Struggling to Get By// Emily Otts

    While reading Bleak House, I noticed quite a few characters with a very similar struggle. That is, the struggle of finances. Mr Skimpole, and a group of children both see themselves with this sort of problem, doing what they can to survive. The difference is how they go along to get by. 

    In chapter 6, Mr Skimpole finds himself needing to pay off his debts. According to the stranger that comes to pick up his debts, "It is twenty-four pound, sixteen, and sevenpence ha'penny." In order to get his debts paid, he asks Esther and Richard to help. The give him what they can to help. After hearing about this, Mr Jarndyce is upset, knowing Mr Skimpole was able to use them for his own good. 

    The group of children we are introduced to in chapter 15, and Mr Jobling, who we are introduced to in chapter 20, both plan to work hard to earn their livings. The oldest child, Charley, goes out to work every day, leaving her brother Tom to watch the baby, Emma. Thankfully, they have people that let them stay rent free, since they are children.

    It is interesting to see the difference between the characters. Mr Skimpole is a grown man, yet is considered a child. Yet, Charley is described as handy, patient, and clever. The fact that a thirteen year old girl is more capable than a grown man is comical, yet sad. Dickens shows with these two characters how looks can be deceiving, and how age does not always mean maturity. 


I commented on Bug Olsen's and Haylee Lynd's posts.

Comments

  1. Emma LandryNovember 1, 2021 at 8:44 PM

    The picture of a 13-year-old child working herself to the bone to earn a livelihood for herself and her younger siblings just makes me even more disgusted with Mr. Skimpole's leech-like tendencies. The children have done nothing wrong but must dig themselves out of a financial hole. However, it is due to Skimpole's own careless actions that he struggles with money.
    -Emma Landry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Taylor ViceNovember 1, 2021 at 9:11 PM

    Everyone in the novel seems to either have a good sum of money or barely any money at all. Mr. Skimpole being a grown man and having less capability to take care of himself than a child can is absolutely ridiculous. The children in this story seem to be stronger than the adults in the story, and it just shows how messed up the lives are of the majority of the people in this story. // Taylor Vice

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emily ThullesenNovember 1, 2021 at 10:34 PM

    For some reason I always associate Dickens’ novels with this type of financial instability. He truly tries to convey the social and economic problems of the time period through his works. Skimpole is the epitome of the careless adult, while the young teenager working hard to make a living reveals the truth about society at this time. - Emily Thullesen

    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