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Paradox
Definition of Pathos
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Esther's Noticing Way:
Dickens appeals to the reader's sense of pathos through Esther's innocent and childlike diction. For example, when the reader first "meets" her in Chapter 3, she explains that
I had always rather a noticing way – not a quick way, O no! – a silent way of noticing what passed before me, and thinking I should like to understand it better. I have not by any means a quick understanding. When I love a person very tenderly indeed, it seems to brighten. But even that may be my vanity.
Earlier in this section Esther tells the reader she is "not clever," and she elaborates here that her "noticing way" is merely a method of trying to gather as much information as possible, as she has "by no means a quick understanding." Her roundabout, often self-deprecating, and unassuming way of explaining her role in situations makes her deeply sympathetic to the reader.
Her language in the "Esther's Narrative" sections of the novel is full of appeals to the emotions, connecting her with values presumably common to Dickens's audience. Esther "speaks" directly to the reader, like all first-person narrators, but she also makes modest little interjections; her "O no!" here amplifies her statement that her way is not "quick" (clever). This brings the reader closer to her as a storyteller, and also belies the fact that a lot of her narrating is very clever indeed.
This use of pathos also conceals, at least for a while, that Esther is something of an unreliable narrator; her "memories" in Bleak House are swayed by her feelings. She also conceals some of those feelings from the reader. For example, she doesn't let on her affection for Mr. Woodcourt until well after he is introduced.
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Neglected Children:
Neglected children appear as a motif throughout Bleak House, appealing to the reader's sense of pathos and making for some of the novel's most touching and politically relevant scenes. For example, when the orphan Jo is taken to court in Chapter 11, Dickens's narrator takes up the stilted diction of a child as he "recounts" his circumstances to the officers of the law:
Name, Jo. Nothing else that he knows on. Don’t know that everybody has two names. Never heerd of sich a think. Don’t know that Jo is short for a longer name. Thinks it long enough for him. – He don’t find no fault with it. Spell it? No. He can’t spell it. No father, no mother, no friends. Never been to school. What’s home? Knows a broom’s a broom, and knows it’s wicked to tell a lie. Don’t recollect who told him about the broom, or about the lie, but knows both.
Jo is so poor and neglected, "no father, no mother, no friends" that he doesn't have anything to his name—not even his full name. He doesn't know what "home" is when being questioned by the lawyer: he only knows the implement of his work (a broom) and how to use it, though he can't remember who taught him that. This is almost farcically pathetic; Dickens really lays it on thick.
Jo's work is to sweep the streets around Chancery, where a huge amount of money changes hands. He relies on the charity of others to survive, but in Bleak House the only charity that's extended goes elsewhere. Jo's plight appeals to the reader's sense of pathos, supporting Dickens's larger argument that the British poor, especially destitute children, have been shamefully abandoned by the legal system and the British government.
Jo lives in a horrible slum that, the reader later learns, is known as "Tom-All-Alone's." This puts him in the worst position of any of the children in this novel, but he's not the only neglected minor. The Jellyby children are left to injure themselves and starve as their mother and father lack any interest in their welfare. Mr. Neckett's orphaned children, although their landlady doesn't charge them rent, rely on their 13-year-old sister, in pathetically too-big "woman's" clothes, to provide for them. Even Esther herself is shunted around from place to place and told it would have been better if she were "never born." Happy children are a rarity in Bleak House, and Dickens judiciously employs descriptions of the misery of unhappy ones to scaffold the novel's social commentary.
Related Themes:
Chapter 31
Explanation and Analysis—Punishing Diseases:
The deadly and disfiguring disease of smallpox—a true threat to everyone in the Victorian era, but especially the urban poor—appears as a motif in Bleak House, appealing to the reader's sense of pathos. For example, in Chapter 47 Jo dies of the disease, and his death is discussed as one small moment in a sea of tragedy that affects many impoverished children:
The light is come upon the dark benighted way. Dead! Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us, every day.
