Portrayal of London in the Opening of Bleak House Essay

Analyse (tell me how the poet creates this image - choice of words, literary devices, implication etc)The idea of a freezing, harsh climate is emphasized with "winter's city" and "winter's leaves". The poet uses words like "death" and "terrible" to highlight the freezing, barren winter.

When Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, was published in 1853, it did not go unnoticed by critics. The reviews of the period where anything but tepid in tone or opinion in regard to Dickens’ newest novel. Most notably, the critics were concerned with the structure of the novel, characterization, and, in particular, Esther as a plausible character. By singling out reviewers from different publications of the time, it is possible to see what the public in 1853 was reading about Bleak House in regard to these issues.

As coal was burnt so much at this time, the fog was a constant problem. The fog adds to the atmosphere of gloominess and secrecy and 'the dismal quarter of Soho' appears to Utterson 'like a district of some city in a nightmare'. Hyde undoubtedly symbolizes 'the beast in man' and is described continually using animal imagery.

Dickens uses the needs and wants for people to get an image in their head about what life was really like before the French revolution. "Cold, dirt,

To elaborate, Bradbury continues to write “ There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree.” With this simile Bradbury is elaborating on the image created from the previous simile. This simile aids in the reader's understanding or “seeing” the setting. The setting is still of a man walking down the sidewalk kicking up ash-like dust, but

The London fog killed at least 268 people from bronchitis in 1873. The same fog lasted for four months straight in 1879. Weather has the power to change or destroy lives. Charles Dickens uses this as a basis to set the scene in his story. Throughout A Christmas Carol, Dickens utilizes weather symbolism and descriptions to enhance the supernatural, contrast the setting with the poor, and characterize Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist of the story.

At the beginning of the passage, Petry uses imagery in order to set the environment in which the main character is introduced. Petry starts off with “a cold November wind blowing through the 116th street” in order to show the environment as cold and breezy by saying the “cold” wind that is blowing around they urban city and the “dirt blowing around into people’s eyes” to introduce the setting. She then goes to further introduce the setting by talking about the scraps of paper flying around and how it did everything it could in order to “discourage the people walking along the streets.” This allows the reader to picture the urban setting by appealing to their sense of touch where you can feel the cold climate in the city and create a picture in their mind of garbage and paper flying around and hindering the people’s lives. Petry uses this in order to highlight Lutie Johnson’s eventual introduction to the urban setting and her unfamiliarity with the urban by letting us predict the challenges Lutie Johnson will soon face there. Petry is able to create images in our head in order to show Lutie Johnson in the urban setting; you are able to feel the cold,

As stated prior, the town being described in the poem has a very dull and gloomy feel that surrounds it. The first line reads, “the winter evening settles down.” By personifying winter, the reader is able to have a visual idea of what is currently happening in this fallen town. After reading this line one is able to make the inference that the setting of this poem is the winter season. A winters day can start off beautiful and seem magical, however, when the day comes to an end and the snow slowly starts to melt and everything becomes disgusting. Eliot is slowly painting an eerie scene in just the first line of the poem. There is also an underlying feeling of exhaustion and boredom described throughout this poem. “The burnt-out ends of smoky days” (line 4) causes the reader to visualize perhaps the burnt out end of a cigarette. The fire is gone at the

Imagery is another important element which London uses to illustrate and emphasize his theme. In “To Build a Fire” Earl Labor sees the “mood and atmosphere, which is conveyed through repetitive imagery of cold and gloom and whiteness,” as being “the key to the story’s impact” (63). London does rely heavily on imagery to set the mood of the story, and in this way he draws a picture of the harsh environment that his character must endure. London uses imagery with such skill that the reader can almost feel the deadly cold of the environment and can almost hear the “sharp, explosive crackle” when the man’s spit would freeze in mid-air (119). Through the use of such vivid imagery, London guides the reader toward the realization of the story’s theme; the reader can visualize the man “losing in his battle with the frost” and therefor can picture man in his conflict with a cruel and uncaring universe (128). Symbolism is also an important element in “To Build a Fire”. David Mike Hamilton’s criticism, he says “the fire symbolizes life as does the white snow that falls at the beginning of the story.” He also views “the dark point in the midst of the stamped snow, foretelling the end of the fire, and thus of life” (2). I strongly agree with Hamilton’s criticism; “the dark point in the midst of the stamped snow” because it not only foretells the end of the fire but of the end of life itself.

The use of suspenseful imagery allows for a descriptive foreshadow of the French Revolution. At the end of the chapter, Dickens compares people to the storm by showing “a crowd of people with its rush and roar, bearing down upon them too” (109). The Third Estate is depicted as rowdy and very thundering by means of their rush and roar. If the people linger to this extent for a Revolution, this rowdiness can cause a massive war. Soon enough there was “a great hurry in the streets, people speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke” (107). The storm, being synonymous with the Revolution, will cause a great hurry to the Third Estate due to their unpreparedness. Civilians, speeding away, try to get to shelter before the revolution starts to become too brutal. In the night a “storm of thunder

Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ presents a warning to society through the representation of characters and the journey and transformation of the notorious miser, Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens warns society of the grim future that awaits humanity if people fail to respond to the plight of the poor. Finally, if Dickens intentions weren’t made clear enough through these examples, his preface says it all. “I have endeavoured in this ghostly little book, to raise the ghost of an idea…May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and

Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned British writers with well-known and widespread work. Dickens was born in England in 1812 and died in 1870. During this time, Victorian England experienced an Industrial Revolution, which impacted his life tremendously. New factories and industrial machinery changed many lives of the lower class citizens. The family grew up impoverished and struggled to maintain a good lifestyle. The family’s financial situation was strained as John Dickens, Charles’s father, spent money that the family didn’t have. These societal factors were influential in Charles Dickens’s life, and the same themes present themselves in his works. When an author creates a work, frequently themes of their life events are incorporated into the theme of the book, consciously or unconsciously. Victorian Age industrial-influenced strife was a common theme in Dickens’s life and presented itself throughout Dickens’s books.

Dickens begins the novel with a pro-revolutionary tone. His regard for the idea of the upcoming and inevitable revolution in a positive light is reflected by the atmosphere he sets for the reader. Dickens is able to make his readers pity the peasantry and sympathize with them. Through inclusion of detail, Dickens portrays the plight of the lower class writing, “gloom [gathers] on the scene that [appears] more natural to it than sunshine” (21). This allows the reader to imply that the suffering of the lower class has fallen into a continuous pattern, and they can understand the need for revolution. Additionally, Dickens uses anaphora with the phrase “Hunger [is]” (21). This gives the reader a sense of how much hunger dominates and defines their lives, effectively making their

I especially enjoyed your statement ST when you say, “the fog moves on its own and is out of the speaker’s control.” In many ways, I see the fog as representative of the environment in which they live, London, as well as a continuation of a literary tradition that in my experience during this course, has seem to arisen during the aesthetic period of Impressionism, e.g., to a name a few, Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations, Oscar Wilde’s “Impression du Matin,” and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” There is a parallel between the way in which yellow fog is showcased in each of these narratives I mentioned and, if I narrowly deduced an illusionary, singular meaning, it would be of death and destruction. Conversely, this is the one moment

of brass nails round it, like a coffin;" (chapter 20 page 160). We deduce that