Bleak House: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Caddy suggests that the group go for a walk before Mrs. Jellyby gets up. Esther washes Peepy, who has appeared in her room very early, and puts him back to bed. Caddy, Ada, Esther, and Richard then set out into London. Caddy is extremely bad tempered and walks very quickly so that she and Esther leave the others behind. Caddy complains that her parents are fools and that she hates Mr. Quale. Esther tries to remind her that they are her parents, but Caddy says that Mrs. Jellyby does not do her duty as a mother.

Richard and Ada catch up with Esther and Caddy. Richard announces that they have inadvertently walked back to Chancery, and that the same mad old lady who they saw last night is there again. She welcomes them and invites them to come and see her lodgings. She leads them away from the court into a dingy street and stops outside a shop with the written sign “Krook, Rag and Bottle Warehouse.” Miss Flite leads them into the shop, which is cluttered with junk and heaps of old law papers. There is also an advertisement for a copy writer named “Nemo,” who performs written work.

At the back of the shop, they meet the proprietor, Krook, a scrawny old man whose breath seems to come out of his mouth like steam. He asks them if they are selling anything while Miss Flite unlocks a door, which leads to flats above. She cordially begs them to follow her, and Krook urges them to do as she says. Miss Flite tells them that Krook is her landlord and that he is a little mad. Krook tells them that his nickname is the “Lord Chancellor,” and that his shop is “Chancery.” A skinny, grey cat jumps down from a nearby shelf and Krook sets her on a piece of sack, which she tears to pieces with her claws. Krook remarks to Richard that the cat will do this to anything he tells her to.

Miss Flite unlocks the door to the stairs and tells Krook to go away; she is entertaining the wards of Jarndyce. Krook seems impressed by this and recognizes Richard’s surname. He remarks that there was also a Clare, a Barbary, and a Dedlock involved in the suit and tells them that Tom Jarndyce spent a good deal of time in the shop. Krook says that Tom went slowly mad while he waited for a verdict and explains, to their horror, that one day Tom Jarndyce shot himself in the public house opposite the shop. Esther notices that Ada and Richard have gone pale, and is glad that she has nothing to do with the lawsuit.

Miss Flite lives on the top floor in a very bare room that looks out at the courthouse. In her window, she keeps several cages, each of which contains a bird, and, she explains, she will release these birds when there is a judgement in her suit. She says that many of the birds have died in the time that the suit has gone on, and she wonders if she, too, will die before the case comes to an end. She cannot allow the birds to sing much, she says, because Krook’s cat wants to kill them and waits outside the door like a “wolf.”

The bells in the square outside begin to ring, and Miss Flite cries out that she must attend the court. They all hurry downstairs, but the old lady stops them on the way and makes them creep past a dark door where, she says, a law writer lives. She tells them that he is rumored to have sold his soul to the devil as she leads them back down into Krook’s shop.

They pass Krook as they move back through the shop and see him poring over some papers. He has written a capital letter in chalk upon the wall. He stops Esther as she goes by and asks her to read what he has written. She tells him the letter is a “J” and watches as he spells out the rest of the word, which is “Jarndyce.” Krook then writes the words “Bleak House,” and Esther reads them to him. Krook seems pleased and leers at Esther as she hurries from the shop. He continues to watch them as they bid goodbye to Miss Flite.

Richard comments on their strange experience and laments what great trouble Jarndyce and Jarndyce has caused. Ada agrees and thinks that it is sad that she was born into a feud, in which she is the enemy of so many unknown relatives. Richard says cheerily that he will never allow the case to make them enemies. Caddy squeezes Esther’s arm knowingly as they make their way back to Mrs. Jellyby’s. From here, Esther, Richard, and Ada take a carriage to Bleak House.