The Bleak House
(Charles Dicken)

There are more than thirty-five characters in Bleak House, so the following is only a partial listing. Except for the first five (through Sir Leicester), the characters’ names are listed in alphabetical order by last name first, if available, and then first name or title.

Esther Summerson

One of two narrators and a central character in the plot, Esther Summerson began life as a lonely orphan who went on to become John Jarndyce’s beloved housekeeper and the companion of his two wards. She even nearly becomes his wife until he steps aside to accommodate the mutual love between her and the young doctor, Allan Woodcourt. Esther’s selfless and gracious yet practical character earns her the love and respect of virtually all who meet her.

John Jarndyce

Another central connecting thread in the plot, John Jarndyce is the wealthy, generous, compassionate owner of Bleak House who shares his name with the lawsuit that has destroyed so many lives. John Jarndyce transformed Bleak House into a pleasant mansion after his uncle’s suicide and took on the care of three young people in an effort to make up for the damage. He is consistently giving and kind, and he has wisely chosen to ignore the Jarndyce suit in the firm belief that nothing good will ever come of it. He is plagued at time by the “east wind,” which always appears with any unpleasant occurrence or topic. His resolves these issues by visiting his “Growlery,” a special room set aside for airing his concerns. In the end, the east wind disappears forever, and a good west wind blows—the result of a lifetime of kindness and generosity.

Ada Clare, Richard Carstone

Ada Clare and Richard Carstone are the two young wards in the Jarndyce suit. They are also distant cousins, and their fates become inextricably bound by their growing mutual love and, less fortunately, the Jarndyce lawsuit. They meet through John Jarndyce, who adopts them as his wards to make up for the damage caused by the case. They eventually marry in secret, and Ada, who is beautiful, loving, and normally wise, gives her inheritance to help Richard, who has allowed himself to be sucked in by the false hope that the Jarndyce suit will someday make them rich. In the end, he exhausts all his resources and dies before seeing the son Ada is about to bear him. But before he dies, he admits his mistake and reconciles his relationship with John Jarndyce, whom he had falsely accused. Ada then gives birth to their son, who helps her to gradually heal from the tragedy of Richard’s life.

Lady Dedlock

The lovely, accomplished wife of Sir Leicester Dedlock, Lady Dedlock is at the center of the fashionable world. But for all the glitter and status, she is thoroughly bored and unhappy. Lady Dedlock also harbors a secret. As a young woman, she was in love with a captain who presumably drowned, and she bore his child—Esther Summerson—out of wedlock. By the time she discovers that the captain did not drown, he is truly dead and buried, having succumbed to an opium habit. Her own life ends in tragedy: unable to deal with the fact that her secret is about to be revealed by the family lawyer, she leaves everything behind and dies in the wintry cold by the gate of the cemetery where her former lover lies buried.

Sir Leicester

Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, was a distinguished member of society and the owner of Chesney Wold, a castle in the Lincolnshire countryside. He married Lady Dedlock out of love, and her beauty, intelligence, and good breeding were the center of his personal life for many years. When she suddenly disappeared, in part out of an unwillingness to shame him, Sir Leicester fell ill and aged tremendously, seemingly overnight. What Lady Dedlock underestimated was the depth of Sir Leicester’s love: on learning of her secret, he immediately forgave her, his only desire being to find her and bring her back.

Allan Woodcourt

Allan Woodcourt is the young surgeon who truly cares for people in a consistent, active way, both as a doctor and as a person. For a while, he goes to India but eventually returns, gets a job in Yorkshire, and in the meantime, admits his love for Esther Summerson.

Unlike Richard, who has a tendency to be flighty and unfocused, Woodcourt shows a steadiness, focus, and compassion from the beginning that is ultimately the key to his success and happiness. But Woodcourt does not judge others, and when Esther asks him to befriend Richard for the latter’s sake, he does not hesitate to do so. In the end, Esther and Woodcourt marry with John Jarndyce’s heartfelt blessing, even though Jarndyce had originally planned to marry Esther himself.

