Supposing Bleak House

Index

Abraham, Nicolas, 75, 165n4, 167n10 absence and presence, theme of, 143 Ada, 15–17, 35, 54–56, 57 Alfred the Great (king), 123–24 “appointed time, The,” illustration, 28, 29, 136 “attraction of repulsion,” 7, 106 Bal, Mieke, 27, 42, 82 “Becky’s second appearance in the character of Clytemnestra” illustration, 150, 151 Benveniste, Émile, 27 betrayal, 3, 48, 56–57, 111. See also faithfulness Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud), 44, 64 Bigelow, Gordon, 2 biphasic model of trauma, 45–46, 47. See also trauma “blank depression,” 24–25, 49, 52–54, 57, 61, 110. See also depression Bleak House (Dickens): autobiographical elements in, 92–97, 98, 107–12; beginning of writing, 88, 111; Dora Dickens in, 108–12; endings in, 68, 71–73, 76–83, 85–86; first idea for, 88, 102, 105–6; ghosts in, 6, 82, 111, 114–20, 134–37; as a ghost story, 102, 114; “great turning idea” of, 163n23; as historical novel, 122–23, 129, 131–40; illustrations in first edition, 154–57; infant deaths in, 15–17, 109–10, 119; John Dickens in, 107–8; narrators as ghosts, 137; parallels with Dickens’s life, 107–12; parallels with Oliver Twist, 108; as social novel, 113; and “What Christmas Is,” 142 Boadicea (queen), 125, 132 Bodenheimer, Rosemarie, 89, 92, 98–99 Bollas, Christopher, 22 Bradbury and Evans (publishers), 82, 155–56 Breuer, Josef, 44 Brooks, Peter, 4, 5 Browne, Hablot K. (“Phiz”): as Bleak House illustrator, 26–27, 168n5 (Appendix); Elkins drawing, 152–53, 153; first edition lithography, 157; INDEX Italicized page numbers refer to illustrations. 180 I N D E X Browne, Hablot K. (“Phiz”) (continued) Gimbel drawing, 153–54, 155; letter from Dickens, 150–52; on lithography, 82, 156; Nonesuch edition, 158. See also illustrations Bucket, Inspector: as avatar of Dickens, 95–96; as Orpheus, 60–63; as psychoanalyst, 61–65, 74, 95–96; speech mannerisms and gestures, 63–65 Buzard, James, 2 Carlyle, Thomas, 132, 133 Caruth, Cathy, 46–47, 121–22 charity, genuine, 138 Charles I (king), 126–27 Charles II (king), 128 Chesney Wold: ghost of, 122; as haunted house, 117–18; as synecdoche for the nation, 85 childhood, Dickens’s interest in, 88–89 Child’s History of England, A (Dickens), 123–29, 167n11; as allegory, 128–29; narrative shape of, 126–27; women leaders in, 125–26 Christmas, 141–45 Christmas Carol, A (Dickens), 130 “Christmas Tree, A” (Dickens), 141 class structure, 57, 133 Cleaver, Arthur, 160 “Close of Esther’s Narrative, The,” chapter, 75–79 Cohen, Jane R., 152 Collins, Philip, 123 common decency, acts of, 57 Communist Manifesto (Marx), 129 Companion to “Bleak House” (Shatto), 166n5 (chap. 5) confusion, rhetoric of, 10, 161n6 “Consecrated ground” illustration, 31–34, 34, 163n4 Cromwell, Elizabeth, as Dora Dickens, 128 Cromwell, Oliver, 127–28 cross-generational transmission of trauma, 45, 167n10. See also trauma Cruikshank, George, 159, 159 dark plates: print quality of, 82, 156, 168n5 (Appendix), 169n7; retrospective focalization of, 37; use with dual narrators, 27. See also “Ghost’s Walk, The”; “Mausoleum at Chesney Wold, The”; “Sunset in the long Drawing-room at Chesney Wold” David Copperfield (Dickens): as autobiographical novel, 88; Charles I in, 126–27; Dora Spenlow Copperfield in, 99, 100–101, 108–9, 118; finished writing, 102; ghosts from Dickens’s past in, 118–19; illustrations in, 91; infant memory in, 89–91; interpretation of, 94–95; John Dickens in, 107 “Dead Mother, The” (Green), 48, 109 dead mother complex, 48–50 Death and the Mother from Dickens to Freud (Dever), 2–3 deaths, infant, 15, 17, 109–10, 119 Dedlock family as history of England, 120–21 “deferred action” (Nachträglichkeit), 45, 47 depression, 48–49, 50, 52, 101, 109. See also “blank depression” Derrida, Jacques, 129–31, 136, 138–39, 165n5, 168n25 Dever, Carolyn, 2–3, 7, 15, 16, 27, 54–55 Dickens, Catherine (Kate), 99–100; becoming ill, 101–2; and death of Dora, 104–5; as Esther, 110; as Lady Dedlock, 109, 110; nervous depression, 101, 109 Dickens, Charles: autobiographical fragment, 88, 93–94, 107; beginning to write Bleak House, 88, 111; biographical parallels with Bleak House, 107–12; birth of daughter I N D E X 181 Dora, 99–101; and Christmas, 141–45; control of narrative form, 126–27; death of Dora Annie, 103–6; English Civil War and, 167n15; first idea for Bleak House, 88, 102, 105–6; “great turning idea” of Bleak House, 163n23...