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Bart Smallweed
Mr. Smallweed is an elderly miser, the husband of Mrs. Smallweed, and the grandfather of Bart Smallweed and Judy Smallweed. He is an invalid and is carried everywhere in a chair from his living room. He comes from a long line of men who worked as moneylenders and accountants and who were obsessed with wealth. Mr. Smallweed is a vile old man—he hates and torments his wife and thinks about nothing but how to trick and manipulate people for his own financial gain. He gloats horribly whenever he exploits people successfully and enjoys nothing except tricking and using others. Mr. Smallweed charges excessive interests on loans he has paid out and has a murky history of corrupt business practices. The ex-soldier, George, owes money to Mr. Smallweed for a loan on which he has paid back more than double in interest to the old man. George implies that Mr. Smallweed once tricked him into trying to track down Captain Hawdon, who was George’s commanding officer and who had an affair with Lady Dedlock in her youth and became the father of Esther Summerson. Mr. Smallweed is a coward and is afraid of George, who is very physically strong. He tries to pretend that he is not responsible for charging George interest but that this order comes from a “friend in the city,” who is a terrifying and sinister man. George, however, knows that this is a tactic which Mr. Smallweed uses to try and scare his clients and to evade responsibility for his own malpractice. Mr. Smallweed’s wife, Mrs. Smallweed, is Krook’s sister, and the Smallweeds inherit the shop after Krook’s death. Predictably, they try to use legal documents they find, which prove that Lady Dedlock had a child outside of wedlock, to blackmail her husband, Sir Leicester Dedlock. However, Mr. Smallweed’s obsessive greed backfires, and the documents are seized by the policeman, Mr. Bucket, who gives him only a tiny sum for the papers.
Mr. Smallweed Quotes in Bleak House
The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Smallweed or refer to Mr. Smallweed. 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:
).
Chapter 21
Quotes
Everything that Mr. Smallweed’s grandfather ever put away in his mind was a grub at first, and is a grub at last. In all his life he has never bred a single butterfly. The father of this pleasant grandfather, of the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, was a horny-skinned, two-legged, money-getting species of spider, who spun webs to catch unwary flies, and retired into holes until they were entrapped. The name of this old pagan’s God was Compound Interest.
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Chapter 39
Quotes
They gradually discern the elder Mr Smallweed, seated in his chair upon the brink of a well or grave of waste paper; the virtuous Judy groping therein, like a female sexton; and Mrs Smallweed on the level ground in the vicinity, snowed up in a heap of paper fragments, print and manuscript, which would appear to be the accumulated compliments that have been sent flying at her in the course of the day. The whole party, Small included, are blackened with dust and dirt, and present a fiendish appearance not relieved by the general aspect of the room.
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Mr. Smallweed Quotes in Bleak House
The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Smallweed or refer to Mr. Smallweed. 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:
).
Chapter 21
Quotes
Everything that Mr. Smallweed’s grandfather ever put away in his mind was a grub at first, and is a grub at last. In all his life he has never bred a single butterfly. The father of this pleasant grandfather, of the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, was a horny-skinned, two-legged, money-getting species of spider, who spun webs to catch unwary flies, and retired into holes until they were entrapped. The name of this old pagan’s God was Compound Interest.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39
Quotes
They gradually discern the elder Mr Smallweed, seated in his chair upon the brink of a well or grave of waste paper; the virtuous Judy groping therein, like a female sexton; and Mrs Smallweed on the level ground in the vicinity, snowed up in a heap of paper fragments, print and manuscript, which would appear to be the accumulated compliments that have been sent flying at her in the course of the day. The whole party, Small included, are blackened with dust and dirt, and present a fiendish appearance not relieved by the general aspect of the room.
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
