A rant about what?!?

Over the holidays, I was able to finish reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens. It has been a slow read as I’ve been mostly reading it during my lunch break at work. I finally finished it last week with several days off! Bleak House is first and foremost a satire on the Chancery court system of Dickens’ time, but what a tangled web Mr. Dickens weaves in this novel. There are a vast number of plots running throughout this novel, all involved in some way, whether directly or indirectly, to the Chancery case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

While reading Bleak House, I’ve come to notice that there will always be that one character that you hate in a Dickens novel. In this novel, there are several characters you will come to loath, Mr. Tulkinghorn, Mr. Vholes, or Mr. Smallweed to name a few. I hope I am not the only person who could not stand Mr. Harold Skimpole, the long-time friend of Mr. John Jarndyce.

A child-like, amiable character who claims to know nothing of worldly matters such as money, employment, or responsibility. A man who provides entertainment for his friends Mr. Jarndyce and his wards with lively conversation, singing, and music, but underneath it all is someone who we would call a leech in our modern terms.

We meet Mr. Skimpole early on in the novel when he comes to visit Mr. Jarndyce and meet the wards of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Later that same night, Richard and Esther are called downstairs after hearing the news that Mr. Skimpole has ‘been took.’ They find Mr. Skimpole with a warrant for his arrest unless he pays about £25 for his debts. Knowing nothing of money and not wishing to bother Mr. Jarndyce about the situation, Mr. Skimpole asks Richard and Esther to bail him out. Agreeing not mention the matter to Mr. Jarndyce, they pay the bail with what money they have between them. Of course, their guardian finds out about the matter and insists upon repaying Esther and Richard.

Mr. Skimpole’s actions through the entirety of the novel can be summed up by Mr. Jarndyce’s remark while talking to Esther and Richard about the bail money: “…You can’t make him responsible. The idea of Harold Skimpole with designs or plans, or knowledge of consequences! Ha, ha, ha!” Sadly, I think Mr. Skimpole’s character knows actually what his plans are and where to get the means to achieve them.

Oh, and did I mention that Skimpole has a family?! Oh, yes, he does! His wife is an unfortunate woman who probably didn’t realize what kind of man she had married with all of Mr. Skimpole’s talk to love, poetry, and childishness. His three daughters are silly girls who know nothing of domestic arts, but have been taught by their father to play music and sing. How Mr. Skimpole leeches off others to provide for their welfare, I know not.

I do know that Mr. Skimpole ranks up there with Dickens’ other cringe-worthy characters such as Uriah Heep and Edward Murdstone in David Copperfield and Rigaud in Little Dorrit. It was said during Dickens’ period, that Skimpole was modeled after one of his literary friends, Leigh Hunt, to such an extent that it was greatly spoke of and the relationship between Hunt and Dickens could not be resolved. Ouch!

Until next time ^___^