Character List - and Discussion

[Kalliope]

This Thread is for discussing the very many characters in this novel.

[Kalliope]

In case anyone gets lost with the very many characters in Bleak House.

This is from the site:

www.sparknotes.com

Character List

Esther Summerson - The narrator and protagonist. Esther, an orphan, becomes the housekeeper at Bleak House when she, Ada, and Richard are taken in by Mr. Jarndyce. Everyone loves Esther, who is selfless and nurturing, and she becomes the confidante of several young women. (view spoiler)[Although she eventually does find her mother, circumstances prevent them from developing a relationship. At first a hesitant, insecure narrator, Esther’s confidence in her storytelling grows, and she controls the narrative skillfully. (hide spoiler)]

Mr. John Jarndyce - Esther’s guardian and master of Bleak House. Mr. Jarndyce becomes the guardian of the orphans Ada and Richard and takes Esther in as a companion for Ada. Generous but uncomfortable with others’ gratitude, Mr. Jarndyce provides a warm, happy home for the three young people. (view spoiler)[When Esther is an adult, he proposes marriage, but he eventually rescinds his offer when he realizes she’s in love with someone else. Mr. Jarndyce has sworn off any involvement whatsoever with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. (hide spoiler)]

Ada Clare - A ward of Jarndyce. Kind, sweet, and naïve, Ada becomes Esther’s closest confidante and greatest source of happiness. (view spoiler)[She falls in love with Richard, and although they eventually marry and have a baby, she never finds full happiness with him because of his obsession with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. (hide spoiler)]

Richard Carstone - A ward of Jarndyce. Affable but lazy, Richard can’t decide on a career and seems to have no passion for a particular field. (view spoiler)[Eventually, he becomes obsessed with Jarndyce and Jarndyce and ultimately sacrifices his life for the lawsuit. He pursues the suit for Ada’s sake but never succeeds in providing a real home for her. (hide spoiler)]

Lady Dedlock - Mistress of Chesney Wold, married to Sir Leicester,(view spoiler)[ and Esther’s mother. Lady Dedlock, revered and wealthy, has kept the secret of her illegitimate child throughout her life, believing the child died at birth. She reveals her true identity to Esther but is wary of pursuing a relationship because she believes Sir Leicester’s reputation will suffer. When the truth threatens to come out, she runs away, certain that Sir Leicester will hate her. She dies outside of a cemetery. (hide spoiler)]

Sir Leicester Dedlock - Master of Chesney Wold. (view spoiler)[Sir Leicester is a strong, respected man who ultimately withers and weakens because of Lady Dedlock’s disappearance. Fully willing to forgive her, Sir Leicester does his best to find her, but he is too late. (hide spoiler)]

Mr. Tulkinghorn - A lawyer involved in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. (view spoiler)[Mr. Tulkinghorn shares Lady Dedlock’s secret and threatens to reveal it. He is eventually murdered by Lady Dedlock’s former maid, Mademoiselle Hortense. (hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Baytham Badger - A woman who talks incessantly about her former husbands.

Mr. Badger - A doctor who agrees to take Richard on as an apprentice.

Mr. Matthew Bagnet - A soldier who owns a musical instrument shop. (view spoiler)[Mr. Bagnet incurred debts to help George Rouncewell. (hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Bagnet - A woman who does all the talking for her husband.

Inspector Bucket - A detective hired by Tulkinghorn (view spoiler)[ to investigate Lady Dedlock’s past. Bucket eventually winds up investigating Tulkinghorn’s murder and arrests Mademoiselle Hortense for the crime. (hide spoiler)] His wife helps him with his detective work.

Mr. Lawrence Boythorn - Mr. Jarndyce’s friend who is given to hyperbole. Mr. Boythorn feuds with Sir Leicester about trespassing. (view spoiler)[He was once in love with Lady Dedlock’s sister, Miss Barbary, who left him when she decided to secretly look after Lady Dedlock’s illegitimate child, Esther. (hide spoiler)]

Mr. Chadband - A pompous preacher who takes any opportunity to orate.

Mrs. Rachael Chadband - Esther’s former caretaker.

Volumnia Dedlock - Sir Leicester’s cousin.

Miss Flite - An insane elderly woman who lives above Krook’s shop.

Mr. Gridley - A man who gave up his life for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit.

Mr. William Guppy - A clerk at Kenge and Carboy. (view spoiler)[Mr. Guppy proposes to Esther, but she refuses him. He investigates her parentage with the hope of changing her mind and reveals to Lady Dedlock that Esther is her daughter. (hide spoiler)]

Guster - The Snagsbys’ maid, given to having fits.

Captain Hawdon (Nemo) - Krook’s dead lodger. (view spoiler)[Hawdon is Lady Dedlock’s former lover and Esther’s father. (hide spoiler)]

Mademoiselle Hortense - Lady Dedlock’s French maid.(view spoiler)[
Mademoiselle Hortense is jealous of Lady Dedlock’s attention to young Rosa. She kills Tulkinghorn and frames Lady Dedlock. (hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Jellyby - A blustery woman who is obsessed with her “mission,” Borrioboola-Gha in Africa.

Mr. Jellyby - The defeated husband of Mrs. Jellyby.
Caroline (Caddy) Jellyby - (view spoiler)[Mrs. Jellyby’s put-upon daughter and a friend of Esther’s. (hide spoiler)]

Jenny - The wife of an abusive brickmaker.

Jo - A street urchin (view spoiler)[ who helps Lady Dedlock find Captain Hawdon’s grave. (hide spoiler)]

Mr. Tony Jobling (Mr. Weevle) - A friend of Mr. Guppy’s,(view spoiler)[ who takes Captain Hawdon’s old room. (hide spoiler)]

Mr. Krook - Owner of the rag-and-bottle shop. Mr. Krook collects documents even though he can’t read.(view spoiler)[ He dies by spontaneous combustion. (hide spoiler)]

Liz - The wife of an abusive brickmaker.

