In Charles Dickens Bleak House, Chancery is portrayed as a disease that plagues the Victorian society. Dickens uses the suits and the lawyers of Chancery to display its effects on the whole society.The suits are slow, expensive, British, constitutional kind of things (25) that stifle and bemuse those that come in contact with them. In Ms. Flites case, the suit has deteriorated her life. She attends Chancery regularly expecting a judgement that is never to come and yet, she lives a pinched (73) lifestyle, unable to help herself or others. In addition, she cages birds she intends to set free on her judgement day, however, she states, I positively doubt sometimes whether while matters are still unsettled I may not one day be found lying stark and senseless here, as I have found so many birds! (74). Like Miss Flite, the suit has stagnated Roberts life. Robert, So young and handsome, and in all respects so perfectly the opposite of Miss Flite...[is] so dreadfully like her in his clouded, eager, and seeking mannerism (592). Under the misconception that the suit cant last forever (599), Robert declares, I am young and earnest; and energy and determination have done wonders many a timeI devote myself to [the suit]. I make it the object of my life (599). As a result, this suit not only causes Robert to loose himself, but his misplaced suspicions cause him to loose his sound relationship with Mr. Jarndyce. The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itselfviewed by this light it becomes a coherent scheme (621) of which lawyers are the key players. Mr. Vholes, Roberts lawyer, always looking at the client, as if he were making a lingering meal of him with his eyes as well as with his professional appetite, (624) dupes Robert into believing that he needs him for his suit. This respectable lawyer tells Robert that because he is represented he will have a voice in the legal system, however, it means nothing for Robert...
