But curiosity does not exist in characters only. In reading Bleak House, we find both narrators, especially the anonymous one, have their curiosity too. The thirdperson narrator constantly inserts his wondering and inquiring question here and there in the process of narrating. In telling readers that Tulkinghorn “pursues” Lady Dedlock “doggedly and steadily, with no touch of compunction, remorse, or pity”, the narrator seems not sure of Tulkinghrorn’s motivation of doing so, and he wonders:
“Whether he be cold and cruel; whether immovable in what he has made his duty , whether absorbed in love of power, whether determined to have nothing hidden from him in ground where he has burrowed among secrets all his life, whether he is in his heart despises the splendor of which he is a distance beam, whether he is among treasuring up slights and offenses in the affability of his gorgeous clients” (ch. 29, p.344)
It seems that he cannot penetrate deep into Tulkinghorn’s inner mind and thus cannot present a Tulkinghorn with a inner life. But in admitting his own incomplete omniscience, the anonymous narrator creates a gap between Tulkinghorn’s malignant behavior and his motive. In this case, readers have to think actively while reading just in order to fill the gap why Tulkinghorn behaves as he does. Hawthorn, Jeremy. Bleak House (the Critics Debate Series). London: Macmillan, 1987, p. 43 Since different readers may have different life experience, ideological values and ways of thinking, their speculations or interpretations of Tulkinghorn’s purpose are sure to be diverse from each other. And the multiple interpretations or the indeterminism of interpretation gives Bleak House a modern characteristic.
In his The Poetics of Biblical Narrative, Sternberg summaries that there are three narrative strategies in the Bible: readerelevating, characterelevating and evenhanded. According to him, the first strategy makes readers in the superior position while characters are made victim; the second makes readers in darkness while characters know much about what is going on. Sternberg, Meir. The Poetics of Biblical Narrative. Indiana University Press, 1987, pp.164-5 When we apply this method to our analysis of Bleak House, we find all the three strategies concurrently work in the novel. We have less to say about the evenhanded strategy that put both readers and characters at the same position of knowledge, because it is a common practice in literary works.
But we can take the revelation of Esther’s mother for the example to show how readerelevating strategy is used in this matter. In chapter 19, readers, together with Lady Dedlock, learn from Guppy that Ester is the daughter of the Lady, who believes her baby died in the first hours of her life. But to Esther herself, this revelation is deferred until chapter 36. Therefore, if readers feel curious, as Esther does, about her flutter and trouble on seeing the Lady for the first time, they will be disenchanted of the enigma in chapter 23 when Esther is still confused at her intense but inexplicable feelings aroused by the Lady. Here readers enjoy the superiority. Examples of this kind are not rare in Bleak House, and this way of uncovering mysteries and removing curiosity has its own advantages. From one point of view, this readerelevating strategy is beneficial in keeping and attracting more readers, given the initial method of monthly serialization of Bleak House in 20 numbers within the period of one and half a year.
Examples of characterelevating strategy can be found in Bleak House too. Guppy’s curiosity is piqued as soon as he sees her portrait in chapter 7. In courting Esther in Chapter 9, he implies that he may get to know everything concerning her. This indicates that Guppy has already start his investigation of the relationship between Lady Dedlock and Esther, who bear great resemblance to each other, but readers know nothing about that so far. Therefore, 10 chapters further, when Mrs. Chadband says that she was left in charge of a child named Esther Summerson, readers are kept in complete darkness as to why Guppy feels excited on hearing this while Guppy, as a character, knows clearly about the reason for his excitement.
V. Conclusion
Obviously Dickens frequently shifts his narrative strategies and this mutability provided us with multiple and changeable perspectives of uncovering secrets and mysteries. In addition to this, Dickens’s design of curiosity of different levels in Bleak House and his deion of different curious characters have the effect of exposing the complicated inner connection among people who are superficial separated in modern society. Dickens also makes his Bleak House distinctive by employing the incompletely omniscient narrator, from which ensures incomplete solution of the mysteries in the novel. If the Lady Declock mystery is revealed by efforts of at least three forces, the truth of Jarndyce suit remain unknown throughout the narration. Readers, characters, as well as narrators know little more about it at the end of the story than they do in the very beginning. At the same time, new curiosity keeps coming into existence. Just as we feel curious about Tulkinghorn’ inner life, we may find Esther the same “silent depository” of secrets as Tulkinghorn.Tabling, Jeremy. Bleak House (New Casebook). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998, p.8 Although she claims that she is “always writing about herself” (ch. 9, p. 97), we are still ignorant of many things concerning her even after finishing reading the whole novel; we may still wonder whether she knows Nemo is her father, who she is writing to, why a little girl like her can be rational enough to be determined to repair the fault she was born with soon after she learns it and etc. In one word, all these characteristics of curiosity in Bleak House, there are many others, combine to make the reading of the novel an open process resulting in plural, individual and undetermined interpretation.
①Page，Norman.BleakHouse：aNovelofconnections.Boston：TwaynePublishers，1990，p.17
②Page，Norman.BleakHouse：aNovelofconnections.Boston：TwaynePublishers，1990，p.21