Everybody Talks ~Ashlyn Scism

        In Dickens’ Bleak House there is a reoccurring theme of a ‘Mission’. This idea is first introduced by Mrs. Jellyby in chapter 4. Mrs. Jellyby is convinced her Mission is to perform charity for Africa. However, although her intentions are somewhat honorable, Mrs. Jellyby is also neglecting her household because she has become so absorbed in her Mission. The way Dickens writes the scene it seems apparent that Mrs. Jellyby is missing the point. She should be focused on her family’s needs and not just her obscure African charity. Dickens further highlights this in chapter 30 when Caddy Jellyby is getting married. Caddy is speaking with her father and Mr. Jellyby stops himself from saying something. Caddy refuses to let it go and asks him to tell her, to which he responds:

 “What do you wish me not to have? Don’t have what, dear Pa?’ Asked Caddy, coaxing him, with her arms round his neck. ‘Never have a mission, my dear child’” (Dickens 374).

Mr. Jellyby appears to be of the same mind about Missions as Dickens. This is further confirmed when Miss Wisk arrives on the scene. Mr. Jarndyce believes that Miss Wisk’s real Mission is to declare grand, public resolutions. Miss Wisk claims that the idea that a woman’s only mission is to perform a domestic role is an outrage. Esther notices that people do not care for one another‘s Missions so long as they get to describe their own.

  

I commented on: Bug’s and Emory’s.

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