The Bagnets

The Bagnets are Mr. George’s close friends. Mr. “Lignum” Bagnet knows George from his soldier days. He married the wholesome, straightforward, down-to-earth, efficient Mrs. Bagnet, who is constantly seen washing greens to feed her family and keep them healthy. The Bagnets have two daughters and a son, whose names—Woolwich, Malta, and Quebec—all reflect Lignum’s former military stations. It’s Mrs. Bagnet who finally reunites George with his mother, and the Bagnets and George remain friends for life.

Mr. Bucket

Mr. Bucket is the inspector who shows up on and off throughout the story. He is clearly observant, but the real benevolence of his character doesn’t become obvious until the end, when he solves the missing person’s case involving Lady Dedlock—though too late—and finds Mr. Tulkinghorn’s real killer.

Miss Flite

Miss Flite is the little, old madwoman who is a fixture at the Chancery Court proceedings. Like Ada and Richard, she began many years ago as a ward in Jarndyce. Back then, she was also young, hopeful, and beautiful. But though she maintains her good spirits, the suit takes its toll on all who get involved. In Miss Flite’s case, this manifests most clearly through her twenty or so birds, which she keeps caged and literally in the dark. She has given them names like Hope, Beauty, and Youth as well as Dust, Ashes, Death, Sheepskin to reflect the effects of the Jarndyce suit. When the case is finally resolved, she finally sets the birds free.

Mr. Guppy

Mr. Guppy is employed as a law clerk by Kenge and Carboy, John Jarndyce’s legal representatives. Though a minor character, he is important in several ways. He falls in love with Esther Summerson and proposes to her more than once. Early on, he notices a striking resemblance between Esther and Lady Dedlock and tries to use the information (unsuccessfully) to gain Esther’s favor. He is also friends with both Jobling (aka Weevle) and young Smallweed, which gives him access to certain letters implicating Lady Dedlock. Together with his ridiculous mother, Mr. Guppy’s appearances provide a bit of comic relief.

Hortense

Mademoiselle Hortense was Lady Dedlock’s first personal attendant, but Lady Dedlock preferred the young, beautiful village girl, Rosa, and ended up firing Hortense. Passionate and rash by nature, Hortense hated Lady Dedlock and hoped to destroy her. After accepting payment from Mr. Tulkinghorn, who was trying to extract information about Lady Dedlock, she felt manipulated by him and ended up murdering him. To help cover her tracks, she got a job with the Buckets, but Mr. and Mrs. Bucket saw through her machinations, and Mr. Bucket finally entrapped and arrested her.

Caddy Jellyby

Caddy Jellyby is the daughter of Mrs. Jellyby, the farsighted “philanthropist.” When Caddy first met Esther and Ada, she was unhappy and unhealthy, trapped in a position as her mother’s scribe. Determined to escape the woeful lifestyle her mother had imposed on the Jellyby family, Caddy befriends Esther and learns how to be a lady, dance teacher, and good housekeeper. She marries Prince Turveydrop, a dance teacher (to her mother’s dismay), and they have a child. The child is sickly, Prince becomes lame, and the elder Mr. Turveydrop is demanding, but Caddy makes the most of it and becomes happy, healthy, and prosperous in spite of her rough beginning and multiple obstacles. Like all of Dickens’s best characters, her happiness is not confined to herself but improves the lives of all around her (except her mother, who thinks she’s foolish).

Mrs. Jellyby

Mrs. Jellyby is the archetypal long-distance philanthropist, who, no matter how bad things are in her immediate surroundings, can only see what’s far away—in her case, her African project. Her husband may be miserable, her children out of control, her servants drunk and quarreling, and her house a mess, but none of that is of any concern to her. Furthermore, there may be pressing issues right at home on English soil—horrible slums, unemployment, pollution, poverty, etc. Mrs. Jellyby does finally take up the women’s suffrage issue when her African project goes nowhere. Luckily, her daughter Caddy, whose interests she considers “trivial,” manages to improve the lives of her father and little brother, something Mrs. Jellyby never did herself.

