Bleak House and Wilson's invisible Flâneur

Women being “ensconced in the domestic sphere”(90) are a pretty large theme in Bleak House. The most obvious example is the binary representation of Esther and Lady Deadlock. Esther from the moment we are introduced to her is in the domestic sphere. She may change homes several times, but she is seen only travelling into homes, unless a man accompanies her. Her movements are quite limited to the home. She is portrayed as the Angel of the house, despite not having a loving mother figure in her life, Esther knows what to do when Jenny’s baby dies, she mothers Ada and runs Bleak House noting everyone’s preferences and catering to them behind the scenes.  Lady Dedlock on the other hand is never content with her domestic life and is constantly traveling outside her sphere. In our first introduction to her she expresses her dissatisfaction through boredom, she is then on route to Paris. What is interesting is that the reader finds this out through the housekeeper who is reporting her absence to Mr. Guppy. Absence from the home thereafter defines her role. The next times we hear of Lady Dedlock she is on the rode travelling home but halts the carriage to walk hurriedly away form her husband. She is later seen taking shelter form a storm not at Chesney Wold her home but out in a lodge within the woods. But even her movements within the city are limited, she cannot move about the city without Tom’s guidance. She may have arrived there alone but she was certainly not able to navigate the city without his presence. Even in her final scene, she flees to the tomb of her dead lover and in some odd way is there under a male presence as well. Lady Dedlock’s tale is the story of a woman who succumbed to the immoral and sensual excesses of the city. She birthed an illegitimate child outside of wedlock. Her story is the depiction of the “breakdown of family life”(91).  The only way she was able to preserve her virtue and respectability was by marrying Sir Leicester. It was only by being under the protection of his name and becoming his, was she able to escape her past. The man in this way was able to redeem her but it is interesting that the male presence is largely silent throughout the novel; at most he observes but remains passive.

            The two strongest personalities within the novel are Esther and Honoria’s, decisive and proactive characters. The men in the novel seem like weak figures like the man child, Mr. Skimpole, Tom an actual child, Jenny’s alcoholic husband, Richard the youth with no direction in life, Nemo the opium addict and the various other male figures that seem to quail beneath the power of the more assertive women in the story. Here is where we can apply the idea of the Flâneur as a male observer, with no occupation or sense of duty. Richard, Skimpole and Jenny’s husbands are the obvious examples of wastrels if not quite dandies. However there are men who perform acts but even those remain passive and silent. Mr. Jarndyce for so many years provided for Esther anonymously, he is portrayed as a nice man who by refusing to be thanked also refuses to acknowledge his actions and so though we know he did something we do not know exactly what. Esther’s movements are well documented as are Lady Dedlock’s. He like Sir Leicester  with Honoria offers to protect Esther through marriage, though this is not made explicit in the book. In my opinion he offered marriage after it is revealed that she is illegitimate. This revelation had she remained unmarried would have ruined her respectability and reputation. By becoming a Mrs. Jarndyce she would have been redeemed and saved from disgrace. The transaction from one engagement to another with Mr. Woodcourt is made possible by the fact that she needs to marry for society to accept her in a respectable manner. It is at this point in the story that Esther is in danger of becoming a fallen angel, so to speak. So we have three men performing silent acts of chivalry. They are passive attempts at protection. They can only watch silently and act quietly. Mr. Tulkinghorn is the most passive aggressive male in the novel. He subjects lady Dedlock to his gaze and in some tacit way exerts power over her by revealing that he will for the moment keep silent about her secret. He is a repository of secrets, action waiting to happen; yet that action is repressed and is killed by a woman. He is silenced forever. Despite being portrayed as the weaker gender the female’s characters have the strongest personalities while the men are portrayed as incompetent babies from the courts of chancery to the homes of poor. With this in mind it is amazing to have to acknowledge that society was male centric and patriarchal.