Charlotte (Charley) Neckett - The oldest of three orphaned siblings. (view spoiler)[Charley becomes Esther’s beloved maid. (hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Pardiggle - An obnoxious do-gooder who forces her sons to give their money to her charities.

Rosa - Lady Dedlock’s protégée, who is in love with Watt Rouncewell.

Mr. George - (view spoiler)[ Mr. George Rouncewell. - Mrs. Rouncewell’s wayward son and a soldie (hide spoiler)]. He runs a shooting gallery.

Mr. Rouncewell - An ironmaker who is George’s brother.

Mrs. Rouncewell - The loyal housekeeper at Chesney Wold.

Mr. Watt Rouncewell - Mrs. Rouncewell’s grandson, who wants to marry Rosa.

Harold Skimpole - A friend of Mr. Jarndyce, who calls himself a “child” and claims to have no idea about time or money. Mr. Skimpole borrows money liberally with no thought of repaying it. (view spoiler)[He eventually betrays Mr. Jarndyce by telling Inspector Bucket that Jo is in the stable at Bleak House. (hide spoiler)]

Bartholomew (Chick) Smallweed - Grandfather Smallweed’s grandson.

Judy Smallweed - The granddaughter who accompanies her chair-bound grandfather everywhere.

Grandfather Smallweed - A shrill old man who can barely sit upright in his chair. Grandfather Smallweed threatens and wheedles other people to get his own way.

Grandmother Smallweed - The put-upon wife of Grandfather Smallweed.

Mr. Snagsby - A law-stationer. Mr. Snagsby gets inadvertently caught up in everyone else’s secrets,(view spoiler)[ although he pays Jo not to tell anyone a secret of his own. He sneaks around to avoid his wife’s prying eyes. (hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Snagsby - Mr. Snagsby’s suspicious wife, given to drawing inaccurate conclusions from her eavesdropping and spying.

Phil Squod - A crippled lodger at George’s Shooting Gallery.

Mr. Turveydrop - A man proud of his deportment.

Prince Turveydrop - The young dancing teacher who marries Caddy Jellyby.

Mr. Vholes - The sneaky, immoral lawyer determined to get as much money as possible out of Richard’s involvement with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit.

Allan Woodcourt - A doctor and friend of Mr. Jarndyce. (view spoiler)[Mr. Woodcourt marries Esther, and they live together in the new Bleak House. (hide spoiler)]

Mrs. Woodcourt - Allan Woodcourt’s mother, (view spoiler)[who stays at Bleak House to observe Esther’s steadfast commitment to Mr. Jarndyce.>/spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

[Tom]

There are some HELLACIOUS SPOILERS in that list. Seriously, I think some judicious trimming is in order.

[Kalliope]

Tom wrote: "There are some HELLACIOUS SPOILERS in that list. Seriously, I think some judicious trimming is in order."

You are completely right. I had checked on this list for the minor characters and had not realized there were spoilers on the main ones.

I have just added the Spoiler warnings.

[Kalliope]

Tom, corrected it, and deleted your comment.

[Everyman]

When it's all laid out that way, it's a very long list of an astonishing variety of characters. Just imagining the mind which could create all those characters in one novel boggles.

[Carol]

I must have missed where it was first established that Nemo is the alias for Captain Hawdon. Can anyone tell me where this was discussed in the book? I feel like I'm missing some info.

[Carol]

What I mean to say is I know him by Nemo but never heard captain Hawdon used until now and in ch. 26.

[Tom]

At some point it is realized that Nemo's last name is Hawdon, I don't think they go into any real detail as to how that discovery is made. Mr. George is blackmailed (by Mr. Tulkinghorn via the Smallweeds) into supplying some handwriting of Capt. Hawdon's for comparison with Nemo's, and it is confirmed.

It is done in a rather roundabout way, there's no doubt about it.

[Carol]

oh, ok. thank you. I just read that but I assummed they were looking at the handwriting samples for a different reason; I didn't realize they were trying to see if the person was one and the same.
I was of the impression that it was established earlier in the book.

[Mosca]

Thank you very much, Kalliope. Your spoiler-edited character list is much appreciated. There are a number of character lists elsewhere on the web; and far too many of them have already introduced spoilers.

Your list shows work and care on your part. It will likely now become my favored reference. My gratitude to you is considerable.

As an aside--->the old beaten-but-beautiful hardcover from my small-town public library is a 1936 "Cleartype Edition". Someone, six or seven decades-ago, in a lovely, dated, penciled (female?)longhand began a character list of their own. It's numbered, apparently ordering the characters in the sequence they appear in the book. This reader's character list goes to 81!. And it rambles around the end papers, finding new space as each end paper becomes filled.

Another reader from the past found it difficult to follow the players without a program.

I'm so tempted to steal this taped-together relic; but I love public libraries too much.

[Kalliope]

Mosca wrote: "Thank you very much, Kalliope. Your spoiler-edited character list is much appreciated. There are a number of character lists elsewhere on the web; and far too many of them have already introduced s..."

Thank you Mosca.

I love your aside on the carefully taken notes in the library copy.. that someone would have bothered to do that in a copy that could not be kept.

I had stated somewhere above that I would try to put the chapters in which each character first appears and I forgot about it.. Will try to do so, not with all characters since that in itself would spoil part of the plot, towards the end of this week.

[Mosca]

I have just returned to look up two characters. And I am so grateful that you took the time to fence off the spoilers. They are still there, but voluntary. And what you have left, openly available, is plenty enough information for my use.

Your work is again appreciated.