The "light" that comes upon the "dark benighted way" of London in this passage signals the moment of Jo's death. Dickens gives the word "light" a double meaning, as it also illuminates the unfairness of Jo's situation. Historically, disfiguring disease was sometimes viewed as a punishment from God for immoral behavior. In Bleak House, however, smallpox primarily infects and kills innocent children, appealing to the reader's sense of pathos as it strikes Esther, Charley, and Jo. The narrator explicitly calls on people who should care about these things (the King and the aristocracy, the clergy) before invoking everyone else with "compassion in their hearts" to think about this problem.
This is a direct appeal to pathos, as Dickens literally invokes compassion and asks the reader to sympathize with Jo's plight. It's also a political statement, as the narrator angrily directs the reader's attention to the children "dying thus around us, every day." The narrator implies that Dickens's characters only represent a tiny portion of the real masses afflicted by illness and poverty in Victorian England. Like poverty, Dickens implies, smallpox is unfair, indiscriminate, and deadly. Esther, Charley, and Jo have done nothing to deserve its ravages, but suffer immensely from it.
Even when Esther thinks she's dying of smallpox in Chapter 31, she remains such a good person that she only wants to give love and affection to Charley, who gave her the illness:
I have a very indistinct remembrance of that night melting into day, and of day melting into night again; but I was just able, on the first morning, to get to the window, and speak to my darling.
The passage both invokes pathos for Esther's situation and links her environment to Jo's. As the "night melts into day" and she loses her vision, she's placed in a situation reminiscent of Jo's in Tom-All-Alone's, where day cannot be distinguished from night at all. Symbolically linking these two places reinforces the idea that the "punishment" of smallpox is also a "punishment" for poverty. The fact that smallpox only affects very relatable and appealing characters in Bleak House makes the reader feel the unfairness of this "punishment" intensely.
Related Themes:
Chapter 47
Explanation and Analysis—Punishing Diseases:
The deadly and disfiguring disease of smallpox—a true threat to everyone in the Victorian era, but especially the urban poor—appears as a motif in Bleak House, appealing to the reader's sense of pathos. For example, in Chapter 47 Jo dies of the disease, and his death is discussed as one small moment in a sea of tragedy that affects many impoverished children:
The light is come upon the dark benighted way. Dead! Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us, every day.
The "light" that comes upon the "dark benighted way" of London in this passage signals the moment of Jo's death. Dickens gives the word "light" a double meaning, as it also illuminates the unfairness of Jo's situation. Historically, disfiguring disease was sometimes viewed as a punishment from God for immoral behavior. In Bleak House, however, smallpox primarily infects and kills innocent children, appealing to the reader's sense of pathos as it strikes Esther, Charley, and Jo. The narrator explicitly calls on people who should care about these things (the King and the aristocracy, the clergy) before invoking everyone else with "compassion in their hearts" to think about this problem.
This is a direct appeal to pathos, as Dickens literally invokes compassion and asks the reader to sympathize with Jo's plight. It's also a political statement, as the narrator angrily directs the reader's attention to the children "dying thus around us, every day." The narrator implies that Dickens's characters only represent a tiny portion of the real masses afflicted by illness and poverty in Victorian England. Like poverty, Dickens implies, smallpox is unfair, indiscriminate, and deadly. Esther, Charley, and Jo have done nothing to deserve its ravages, but suffer immensely from it.
Even when Esther thinks she's dying of smallpox in Chapter 31, she remains such a good person that she only wants to give love and affection to Charley, who gave her the illness:
I have a very indistinct remembrance of that night melting into day, and of day melting into night again; but I was just able, on the first morning, to get to the window, and speak to my darling.
The passage both invokes pathos for Esther's situation and links her environment to Jo's. As the "night melts into day" and she loses her vision, she's placed in a situation reminiscent of Jo's in Tom-All-Alone's, where day cannot be distinguished from night at all. Symbolically linking these two places reinforces the idea that the "punishment" of smallpox is also a "punishment" for poverty. The fact that smallpox only affects very relatable and appealing characters in Bleak House makes the reader feel the unfairness of this "punishment" intensely.
Related Themes:
