The Humanitarian Facade •∞• Hailey Walsh

    In Chapter 4 of Dickens' Bleak House, we are introduced to a woman named Mrs. Jellyby, who is over a rather rambunctious household. Her numerous progeny run about filthy and ignorant, unbathed and unschooled. Meanwhile, Mrs. Jellyby is consumed in her "mission" to provide, with religious rigor, resources to the development of trade routes into the African interior. Believing her philanthropy to be the best thing she could possibly be doing with her time, she completely ignores opportunities for do-gooding (and blatantly disregards her God-given responsibilities) that have been placed right in front of her face.

    Jellyby is presented as a satire of numerous people Dickens encountered in his own London. The men and women who got so caught up in church work that they forgot about the children under their own roofs must have disgusted him. Given his other works, such as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and Hard Times, and their romantic representation of children as innocent humans in need of protection and guidance, it is a glaring thing against false philanthropy for him to show Jellyby as a woman in complete disregard for her own children.

    In conclusion, Dickens uses Mrs. Jellyby to continue his reputation of using characters to function as caricatures of people and their habits. Jellyby is a direct allusion to the false-philanthropists of both Dickens time and our own. The hypocrisy of seeming to be devoted "entirely to the public" (chapter IV, line 49) while ignoring one's own responsibilities is shown through Dickens' pen (and ironically Jellyby's own narration) to be an ignorant solution and a socially revolting problem.

I commented on Emma Landry's and Justin Johnson's posts.

Comments

  1. Ashlyn ScismOctober 26, 2021 at 10:26 AM

    The points you make are eloquently put. The fact that children are supposed to be sheltered, loved, and taken care of. Not only does Mrs Jellyby neglect her children, she also views them as nothing more than slaves. This is indicative of the world Dickens grew up in and his own personal experiences.

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