Summary

After visiting briefly with Miss Flite, the young people walk back to the Jellyby house. Richard, already affected adversely by the unending Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit, nevertheless states that the suit “will work none of its bad influence on us” and (speaking particularly to Ada) says that it “can’t divide us.” Early that afternoon, the three wards leave in an open carriage, bound for Bleak House.

Analysis

Dickens creates Krook and his disordered, unproductive shop partly as macabre symbols of the legal system in general and the Lord High Chancellor and the Chancery Court in particular. The theme of the ruinous effects of Chancery is further developed through the presentation of the impoverished Miss Flite and the story of Tom Jamdyce’s attempted suicide. Dickens prepares the reader for the story of “Nemo” by calling attention to the fact that Krook has another renter, a law copyist. Richard Carstone’s attraction to Ada and his distress over the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit foreshadow later developments.