Jenny and Liz

Jenny and Liz are the poor brickmakers’ wives who represent the opposite end of the societal spectrum in relation to the aristocratic Dedlocks. Their husbands are abusive, and they live in squalid conditions that make survival difficult. Jenny’s baby dies early in the story, which prompts Esther to place her handkerchief over its face. Both the handkerchief and Jenny become pivotal when Lady Dedlock, fearing her secret love affair from long ago is about to be disclosed, tries to spare her husband the shame by forsaking all. She retrieves the handkerchief—her only remaining connection to Esther, her beloved child from the affair—and changes clothes with Jenny to avoid detection as she seeks to join her one-time lover in death. Liz is Jenny’s compassionate friend.

Jo

Jo is the destitute, illiterate street sweeper boy from London’s worst slum. He has a personal connection to the law writer, Nemo (Captain Hawdon), who takes pity on him when he can, as does the kindly Mr. Snagsby. Later, Lady Dedlock disguises herself and pays Jo to show her Nemo’s grave and the other sites related to his last days. Jo ends up getting smallpox, which he transmits to Charley, Esther’s maid, who passes it on to Esther after they try to help Jo. He dies a young death after leading a miserable life. But for all the misery of his life, he had a good heart and helped people whenever he could.

Mr. Jobling

Mr. Jobling is Mr. Guppy’s friend, who takes over Nemo’s job and apartment after the latter’s death. He brings his own fashionable flair to Cook’s Court, and for a while, the gossip is that he will inherit Krook’s supposed fortune. Jobling is mainly important to the story because he is Guppy’s main access point to the love letters between Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon.

Mr. Krook

Mr. Krook is most interesting because of his strange death by spontaneous combustion, a relatively unknown phenomenon at the time Dickens wrote the novel. Krook is the owner of the rag and bottle shop as well as an evil cat, who is his constant companion. He can neither read nor write yet has taught himself how to copy letters, and he takes a strong interest in the Jarndyce case. It’s in Krook’s shop that a both a mysterious will and Lady Dedlock’s letters are found.

Nemo (Captain Hawdon)

Captain Hawdon was Lady Dedlock’s one-time lover many years ago, before she married Sir Leicester. He is also the father of Esther Summerson, but dies before she meets him. This is probably a good thing for her, since he succumbed to an opium addiction, which was the reason for his death. Nemo (which Tulkinghorn pointed out meant “nobody” in Latin), was an excellent copyist and had a soft spot for Jo, who remembers him fondly as being “very good” to him.

Rosa

Rosa is the young, innocent, and beautiful maid-in-training who replaces Hortense as Lady Dedlock’s attendant. Lady Dedlock is fond of her but lets her go when she fears her personal secret is about to be disclosed and she feels the need to switch to a cold demeanor. Rosa ends up marrying Watt Rouncewell, the ironmaster’s son.

George Rouncewell

George Rouncewell, former trooper and best known as Mr. George, is Mrs. Rouncewell’s “vagabond” younger son who became a soldier. For all George’s wild ways, he is a strong, compassionate person with a definite sense of right. He owns a shooting gallery, which he maintains with his deformed but good-hearted sidekick, Phil. Later in the story, George is erroneously arrested for the murder of Mr. Tulkinghorn, but he is finally released and ends up closing his shooting gallery and moving to Chesney Wold (where he grew up) to care for Sir Leicester in his old age and to keep his elderly mother company.

Mr. Rouncewell, the ironmaster

Mrs. Rouncewell’s older son is the steady, successful ironmaster who settles in northern England and becomes an important figure in business, politics, and the rising non-aristocratic wealthy class. By the time George seeks him out after many years away, the older brother owns his own iron factory, the town bank, and an elegant home. He is happily married, with children whom he insists on educating to their new social level. Yet despite his accomplishments and George’s fears of rejection, the elder Rouncewell son welcomes his “vagabond” brother back with heartfelt warmth and generosity.

