Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, is primarily a novel about the consequences of abandonment. Dickens uses a blend of anonymous third-person narrative and Esther Summerson's personal narrative, thus balancing social criticism with a measure of personal experiences. Esther is just one of many orphans in the novel. In different ways, Jo, Esther, Charley, Richard and Ada are all abandoned children. Mrs Jellyby, Mrs Pardiggle, Harold Skimpole and even Mr Turveydrop also abandon their children forcing them to endure emotional abandonment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayMrs. Jellyby, for example, claims to be a noble philanthropist, but ignores her own family's poor quality of life to focus on the injustices occurring in distant Africa. His "public duties [are his] favorite child." Here, Dickens highlights the irresponsibility and arbitrariness of choosing to exhaust one's resources (which are most likely being used ineffectively) on an abstract problem, rather than one that is literal and at hand. Dickens argued that people given to remote ("telescoping") philanthropy very often show a tendency to neglect the needs of those around them. In this example, Dickens satirizes Mrs. Jellyby as a misguided "do-gooder." The portrayal of the Jellyby children (especially the pathetic Peepy) is another variation on one of Dickens' recurring themes: the vulnerability and suffering of children in a world mismanaged by adults. Using the story of Mrs Pardiggle, a charity worker whose zeal unfortunately makes her children "fierce with discontent", Dickens once again contrasts the pretentiousness and emotional superficiality of professional social activists by situating their character alongside a pain real, deep emotional, such as that which occurs after the death of a child.Just because Chancery is at the center of the third-person narrative, the central problem of Esther's story is that of an absent or lost parent. The chaos, disorder, and disease of society are reflected in the domestic sphere through broken families, neglectful parents, and the loss of love, comfort, and security. Esther highlights the theme of abandonment of parental responsibility, which is analogous to that of third-person narrative: the institutional abandonment of social responsibility. In Dickens' Victorian England, people often slip through the cracks, as exemplified by the characters of Jo and Nemo. Dickens uses his characters to illustrate the fact that neglect of necessary social responsibility is a poison to society and a symptom of moral decay. He writes of the devouring monster of a lawsuit: Countless children have been born to the cause; countless young people have married there; countless elderly people have died because of it. Dozens of people found themselves deliriously throwing parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, without knowing how or why; entire families have inherited legendary hatreds towards the cause. Dickens encourages readers to view the lawsuit itself, and thus the entire Chancery legal system, as an entity responsible for the wrong lives and unfulfilled prospects of many individuals. Richard and Ada are wards of the court, and in a sense so is Jo, as he grew up in homes for the poor. It can therefore be said that the legal system and the Chancellery have also been negligent guardians. The suggestion made in comparing the legal system and the family is that there are enormous private consequences for public neglect. The ironic result of the cause grossly.