Wednesday, March 28, 2012

That's M-O-N-E-Y!!!!

After doing the exercise in class of drawing out character flaws and reasoning, I can't help but notice the common theme throughout the whole novel; MONEY! It doesn't matter who you are in this novel, somewhere, somehow, you are affected by money. Those that want it, like poor Richard, go crazy.! Those that don't want it, like Esther, are burdened with the fact they don't have it.

Let's look at Esther. She is young, has a trim, nice figure. She seems to be the person that every character just loves. She can do no wrong. She is a chronic people pleaser. She invests in all things good, all things kind, and all things worthy. So what's wrong with her? What is her "flaw"? Is it that she is scarred all over her face? That seems to be the only sort of unworthy thing Dickens has said about her. So what does she do? She decides she's going to marry John Jarndyce. What?!!!! And a big WHY? In class we talked about her need for protection. Protection from a society that didn't care for the single woman. The only reason to "protect" Esther is so that she has the confidence and assurance of money to care for her for the rest of her life.Without this "marriage" what will become of Esther when her "guardian" dies? Does she end out on the street? Does she still have a place to live? Food to eat? For what job is she qualified? The main job for women was teaching and we can see with Charley that she doesn't seem to be thriving in that field. So, it's not for love. It's not for sex. It's for money!

How about Richard? He is one that also needs money. He is almost out of money. He is continuing to live a life that squanders what he has and he is now in debt. Is it the lawsuit that is making him go crazy and make such poor decisions? I think Dickens would have us believe that this is the case. But given a deeper look past the surface of the situation one has to look at what is really happening to Richard. As Richard feels himself slipping away into the abyss of debt and crazy unrelinquished greed, Dickens justifies his behavior by saying of Richard, "...injustice breeds injustice; the fighting with shadows and being defeated by them, necessitates the setting up of substances to combat" (501). What are the "shadows" Dickens is referring to? What is the injustice? Richard has not been treated unfairly by Jarndyce or the system for that matter. Is the "injustice" and the "shadow" possibly a look back at a young Richard that was left without parents and a smaller portion of money that didn't turn out to be enough to take care of him? What would "necessitate" someone to "combat" in life other than need? I believe his greed is created out of his youthful need. So, really it's not about a lawsuit, or a right to have what is justifiably yours. It's about a hole created in his youth. It's about the fact that money created the hole and it's money that will satisfy it.

Maybe, Dickens is trying to show us the system of money and all its deficits. Maybe this story isn't about courts and lawsuits. Maybe, Dickens is saying that no matter what - money controls everything!

2 comments:

  1. Do you think Dickens draws our attention to the way money controls everything as a societal critique? Or perhaps as the reality of Victorian England?

    Your blog makes me thing about the concept of happiness and how it has been defined through history. How closely is our idea of happiness connected to money and/or financial security? Beyond providing for our basic needs, is money really that crucial to happiness? I used to think it was--largely because that's what my parents seemed to advise--but the reality of adulthood complicated things.

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  2. I completely agree that money has an extreme power over a lot of people in a lot of ways especially when it comes to happiness. I do believe that some people fold under the power of it, but others do not. Richard as you said would be an example of a character who folded, but what about Esther? She never did marry Mr. Jarndyce because she did not love him, and In the end Mr. Jarndyce gave her up to Woodcourt. Allen Woodcoud did not have much money and in the end they were perfectly happy. Maybe Charles Dickens is just giving examples as to what money can do to different people.

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