Summary

Analysis

Pathos dominates the story at this point as Jo’s suffering intensifies and Esther herself is stricken. Jo’s disappearance and Esther’s blindness are dramatic and seemingly important developments, and as such, they excite our interest in seeing how things will turn out. The illness contracted in turn by Jo, Charley, and Esther is almost certainly smallpox; it was rife in Dickens’ era, as it had been in earlier times.