Skimpole Continues to be the Absolute Worst // Emma Landry

     As the book progresses, Skimpole merely becomes more and more abhorrent in my eyes. After a bit of an absence following his shameful encouraging of Richard's poor economic and life choices, the residents of Bleak House arrive at his home to discuss the subject of Richard. The discovery the group makes is less than surprising. One of the most striking sentences in the description of the home is that there is "no other furniture than the dirty footprints" (XLIII.523.29-30). This sums up the squalor in which the Skimpoles live. The environment of the home is a byproduct or even representation of how Harold Skimpole lives his life. Harold Skimpole is the epitome of carelessness, leaving a wreck in his wake that affects others. The messiness of the home that is "dingy enough" (XLIII.523.31) can be compared to the chaos he creates that usually allows him to be free of the undesirable results of failing to pay debts.

    Any patience that I previously maintained in my opinion of Mr. Skimpole has dissipated after reading about his attitude toward Richard. Skimpole outlines some feeble reasons why he has no responsibility for Richard's actions, indicating that he must follow Richard wherever he leads, as if Skimpole has no agency. There is simply no logic in the idea that if one's friends goes anywhere, one should automatically and unquestioningly accompany him or her. It seems as if Mr. Skimpole would be the type of person to jump off a cliff if convinced by someone young and hopeful like Richard. Finally, Skimpole's weak excuse of knowing nothing about money has angered me. Even though he rides on the coattails of the notion that he is nothing but a child, there are even children who can identify amounts of money. Skimpole is not so unintelligent as to be unable to recognize that the counting and handling of money can be learned. However, his subpar protest reveals what has been shown of him all along: Skimpole is a willfully ignorant and selfish crook.

I commented on Breanna Poole's and Braylan Stringfellow's posts.

Comments

  1. Abigale BellNovember 9, 2021 at 9:10 AM

    I felt the same disappointment and disgust when reading this passage. At first, I thought Skimpole was simply a naive person. However, after reading this passage, I lost all saw that he is more worldly intelligent than he lets on. He really is just a leech on the hospitality and kindness of others. Skimpole is a terrible influence on Richard.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more