Esther’s confidence in her storytelling grows, and she controls the narrative skillfully.

 

Esther’s guardian and master of Bleak House. Mr. Jarndyce becomes the guardian of the orphans Ada and Richard and takes Esther in as a companion for Ada. Generous but uncomfortable with others’ gratitude, Mr. Jarndyce provides a warm, happy home for the three young people. When Esther is an adult, he proposes marriage, but he eventually rescinds his offer when he realizes she’s in love with someone else. Mr. Jarndyce has sworn off any involvement whatsoever with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit.

 

 

A ward of Jarndyce. Kind, sweet, and naïve, Ada becomes Esther’s closest confidante and greatest source of happiness. She falls in love with Richard, and although they eventually marry and have a baby, she never finds full happiness with him because of his obsession with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit.

A ward of Jarndyce. Affable but lazy, Richard can’t decide on a career and seems to have no passion for a particular field. Eventually, he becomes obsessed with Jarndyce and Jarndyce and ultimately sacrifices his life for the lawsuit. He pursues the suit for Ada’s sake but never succeeds in providing a real home for her.

Mistress of Chesney Wold, married to Sir Leicester, and Esther’s mother. Lady Dedlock, revered and wealthy, has kept the secret of her illegitimate child throughout her life, believing the child died at birth. She reveals her true identity to Esther but is wary of pursuing a relationship because she believes Sir Leicester’s reputation will suffer. When the truth threatens to come out, she runs away, certain that Sir Leicester will hate her. She dies outside of a cemetery.

 

Master of Chesney Wold. Sir Leicester is a strong, respected man who ultimately withers and weakens because of Lady Dedlock’s disappearance. Fully willing to forgive her, Sir Leicester does his best to find her, but he is too late.

A lawyer involved in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. Mr. Tulkinghorn shares Lady Dedlock’s secret and threatens to reveal it. He is eventually murdered by Lady Dedlock’s former maid, Mademoiselle Hortense.

A woman who talks incessantly about her former husbands.

A doctor who agrees to take Richard on as an apprentice.

Mr. Matthew Bagnet

A soldier who owns a musical instrument shop. Mr. Bagnet incurred debts to help George Rouncewell.

Mrs. Bagnet

A woman who does all the talking for her husband.

Inspector Bucket

A detective hired by Tulkinghorn to investigate Lady Dedlock’s past. Bucket eventually winds up investigating Tulkinghorn’s murder and arrests Mademoiselle Hortense for the crime. His wife helps him with his detective work.

Mr. Lawrence Boythorn

Mr. Jarndyce’s friend who is given to hyperbole. Mr. Boythorn feuds with Sir Leicester about trespassing. He was once in love with Lady Dedlock’s sister, Miss Barbary, who left him when she decided to secretly look after Lady Dedlock’s illegitimate child, Esther.

Mr. Chadband

A pompous preacher who takes any opportunity to orate.

Mrs. Rachael Chadband

Esther’s former caretaker.

Volumnia Dedlock

Sir Leicester’s cousin.

Miss Flite

An insane elderly woman who lives above Krook’s shop.

Mr. Gridley

A man who gave up his life for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit.

Mr. William Guppy

A clerk at Kenge and Carboy. Mr. Guppy proposes to Esther, but she refuses him. He investigates her parentage with the hope of changing her mind and reveals to Lady Dedlock that Esther is her daughter.

Guster

The Snagsbys’ maid, given to having fits.

Captain Hawdon (Nemo)

Krook’s dead lodger. Hawdon is Lady Dedlock’s former lover and Esther’s father.

Mademoiselle Hortense

Lady Dedlock’s French maid. Mademoiselle Hortense is jealous of Lady Dedlock’s attention to young Rosa. She kills Tulkinghorn and frames Lady Dedlock.

Mrs. Jellyby

A blustery woman who is obsessed with her “mission,” Borrioboola-Gha in Africa. She neglects her family entirely.

Mr. Jellyby

The defeated husband of Mrs. Jellyby.

Caroline (Caddy) Jellyby

Mrs. Jellyby’s put-upon daughter and a friend of Esther’s.

Jenny

The wife of an abusive brickmaker.

Jo

A street urchin who helps Lady Dedlock find Captain Hawdon’s grave.

