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Similes
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Dickens's style in Bleak House is fast-paced and sprightly. Even at the novel's darkest moments, the muscular and excitable presence of Dickens's narrator and the fierce intelligence of the author come through in his writing. Dickens is renowned as a master of comedy and satire, and the endlessly clever and inventive way the writing of this book engages the reader is a testament to this. The novel's tragedies and comedies are recounted with a razor wit, and the style of the writing carefully guides the reader toward Dickens's intended comedic targets.
As with most of Dickens's work, in addition to satire an element of the farcical and ridiculous peppers this novel with humor. There's no one like Dickens for choosing both period-specific and hilarious names, for example: think of the turgid slowness of the repetitive "Jarndyce and Jarndyce," the silliness of "Skimpole" and "Mr. Chadband" and "Bayham Badger," the rampant goofiness of:
Lord Coodle, and Sir Thomas Doodle, and the Duke of Foodle, and all the fine gentlemen in office, down to Zoodle.
All these lords are so indistinguishable from one another that Dickens just goes down the alphabet adding "oodle," as if to display the sameness and comparative uselessness of the aristocracy.
Dickens's writing is always clever, but the style of this novel is particularly so. Bleak House is filled with bits of wordplay, icy retorts and one-liners, and succinctly expressed opinions. It also pulls together many disparate plots, although admittedly doesn't always resolve everything, as Dickens's critics have noted. Because it is a piece of serial fiction, Dickens's language had to remain comprehensible to a wide readership, so his style has to convey complex ideas in reasonably simple language. Where he uses a difficult word, he usually either "explains" it through the narrator's voice, or has a character provide it with context.
The novel is also notable for its level of detail and interest in minutiae. It's packed to the seams with grotesque and lovable and complicated characters, who are all stuffed into overcrowded streets and overloaded plots. The subject dictates the form, here, as Dickens's highly detailed realist style echoes the teeming world he narrates.
Related Themes:
