Bleak House: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Esther Summerson is a timid, friendless girl and confides all her secrets in her favorite doll, who is her only companion. She is raised, like a child in a fairy tale, by her godmother, Miss Barbary, who is a “good, good woman.” Her godmother is so good, however, that she is repulsed by corruption in others and, therefore, is very stern and severe. Esther does not love her godmother and always feels guilty about this. Esther never knew her parents, and her godmother never mentions them. She feels different and separate from the other girls at her school and is not allowed to go out or to attend parties.

Despite this, Esther is an affectionate child and longs to be accepted. One year, on her birthday, her godmother tells her that it would be better if Esther had never been born, and that she was her mother’s “disgrace.” Esther is distraught and begs her godmother to tell her about her mother, but Esther’s godmother coldly refuses and only replies that one day the punishment for her mother’s sins will come back to haunt Esther.

Not long after this, Esther comes home from school to find her godmother in discussion with a smart-looking gentleman. Her godmother introduces Esther to this man, who is friendly and seems to know something about her. Esther’s godmother dismisses her, however, before she can find out more.

One night, two years later, Esther is reading the Bible to her godmother when she comes to the passage in which Jesus defends an adulterous woman. As she reads the words, “Ye without sin cast the first stone,” her godmother starts up, cries out, and then falls to the floor. She is paralyzed, her face set in a permanent scowl, and she dies soon after.

On the day after Miss Barbary’s funeral, the smart-looking man visits the house again and asks to see Esther. The man introduces himself as Mr. Kenge and seems to know Mrs. Rachael, Miss Barbary’s maid. Mr. Kenge reveals that Miss Barbary was really Esther’s aunt, and that he has come to discuss what will happen to Esther now that her aunt is dead. Miss Barbary has left Esther no money, and Mrs. Rachael, who has always disliked Esther, will not continue to care for her. Mr. Kenge asks Mrs. Rachael if Esther has ever heard of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and Mrs. Rachael replies that she has not. Mr. Kenge is shocked and tells Mrs. Rachael that he has come to renew an offer that Miss Barbary previously refused.

Mr. Kenge informs Esther that a gentleman named Mr. Jarndyce will provide for her education, and that she is to be sent away to school. Although Esther is grateful, she is apprehensive to leave the only place she has ever known. A coach arrives that afternoon to take Esther to Reading, and Mrs. Rachael coldly dismisses her. Mrs. Rachael remains behind in Miss Barbary’s house, which has been left to her.

In the coach, Esther finds herself alone with a gentleman who is wrapped up in furs and who ignores her to stare out of the window. She is still crying because of her abrupt departure and is surprised when the man begins to talk to her. He has a loud, booming voice, which makes him sound angry, but Esther thinks he has kind eyes. He offers her a pie and a piece of cake, and when she declines, he tosses them out of the window and then gets out of coach a few stops later.

Esther arrives at Greenleaf school. She settles in quickly and is very happy there. She is educated in order to become a governess and grows very fond of the other girls she boards with. After six years at Greenleaf, Esther receives a letter on her birthday from Mr. Kenge. This letter informs her that she will be removed from the school and sent to the house of her guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, where she will become the companion of a young ward in the lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

Esther is delighted at the prospect of this new position, and although she is sad to leave her companions at Greenleaf, she sets out in good spirits in a coach bound for London. She is startled by the thick fog when she arrives and remarks on this to the young legal clerk who greets her and takes her in another carriage to Mr. Kenge’s office. The young clerk offers her a mirror, in case she should want to examine herself before meeting the Lord Chancellor.

Esther waits in Mr. Kenge’s office for several hours. At last, Mr. Kenge appears and takes her to another room where a young man and a young woman are also waiting. Mr. Kenge introduces Esther to the young woman, Ada Clare, who is to be her companion, and Esther is struck by Ada’s beauty. The young man’s name is Richard Carstone. The three are left to wait in the room together and Esther learns that they are both orphans and both under the age of 20. Mr. Kenge returns after a short while and shows them into the next office, where the Lord Chancellor is waiting.

The Lord Chancellor greets them all politely and tells them that they will be under the care of a Mr. Jarndyce of Bleak House while they wait for the outcome of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Ada and Richard, it appears, are related, but Esther is from another family and is only hired to be a companion to Ada. The Lord Chancellor approves of all this and dismisses the three young people.

They are left outside the court to wait for Mr. Kenge. Richard asks Ada and Esther if either of them know where they are going, and they reply, to each other’s surprise and amusement, that neither of them have any idea. While they discuss this, a strange looking old woman approaches them and announces graciously that she is delighted to meet the “wards of Jarndyce.” Richard whispers to the others that the woman is mad, but the old woman hears him and says that she has not always been mad.

The woman, whose name is Miss Flite, tells them that when she first came to court, to “hear a judgement” on her case, she was a young and optimistic woman who believed in hope and beauty. Even though she is old now, she still “expects a judgement” any day and feels that it may even fall on Judgement Day. Ada is a little spooked, and the three young people politely disentangle themselves from the old lady when Mr. Kenge returns. He tells them that she is a harmless soul as he leads them away, and the old lady blesses them.