Mr. Tony Jobling (Mr. Weevle)

A friend of Mr. Guppy’s, who takes Captain Hawdon’s old room.

Mr. Krook

Owner of the rag-and-bottle shop. Mr. Krook collects documents even though he can’t read. He dies by spontaneous combustion.

Liz

The wife of an abusive brickmaker.

Charlotte (Charley) Neckett

The oldest of three orphaned siblings. Charley becomes Esther’s beloved maid.

Mrs. Pardiggle

An obnoxious do-gooder who forces her sons to give their money to her charities.

Rosa

Lady Dedlock’s protégée, who is in love with Watt Rouncewell.

Mr. George Rouncewell

Mrs. Rouncewell’s wayward son and a soldier. He runs a shooting gallery.

Mr. Rouncewell

An ironmaker who is George’s brother.

Mrs. Rouncewell

The loyal housekeeper at Chesney Wold.

Mr. Watt Rouncewell

Mrs. Rouncewell’s grandson, who wants to marry Rosa.

Harold Skimpole

A friend of Mr. Jarndyce, who calls himself a “child” and claims to have no idea about time or money. Mr. Skimpole borrows money liberally with no thought of repaying it. He eventually betrays Mr. Jarndyce by telling Inspector Bucket that Jo is in the stable at Bleak House.

Bartholomew (Chick) Smallweed

Grandfather Smallweed’s grandson.

Judy Smallweed

The granddaughter who accompanies her chair-bound grandfather everywhere.

Grandfather Smallweed

A shrill old man who can barely sit upright in his chair. Grandfather Smallweed threatens and wheedles other people to get his own way. He lends George money.

Grandmother Smallweed

The put-upon wife of Grandfather Smallweed.

Mr. Snagsby

A law-stationer. Mr. Snagsby gets inadvertently caught up in everyone else’s secrets, although he pays Jo not to tell anyone a secret of his own. He sneaks around to avoid his wife’s prying eyes.

Mrs. Snagsby

Mr. Snagsby’s suspicious wife, given to drawing inaccurate conclusions from her eavesdropping and spying.

Phil Squod

A crippled lodger at George’s Shooting Gallery.

Mr. Turveydrop

A man proud of his deportment.

Prince Turveydrop

The young dancing teacher who marries Caddy Jellyby.

Mr. Vholes

The sneaky, immoral lawyer determined to get as much money as possible out of Richard’s involvement with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit.

Allan Woodcourt

A doctor and friend of Mr. Jarndyce. Mr. Woodcourt marries Esther, and they live together in the new Bleak House.

Mrs. Woodcourt

Allan Woodcourt’s mother, who stays at Bleak House to observe Esther’s steadfast commitment to Mr. Jarndyce.

Almost every character in Bleak House is searching for love, a search that proves to be equally rewarding and difficult. Esther quietly searches for love, even though she seems too busy taking care of others to think much about her own romantic situation. She refrains from focusing on her romantic feelings in her narrative, often revealing her feelings only through her stammering evasions of the subject. When she first meets Mr. Woodcourt, she barely mentions him or describes him, which is in stark contrast to the thorough treatment she gives everyone else who crosses her path. Only when her search for love is over, culminating in her marrying Mr. Woodcourt, does she devote explicit attention to it. Other characters carry on their searches more openly. Caddy Jellyby gleefully marries Prince Turveydrop, for example, and Rosa and Watt Rouncewell intend to marry.

  

The search for love is not successful for everyone, and it even ends with heartbreak for some. Mr. Guppy tries and fails to become engaged to Esther, making two ridiculous proposals that Esther roundly rejects. Esther accepts Mr. Jarndyce’s proposal, but he calls off his search for love when he acknowledges that the love between them is not the kind of love that will make Esther truly happy. Ada, although she finds true love with Richard, is eventually heartbroken when Richard dies. Sometimes the search for love is literal, and these searches never end well. For example, Lady Dedlock engages in a literal search for love when she tries to find out where her former lover is, and Sir Leicester endeavors to find Lady Dedlock when she disappears from Chesney Wold. Whether pleasing or tragic, the search for love always proves to be a force that changes characters dramatically.

