The legal system of Victorian England is integral to Charles Dickens' novels and to their moral intent. Dickens was acutely conscious of the way in which the Victorian novel operated as a form of moral art. As a novelist he is concerned about the victims of his society and the way in which their lots can be improved. He therefore chooses to construct representative victims of legal institutions such as the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Court of Chancery in his novels to highlight flaws in his world and the changes that might be made to improve social conditions. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' fictional enquiry into the social world his characters stand to inherit is focused on the legal system and its institutions, most particularly, the law of succession. By discussing three novels from different periods of his writing career, Oliver Twist (1837), Bleak House (1853) and Our Mutual Friend (1862-1865), I will suggest how his engineering of moral outcomes shows his development as a writer. The law of succession and related legal institutions such as the Court of Chancery, dealing with wills and inheritance, recurs in Dickens' novels, providing the novelist with social, moral and legal identities for his characters. These identities, as unveiled during the texts, propel the characters and plot development in particular directions in response to the novels' moral intent. The role of inheritance in Victorian society largely provides Dickens with a means to explore the adequacies of existing legal institutions, such as the means by which to prove and execute wills and the operation of the Court of Chancery. The role of inheritance also allows Dickens to examine the social condition of those who are deprived of an inheritance or who are unable to enforce their legal rights. In this respect Dickens concentrates on the appalling conditions of institutions such as workhouses and poorhouses in Victorian society and on resultant criminal activity and prostitution in the community as the disinherited struggle to survive. Dickens' study of crime in particular sheds invaluable light on the prevailing moral standards of, and difficulties with, his society. Dickens acknowledges his pedagogical role as an author, providing synopses of his lessons in the prefaces to his books and forewarning his audience of the literary devices (such as grotesquerie) that are necessary to communicate them effectively. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' engineering of moral outcomes through the convenient use of the law of succession becomes increasingly sophisticated as he develops as a writer. The stock plot device of the impoverished orphan child, a representative victim of such a Victorian legal institution as the Poor Laws who is morally saved when elevated into gentility by a secret inheritance, sustains the plot of Oliver Twist. The simplistic and somewhat improbable fortunes of Oliver, however, give way to the more probable moral and legal outcomes of characters such as Jo and Richard Carstone in Bleak House. In Bleak House Carstone, who is certainly a more interesting central protagonist than Esther Summerson in terms of Dickens' examination of legal institutions and their effect on moral and social outcomes in the novel, makes a ruinous attempt to manipulate the legal system and gain control over his fortune by joining the suit of Jarndyce v Jarndyce. In Our Mutual Friend, however, a complex and successful manipulation of the legal system is achieved by Harmon/Handford/Rokesmith, an adult and extremely resourceful character who, in conjunction with other characters such as Bella Wilfer and Mr Boffin, is testament to the inseparability of individual and legal identities as far as moral and social outcomes are concerned. Throughout the novels it can be seen that the abilities of Oliver Twist, Richard Carstone and John Rokesmith to manipulate the law of succession correlate directly to stages of Dickens' maturity as a writer and his increasing confidence about layering texts and developing more complex and sophisticated structures in his novels. Dickens' focus on the role of inheritance, however, entails the development of perspectives on the legal system in entirety. Oliver Twist as a novel drawing upon the traditions of sensation, and turning on events such as 'legacies, birthrights, thefts and deeds of violence', focuses intensely on the criminal justice system and establishes Dickens' famous attraction to repulsion and use of grotesquerie and popular entertainment. Oliver Twist also develops analogies between law and drama, establishing the foundation from which Dickens can employ legal metaphors to great effect in his quest for reforms of the legal system and society at large in Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. Oliver Twist further establishes the milieu of a stratified society in which finances govern social behaviour and in which the class system is reflected in the legal system through the denial of access to justice to those who are unable to afford it, or suffer gender inequality. Bleak House builds upon the problems outlined in Oliver Twist. It explores the criminal system, particularly the defeminisation of the law and access to justice issues, including the problem of delay in litigation. Specific legal institutions such as the jury system and, most notably, the civil branch of the Victorian legal system with a particular focus on the equitable procedures in the Court of Chancery are examined. Jo is a transmutation of Oliver as representative victim of the Poor Laws, and his fate as such appears more probable. Richard Carstone is, however, the central character in the novel in terms of his construction as the representative victim of the civil system and of the law of succession. In Our Mutual Friend Dickens refines his use of the law of succession and other legal institutions to propel characters into directions suited to his own agendas. The entire plot is constructed from the premise of the execution of a will arising out of the death of John Harmon whose murder is a crime that has never, in fact, been committed. The ramifications of the execution of this will and subsequent codicils are extremely interesting. The novel further examines problems of access to justice and gender inequality under the prevailing legal system, particularly through Bella Wilfer. As part of the development of Dickens' use of the legal system there is a perceptible development of his powers of characterisation. Richard Carstone is a more substantial and believable character than Oliver; John Harmon offers the opportunity for Dickens to experiment with a chameleon identity. This aspect of Dickens' development, however, has received substantial attention already, particularly by Arnold Kettle, Barbara Hardy, Monroe Engel and Grahame Smith. There has been, to the best of my knowledge, little work done on his use of the law of succession, and it is here that I wish to concentrate my argument. Much of Dickens' interest in the law appears to stem from his early career as a legal clerk in Lincoln's Inn and Doctors' Commons. His first job, as a writing clerk in the office of Ellis and Blackmore, a small set of chambers in Holborn Court, involved duties such as copying documents, administering the registration of wills and running errands to other legal offices and law courts. Public offices with which Dickens came into contact in the course of this job were the Alienation Office, the Sixpenny Receivers Office, the Prothonotaries Office, the Clerk of the Escheats, the Dispensation Office, the Affidavit Office, the Filazer's, Exigenter's and Clerk of the Outlawry's Office, the Hanaper Office and the Six-Clerk's office . This employment gave Dickens an exposure to a wide range of jurisdictions and legal precedents. Through this contact with a variety of legal practices, Dickens experienced a broad range of litigation which enabled him to develop opinions on the contemporary operation of the law and its efficacy in the administration of justice. Such experience almost certainly sowed the seeds for much of the critique of the legal system found in his novels. In 1829 when he joined Doctors Commons, Dickens was exposed to ecclesiastical and naval jurisdictions including a Consistory Court, A Court of Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Delegates Court and the Admiralty Court. In this role Dickens was employed by a firm of proctors to take notes on evidence and judgments. This job as a shorthand reporter granted Dickens the opportunity to observe at close range members of the legal profession such as clerks, proctors, secretaries and Doctors. Probably as much through a process of osmosis as anything else, Dickens gained an understanding of the mechanics of basic legal procedures through this type of employment. In order to work as a court reporter, Dickens was required to use shorthand, a method of taking notes that perhaps allowed Dickens to develop the skill to think and write quickly. It was probably at this early stage in his career that the duality of law and literature began to come together for Dickens, developing at a later stage into his volumes of legal fiction. The anonymity of the law writer's existence, as captured later in Dickens' description of Nemo the law-writer in Bleak House, who either lived or did not live by law-writing according to Krook, also may have prompted Dickens to begin writing original works with legal themes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/215969 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Swifte, Yasmine Gai |
| Publisher | University of Sydney, English |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English, en_AU |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Swifte, Yasmine Gai;http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/copyright.html |
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