Mrs. Rouncewell

Mrs. Rouncewell is the dignified elderly widow who manages the housekeeping at Chesney Wold, the Dedlock’s Lincolnshire mansion. Mrs. Rouncewell has two sons: George, the younger—her favorite—who ran off to be soldier, was lost, and finally returns; and the elder, who becomes a successful ironmaster. She and her son George support and comfort Sir Leicester in his final years.

Howard Skimpole

Another archetype, Howard Skimpole represents the carefree, “unworldly” artist, who is incapable of any kind of practicality, even though he excels at extracting money for his needs. Rather than attending to practical things, he prefers to play, sing, converse, etc., and he is a master of manipulating to suit his purposes. He gets by on charm for his whole life, but his memoirs reveal another side when he characterizes his kind and generous friend John Jarndyce as selfish.

The Smallweeds

We first meet Bart (young) Smallweed, who, having modeled himself on Mr. Guppy, has managed to escape some of his relatives’ nastier characteristics. Unlike the rest of the family, he enjoys life to some extent. He has a twin sister, Judy, whose job is to care for the two grandparents, both parents being dead. The entire family looks old and shriveled, regardless of actual age (Bart and Judy are only in their teens). Grandfather Smallweed is the epitome of greed and selfishness, and Grandmother Smallweed suffers from dementia. Her husband hates her, but she becomes useful to him when, as the sister of Mr. Krook, she inherits Krook’s dubious legacy—mostly junk—upon his death. However, among the junk are both Lady Dedlock’s letters to her lover and a will that could change the course of the lawsuit, and Grandfather Smallweed sets out to capitalize on these items. His other role is as Mr. George’s creditor, and again he tries to extract all he can. Fortunately, those who deal with him are intelligent enough to see their way around his manipulations.

Mr. Snagsby

Mr. Snagsby is the law stationer who lives in Cook’s Court and works directly with Mr. Tulkinghorn. He hired Nemo as a copyist and then gave the same position to Jobling after Nemo’s death. Mr. Snagsby was a kind, courteous gentleman, who was one of the few to take pity on Jo, periodically providing him with half crowns. He suffered from the suspicions—finally put to rest by Mr. Bucket—of an irrationally jealous wife, and his servant Guster plays an important role because of her interaction with Lady Dedlock shortly before the latter’s death.

Mr. Tulkinghorn

Mr. Tulkinghorn is the lawyer for the Dedlock family, among other aristocratic houses, and he is therefore a general repository for aristocratic secrets. He is known for his discretion, but he can also be manipulative and cold, which finally leads to his murder by Hortense, Lady Dedlock’s former attendant. Shortly before his death, Mr. Tulkinghorn had infuriated Mr. George with his manipulations and alienated and frightened Lady Dedlock with his threats to disclose her personal secret, all of which complicated the murder investigation.

Mr. Turveydrop

Yet another archetype, Mr. Turveydrop the elder is the owner of the dance school where his son Prince, Caddy’s fiancé, now teaches. Turveydrop, however, does not teach dance. That was originally the task of his late wife, who died from exhaustion to support her husband’s habit of Deportment. “Deportment” involves playing the role of a gentleman in every imaginable way, which includes posturing, dressing up, dining out, etc. However, the trappings of Deportment conveniently apply only to himself. Esther’s initial impression of the elder Turveydrop is that everything about him is false. Yet, though Turveydrop never gives up his concern with Deportment, he does manage to grow past his own self-centeredness enough to embrace his son’s marriage and Caddy’s family, and in doing so, to bring some small bit of improvement to others’ lives, especially those of Caddy’s father and her brother Peepy.

Volumnia Dedlock

Volumnia Dedlock is the most developed of Sir Leicester’s many aristocratic cousins. She is the symbol, in a comical, tasteless way, of a dying aristocracy. Like the other cousins, she is prevented from earning her living, so she spends her time socializing, attending occasional political events, and otherwise idling her life away. A bit of a caricature, she is represented as clumsy and having a taste for too much rouge and the same worn-out pearl necklace. But she does keep Sir Leicester company in his old age, and for that he is appreciative, even if he sleeps through most of her reading.