In Bleak House, passion is both important and dangerous, sometimes healthy and satisfying, sometimes harmful and destructive. Many characters recognize the importance of passion for a fulfilling life. For example, Mr. Jarndyce and Esther worry when Richard can’t find a career. Both hope he’ll settle on a career that he’ll feel passionate about, but Richard flits from one thing to the next, never finding anything truly compelling. Esther recognizes the importance of passion in love, which is why she cries as she decides to accept Mr. Jarndyce’s proposal—she loves him, but not in the passionate, romantic way she’s dreamed of loving someone. Even Mr. Jarndyce understands the importance of passion. Although he knows he and Esther could have a happy life together at Bleak House, he also knows their love is built on affection rather than passion. He releases her from her acceptance and settles her with Mr. Woodcourt, who he knows is Esther’s true love.

Although passion is a key element in a fulfilling life, it can be destructive when it is taken to an unhealthy level. Mrs. Jellyby, who is obsessed with her “mission” to help Africa, is criminally negligent of her family and has removed herself from them so much that she barely cares about Caddy’s engagement and wedding. Mrs. Pardiggle, the charity worker who forces her young sons to give up their money for her causes, is oblivious to her sons’ unhappiness and can’t see that she is an intolerable person. More sinister is the violent passion Richard feels for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. For the first time, he is excited about something, willing to devote himself wholeheartedly to it and make it his single goal. This passion was absent from all his previous pursuits, but it is not welcome or healthy here. Rather than enliven and satisfy him, it robs him of reason and moderation and, eventually, his life. Passion, though essential, can be dangerous when it becomes all consuming.

Throughout Bleak House, the role of mother is filled by women who often are not “real” mothers at all. Charley, a child herself, cares for her two young siblings, all of them orphaned and struggling. Jenny and Liz, the brickmakers’ wives, care for each other’s children. Liz cares for Jenny’s child when it is sick, and after it dies, Jenny takes to calling Liz’s child her own. Lady Dedlock reveals a motherly side in her affection for Rosa. And Mrs. Rouncewell becomes a kind of mother figure to Sir Leicester when he becomes ill at the end of the novel.

Esther is undoubtedly the character who best knows the true flexibility of the title “mother.” Esther fills the role of mother for several people, including Ada, Richard, Caddy, and Charley. To a lesser extent, she mothers Jo, Jenny’s sick baby, and Peepy Jellyby—in other words, nearly every child who crosses her path. When Ada has her child after Richard dies, Esther is so involved in the child’s upbringing that the child says it has two mothers. Esther herself is raised by Miss Barbary and Mrs. Rachael, neither of whom is her “real” mother. Occasionally, other women tend to Esther, including Mrs. Woodcourt, the women at the inn she meets when she goes in search for Lady Dedlock, and, in a reversal of roles, Charley, who tends to Esther when Esther gets smallpox. Lady Dedlock, Esther’s real mother, is actually the least motherly figure in Esther’s life. Their interaction is fleeting, and though Esther finds comfort when Lady Dedlock hugs her, it is temporary at best. When Lady Dedlock disappears, Esther takes up the mothering role once again, frantically searching for Lady Dedlock in the middle of the night.

Secrets are everywhere in Bleak House. The most dramatic secret belongs to Lady Dedlock, who must hide her past transgressions to save her and her family’s reputations. Her secret takes on a life of its own, eventually roaring into her life and leading to her death. Esther has secrets, despite her generally reliable narration. For example, she doesn’t tell us right away about her feelings for Mr. Woodcourt or his feelings for her, although she drops some vague hints. Mr. Jarndyce has secrets as well. He had always planned to make Esther his wife, although he never revealed those plans to her until he wrote a letter to her. Later, he secretly arranges her reunion with Woodcourt. Some characters are not so good at keeping their secrets. For example, Ada and Richard try to hide that they’re falling in love, but they are not really successful. They are better at hiding the fact that they got secretly married. Mr. Tulkinghorn and Inspector Bucket make their livings from other people’s secrets. Tulkinghorn makes it his mission to find out what Lady Dedlock is hiding, and Bucket is charged with the task of investigating her. The success they have in uncovering the truth suggests that no matter how determined one is to keep a secret, that secret isn’t safe from anyone obsessed with exposing it.

