The Anti-Utopian Dimensions behind the Real-Life Utopian Individual and Home in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House

Abstract

Charles Dickens consistently evaluates the socio-economic and political conditions of England and reports on cultural developments. In Bleak House, Dickens shed light on some crucial social, political and legal problems found in the systems that governed Victorian English cities and rural areas. Dickens, however, has seen a silver lining in the value of Home and the image of the philanthropist. In this paper, I argue that Dickens portrays England in Bleak House as an antithetical country holding both utopian and anti-utopian notions. The utopian element is symbolized in the ideal house of John Jarndyce, although there are glimpses of anti-utopian techniques within in it. The anti-utopian notions, epitomized in the social and legal conditions of Victorian England, may hold utopian traces, but they also surround the idealistic state and penetrate to disturb its perfect image leading the readers to question the future of real utopian elements in England at that time. Keywords: Charles Dickens, Bleak House, Utopia, Anti-Utopia, Home.