The Young and the Bleak House -- Breanna Poole

 I will be very honest -- I was having much trouble understanding this book. There are just so many characters that it is simply impossible I believe to keep up with all of them at once without forgetting one or two of the minor ones along the way. I hope I'm not alone in this regard, as I simply completely forgot about several major characters until they popped back up again. I suppose in this regard, Dickens is not like Shakespeare as I had suggested in an earlier blog post. Shakespeare is not known for tying up loose ends and lets characters fall by the wayside, while Dickens forgets no one. You will find out what happens to these characters, and I applaud Dickenson for keeping up with all of them. I certainly struggle as a writer to keep up with all my characters, and I don't have as many as out present in this novel. 

But one thing stuck with me, when we were discussing melodrama, and now that I view more akin to a soap opera I can start to keep up with it more as I realize that there is nothing that is off the table. Once Esther went blind, I finally understood what it was Dickens was going for. This story is highly seralized, and it's easy to tell that some of this he made up as he went along. I'm sure he had some things set in stone as he went, such as the storyline with Esther and Lady Dedlock, but I feel like the Charlie storyline was one that he just kind of decided that sounded good. Maybe I'm wrong on that take, but it's how I read it. 

Keeping with the blindness, I feel like the blindness section was one that, while maybe not planned from the beginning, is not one that is meant to be taken lightly. Esther goes physically blind the same way she is blind to her own life and past, making her metaphorical blindness now into physical blindness to match. And it's no coincidence that it's Esther's compassion that causes her blindness, as her caring for the sick is what causes her to go blind, as compassion seems to be a defining characteristic of her according to my understanding. 

I'm not sure if that makes sense. 

P.S. I commented on Bryalen and Elijah's posts. 

Comments

  1. Emma LandryNovember 8, 2021 at 4:20 PM

    You are definitely not alone in feeling lost in keeping up with all of the characters. A character that reenters the story after a long absence is sometimes easy to remember after a couple of sentences, but others have required me to look up the character somewhere. It is miraculous how neatly Dickens ties everything together eventually, giving appropriate endings to his vast cast of characters. Esther's blindness caught me off guard because of how unfair a consequence it was for her kindness. However, just like being Christlike will not guarantee preservation from troubles for us as Christians, Esther's extension of hospitality to Jo does not protect her from tragedy.
    -Emma Landry

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  2. Raygan BosterNovember 8, 2021 at 7:35 PM

    I agree that the blindness that occurs here is very important. There are very interesting parallels between physical blindness and blindness to her roots and her family tree. It is unfortunate but gets across how in the dark she really is. As to it happening because of her compassion, the phrase "bad things happen to good people" is so very true.

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