Bleak House

Bleak House

by

Charles Dickens

Mr. Jarndyce Character Analysis

Mr. Jarndyce adopts Esther Summerson at Miss Barbary’s private request and pays for the girl’s education. He then gives Esther a place in his home as his housekeeper and the companion to his relative, Ada Clare, who is a ward of the court and involved in the lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which Mr. Jarndyce has inherited from his uncle Tom Jarndyce. Mr. Jarndyce is very sensible when it comes to this lawsuit, which is notoriously meandering and complicated and which, he believes, is unlikely to ever be resolved. Tom Jarndyce went mad and shot himself because he couldn’t stand the suspense of the suit, which promised to bestow a large amount of property on him and yet bankrupted him in legal fees before its resolution. Mr. Jarndyce learns from his uncle’s mistakes and is clearly a practical and observant man. He understands that lawsuits like Jarndyce and Jarndyce encourage people to develop false hopes and earnestly tries to dissuade his young cousin, Richard Carstone, from becoming involved in the case. Mr. Jarndyce has great sympathy for the poor and supports charitable causes. He cannot bear to be thanked, however, and hurries away rather than meet with any gratitude for his many acts of kindness. Mr. Jarndyce always considers the needs of those he helps and makes sure that, when he offers his help, it is practical and really benefits the person that it is designed to help. He does not seek personal acclaim for these acts of generosity and, therefore, puts his own ego aside and puts the needs of others before his own. Mr. Jarndyce falls in love with Esther Summerson but, nobly, allows her to break off their engagement and actively arranges her marriage to Mr. Woodcourt, whom he knows she loves more and will be happier with.

Mr. Jarndyce Quotes in Bleak House

The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Jarndyce or refer to Mr. Jarndyce. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Mobility, Class, and Lineage Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

She was a pretty, very diminutive, plump woman, of from forty to fifty, with handsome eyes, though they had a curious habit of seeming to look a long way off. As if—I am quoting Richard again—they could see nothing nearer than Africa!

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Richard Carstone, Mrs. Jellyby
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

We observed that the wind always changed when Mrs. Pardiggle became the subject of conversation; and that it invariably interrupted Mr. Jarndyce, and prevented his going any farther, when he had remarked that there were two classes of charitable people: one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Richard Carstone, Mrs. Pardiggle
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘How much of this indecision of character,’ Mr Jarndyce said to me, ‘is chargeable on that incomprehensible heap of uncertainty and procrastination on which he has been thrown from his birth, I don’t pretend to say; but that Chancery, among its other sins, is responsible for some of it, I can plainly see. It has engendered or confirmed in him a habit of putting off—and trusting to this, that, and the other chance, without knowing what chance—and dismissing everything as unsettled, uncertain, and confused.’

Related Characters: Mr. Jarndyce (speaker), Esther Summerson, Richard Carstone
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

We were looking at one another, and at these two children, when there came into the room a very little girl, childish in figure but shrewd and older-looking in the face—pretty-faced too—wearing a womanly sort of bonnet much too large for her, and drying her bare arms on a womanly sort of apron. Her fingers were white and wrinkled with washing, and the soap-suds were yet smoking which she wiped off her arms. But for this, she might have been a child, playing at washing, and imitating a poor working-woman with a quick observation of the truth.

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Mr. Skimpole, Neckett, Charley, Emma, Tom
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

What should I have suffered, if I had had to write to him, and tell him that the poor face he had known as mine was quite gone from me, and that I freely released him from his bondage to one whom he had never seen!

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Jo, Mr. Woodcourt
Related Symbols: Houses
Page Number: 429
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mr. Jarndyce Quotes in Bleak House

The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Jarndyce or refer to Mr. Jarndyce. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Mobility, Class, and Lineage Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

She was a pretty, very diminutive, plump woman, of from forty to fifty, with handsome eyes, though they had a curious habit of seeming to look a long way off. As if—I am quoting Richard again—they could see nothing nearer than Africa!

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Richard Carstone, Mrs. Jellyby
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

We observed that the wind always changed when Mrs. Pardiggle became the subject of conversation; and that it invariably interrupted Mr. Jarndyce, and prevented his going any farther, when he had remarked that there were two classes of charitable people: one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Richard Carstone, Mrs. Pardiggle
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘How much of this indecision of character,’ Mr Jarndyce said to me, ‘is chargeable on that incomprehensible heap of uncertainty and procrastination on which he has been thrown from his birth, I don’t pretend to say; but that Chancery, among its other sins, is responsible for some of it, I can plainly see. It has engendered or confirmed in him a habit of putting off—and trusting to this, that, and the other chance, without knowing what chance—and dismissing everything as unsettled, uncertain, and confused.’

Related Characters: Mr. Jarndyce (speaker), Esther Summerson, Richard Carstone
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

We were looking at one another, and at these two children, when there came into the room a very little girl, childish in figure but shrewd and older-looking in the face—pretty-faced too—wearing a womanly sort of bonnet much too large for her, and drying her bare arms on a womanly sort of apron. Her fingers were white and wrinkled with washing, and the soap-suds were yet smoking which she wiped off her arms. But for this, she might have been a child, playing at washing, and imitating a poor working-woman with a quick observation of the truth.

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Mr. Skimpole, Neckett, Charley, Emma, Tom
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

What should I have suffered, if I had had to write to him, and tell him that the poor face he had known as mine was quite gone from me, and that I freely released him from his bondage to one whom he had never seen!

Related Characters: Esther Summerson (speaker), Mr. Jarndyce, Jo, Mr. Woodcourt
Related Symbols: Houses
Page Number: 429
Explanation and Analysis: