For my first blog, I want to focus on pages 234-237. The scene where Mr. Jarndyce and friends go to check on and meet Coavinses children. The main thing that struck me was what happens in life when one cannot move on. I thought Dickens ever so eloquently has penned the destructive force that unforgiven anger can present in one's life. Mr. Jarndyce has an incredibly similar story to Mr. Gridley's, yet their future choices on how to handle life's blows has led them to very different life circumstances. First, you have Mr. Jarndyce who seems to exude patience, kindess, selflessness, and charity. The very definition of his life seems to be based on who he can rescue next. He is a man that moved passed what he deserved and what was expected. He made a new life for himself when the possibilities of what was guaranteed were not manifesting themselves. He is noted by Mr. Gridley that he "bears your wrongs more quietly that I can bear mine." On the other hand, Mr. Gridley is deadlocked in being "dragged for five-and-twenty years over burning iron." He is convinced within himself that "if I took my wrongs in any other way, I should be driven mad!" He is described as wrathful, resentful, revenging, angrily demanding justice, and has a countenance with an expression that does not soften. He is unable to use his natural characteristics in a positive way, like a general or a great politician. 
           An interesting thing I notice at this point is that the one who seems to point out that Mr. Gridley has "lazily adapted themselves to purposes" is Mr. Skimpole, a "child" that has chosen to use and abuse everyone he knows and never become responsible to grow up! Is part of Dicken's plan to point out that what we so vehemently accuse others of, we generally should just look in the mirror? I find this entire segment to be pointing at choice. Dickens himself, a child raised in poverty, made a very conscious choice to not be poor. Is he purposely pointing a finger at what stops us in life from overcoming? Is he trying to toot his own horn? Is he, say, Mr. Jarndyce? One that seems to have it all figured out? I just wonder how much of Dickens is in this scene. If so, doesn't his ability to pen Mr. Gridley as one that had a passion that was so fearful that you wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it, proving that maybe these are feelings that he has experienced and never gotten over himself? How does he know this character so hideously well? 
           I find these characters so intensely described that I, myself, feel uncomfortable for the children as Mr. Gridley tries to hold them. I plainly see Dicken's message of how ugly anger makes a person. I think we all experience expectations that cease to manifest. His message is truthful and descriptive beyond anything I really ever wanted to read. I feel his commentary on government and power is heard, without being said.