Just coming off reading
Hemingway in my major authors course I could not help but notice the weather in
this first reading of the novel. Anyone who has read Hemingway knows how
important it was to his scenes, since he used minimal words to describe what was
happening. He used it to set the mood as well as the tone. He also used it to
predict what was going to happen. Dickens uses the fog from the very beginning
of the story as way of giving us an idea of what London was like at the time,
or even how he felt about it.
From the second
paragraph he uses fog numerous times not only to set up the scene but as way to
portray what society was like at the time. It seems to me that he uses it as
way of saying society of the time was being weighed down with all the issues
happening during this time.
We are thrown into a
lawsuit right from the get go, as we all know they aren't very pleasant. And so
Dickens uses the fog as a metaphor to highlight the Lord Chancellor. By him
using fog, I can easily imagine a dark and gloomy person as well as big dirty
building looming in the background. He even says "at the very heart of the
fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in High Court of Chancery"(14).
Hemingway used the rain
to as way to highlight the destruction of war. Not only did Hemingway use it as
way to get us to envision what was happening outside of his characters but he
also used it as a way to show what his characters were feeling and thinking. Dickens
like Hemingway uses the fog to make what is going on in the Chancery seems dark
and depressing. Dickens uses this imagery in the first part of the novel to
show is how he felt about the injustice of the court system in London. I
couldn't help but think Dickens saw it as corrupt and maybe even a waste of
time. I get this idea with his choice of words like "murky" and then
going on to associate it with Lord Chancellor's court or the Chancellor
himself.
Dickinson and Hemingway
both use the bad weather to signify not only mood of their characters but also
as the way to highlight the plot of their story. As I have mentioned weather
plays an important role in moving the story and forward in this first couple of
pages. Dickens has put into our heads the importance of the Chancery and how it
will play into the tone for not only the story, but its giving us insight to
the feelings of the characters.
I like your discussion of fog/smog and weather in Dickens. It's certainly an important image and metaphor. The city is literally oppressed and blanketed by it. It reminds me the way T.S. Eliot describes the fog as a cat in the beginning of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
ReplyDeleteHave you had any thoughts about John Jarndyce and his frequent references to the wind? It's not that it's actually windy, but it's interesting that Dickens--clearly concerned with weather as imagery/metaphor--would have Jarndyce refer to it at times of emotional upheaval.
I would say that the wind does represent turmoil. Like the wind secrets seem to be flying around. The wind represents a sense of uncertainty about what is going on in the character's lives. It suggest that they are all on this whirlwind tunnel and until the case is decided no one knows where they will land.
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