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Miss Flite
Captain Hawdon is Lady Dedlock’ ex-lover and the father of Esther Summerson, whom Lady Dedlock gave birth to illegitimately and in secret. Captain Hawdon was once an officer in the army and was attended by George, who now runs a shooting gallery near the court and who becomes involved in the Dedlock mystery when Mr. Tulkinghorn, Lady Dedlock’s lawyer, blackmails him into providing a sample of Captain Hawdon’s handwriting in an effort to discover her secret. It is not clear what has happened to Captain Hawdon since his days in the army, but George implies that Captain Hawdon went into debt and ruined himself and was often suicidal over the failure he considered himself to have become. Although George believes that Captain Hawdon is dead, he has, in fact, changed his name to Nemo and taken work as a law writer for Mr. Snagsby, who runs a stationer’s shop near the Chancery court. Under the guise of Nemo, Captain Hawdon lives in Krook’s shop and is very poor and addicted to opium. He is clearly a kind man, who was once noble and optimistic. He often gives money to Jo, the homeless urchin who sweeps the streets outside of Chancery. Nemo is known in the area as a mysterious man, who works all hours and is rumored to have sold his soul to the devil. He eventually dies of an opium overdose before he can learn that Lady Dedlock had a child or that Esther Summerson, his daughter, is alive. He is buried in a pauper’s grave in a slum called Tom-all-Alone’s, and Lady Dedlock returns to visit his grave in secret, where she dies of exposure.
Captain Hawdon / Nemo Quotes in Bleak House
The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Hawdon / Nemo or refer to Captain Hawdon / Nemo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
‘Submission, self-denial, diligent work, are the preparations for a life begun with such a shadow on it. You are different from other children, Esther, because you were not born, like them, in common sinfulness and wrath. You are set apart.’
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Chapter 36
Quotes
Even in the thinking of her endurance, she drew her habitual air of proud indifference about her like a veil, though she soon cast it off again.
‘I must keep this secret, if by any means it can be kept, not wholly for myself. I have a husband, wretched and dishonoring creature that I am!’
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‘I dread one person very much.’
‘An enemy?’
‘Not a friend. One who is too passionless to be either. He is Sir Leicester Dedlock’s lawyer; mechanically faithful without attachment, and very jealous of the profit, privilege, and reputation of being master of the mysteries of great houses.’
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‘I am resolved. I have long outbidden folly with folly, pride with pride, scorn with scorn, insolence with insolence, and have outlived many vanities with many more. I will outlive this danger, and outdie it, if I can. It has closed around me, almost as awfully as if these woods of Chesney Wold had closed around the house; but my course through it is the same. I have but one: I can have but one.’
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Captain Hawdon / Nemo Quotes in Bleak House
The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Hawdon / Nemo or refer to Captain Hawdon / Nemo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
‘Submission, self-denial, diligent work, are the preparations for a life begun with such a shadow on it. You are different from other children, Esther, because you were not born, like them, in common sinfulness and wrath. You are set apart.’
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36
Quotes
Even in the thinking of her endurance, she drew her habitual air of proud indifference about her like a veil, though she soon cast it off again.
‘I must keep this secret, if by any means it can be kept, not wholly for myself. I have a husband, wretched and dishonoring creature that I am!’
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
‘I dread one person very much.’
‘An enemy?’
‘Not a friend. One who is too passionless to be either. He is Sir Leicester Dedlock’s lawyer; mechanically faithful without attachment, and very jealous of the profit, privilege, and reputation of being master of the mysteries of great houses.’
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Explanation and Analysis:
‘I am resolved. I have long outbidden folly with folly, pride with pride, scorn with scorn, insolence with insolence, and have outlived many vanities with many more. I will outlive this danger, and outdie it, if I can. It has closed around me, almost as awfully as if these woods of Chesney Wold had closed around the house; but my course through it is the same. I have but one: I can have but one.’
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