 

Suicide appears several times in Bleak House, and the deaths and attempted deaths emphasize the sense of desperation that exists at the heart of the novel. First, we learn of Tom Jarndyce, who committed suicide over the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit. Indeed, the suit proves dangerous to anyone who gets too wrapped up in it. Richard, who becomes obsessed with the suit at the expense of his and Ada’s happiness and wellbeing, eventually dies. Although he didn’t kill himself per se, one could argue that he worked himself to death. Suicide is often referred to in passing, such as when George and Grandfather Smallweed discuss a seemingly successful man who tried to kill himself, and when Tulkinghorn reminisces about a friend who hanged himself. At one point, when Tulkinghorn and Lady Dedlock are having a difficult conversation about the secret, Tulkinghorn fears that Lady Dedlock will jump out the window and kill herself. When Bucket confronts Mademoiselle Hortense about the murder, he fears that she’ll try to jump out a window as well. Lady Dedlock ultimately kills herself by fleeing into the cold night, which was undoubtedly her intention when she set out.

Children are everywhere in Bleak House, but they are rarely happy or adequately cared for. First, we have the “wards of Jarndyce” themselves—Ada and Richard—shipped off to a cousin they’ve never met. The Jellyby children are woefully neglected by Mrs. Jellyby, who is more concerned with her African “mission” than with her family. The children are filthy, hungry, unhappy, and cold. The Pardiggle children are no less unhappy, as their obnoxious mother forces them to give all their money to her charities, oblivious to their discontent. Charley and her two siblings are orphaned, and Charley, a mere child, must work to support them. Finally, there is the street urchin Jo, moving from place to place and always, it seems, in someone’s way. Some of these children do find care and happiness: Ada and Richard have a happy home at Bleak House; Caddy Jellyby finds a gentle husband; and Charley, and later her younger sister, Emma, become Esther’s maid. The same cannot be said for Jo. He finds temporary kindness and shelter at Bleak House but is quickly intimidated by Bucket into leaving and dies soon after.

The east wind represents any vexing event, person, or possibility that upsets or threatens to upset Mr. Jarndyce. Mr. Jarndyce, steadfast and good-natured, rarely expresses displeasure with anyone or voices his unhappiness or worry. Instead, when he is agitated, he remarks that the wind is in the east, and those who know him understand what he means. Mr. Jarndyce refers to the east wind frequently when Esther first meets him, but as the novel progresses, the wind, so to speak, seems to die down. At one point, Mr. Jarndyce even tells Esther that there can be no east wind when she is around, which reveals the extent of her influence on him and in Bleak House. The use of wind to represent troubling issues also suggests how changeable and unpredictable life can be. Just as the wind can change direction without warning, lives are set on new courses when secrets are revealed or when long-absent people return unexpectedly.

 

Miss Flite’s remarkable collection of caged birds represents the unfortunate people who have been trapped after becoming involved with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. Miss Flite, who has followed the suit faithfully for years and has never stopped expecting a judgment, plans to release her birds when the judgment finally comes. The lawsuit, however, has gone on so long that the birds keep dying, at which point she then gets new ones, which eventually die as well. The birds, dying before a judgment is rendered, represent the people who have also died while waiting for a judgment, including members of Miss Flite’s family. Miss Flite has given her birds names that suggest the things that have also died as Jarndyce and Jarndyce has droned on, such as Hope, Joy, and Youth, or that have been brought about by the suit, including Waste, Ruin, Despair, Madness, and Death. Miss Flite does eventually release the birds after Richard dies and the suit has been dismissed, but their freedom comes at the expense of many lives.

The flowers Mr. Woodcourt gives Esther before he goes to sea initially represent a secret burgeoning love but later represent a past that can never be revisited. Esther doesn’t tell us very much about the flowers, only hinting at who gave them to her and what they signify. After her face has been scarred by smallpox, however, she confronts the flowers directly in her narrative. After Mr. Woodcourt gave them to her, she dried them and saved them in a book, but she now feels as though she shouldn’t keep them since she looks so different from before. Instead, she decides to keep them to remember the past, not as a romantic keepsake from a man she once loved, but as a reminder of the woman she used to be and the possibilities that had been open to that woman but have now been lost forever. Esther doesn’t make many overtly romantic gestures in the novel, so this admission of her affection for Mr. Woodcourt, as well as the suggestion that she really does mourn the loss of her beauty, makes the flowers all the more significant. Later in the novel, after accepting Mr. Jarndyce’s proposal, she burns the flowers, which testifies to the depth of her devotion.