The purpose of the present text is to analyze an extract belonging to Bleak House by Charles Dickens From the first chapter of the novel. It will be based on close reading and personal interpretations. Therefore it is not meant to give definite answers, but only possible ones.

First of all, considering the title, it is “Bleak House”. It arouses curiosity in the reader, who can ask himself why is the house bleak and who can the inhabitants be. Furthermore, considering the subheading, it is “In Chancery”. The reader can expect the text to be about something connected with law.

Going on, considering the structure, it doesn’t appear as a typical novel. The extract is organized into four  paragraphs that are four descriptive sequence. Considering the narrator, it is a third person omniscient one. The narrative technique is telling. Therefore every information the reader gets is filtered from the narrator. The reader is not free to make its own personal opinions.

Taking into consideration the very first part, the first sentence is formed by a only world, that is London. There is a rapid scene setting. After that  a very long and detailed description starts allowing the reader to better visualize the scene. Right from the first part the reader understands the scene’s time, space and main protagonist. This character isn’t immediately characterized, arousing curiosity into the reader. The writer privileges a nominal writing style. 

Furthermore , it is interesting to notice how the description goes on. To describe better, there is a long simile: the streets appear so muddy as if the water had just retired from them. There writer uses the figure of the megalosaurus to convey the idea of something frightening and uncontrollable  threading London’s streets.  There is a careful attention to details: the narrator underlines the megalosaurus forty feet length to concretize the description. There is the recurrent topic of London’s pollution: smoke going out from the chimneys.

Considering the second sequence, the key word is “fog”. It is all an accumulation of all the places where fog arrives. This weather description can reflect the city’s situation: it conveys the metaphorical meaning of human irrationality.  Fog is everywhere: both up, down and around people. It hides every rational certainty people can have. The overall effect is too feel as if you were up in a balloon. 

Taking into consideration the last three sequences, they are shorter than the previous ones. The key words are gas, fog and mud, giving an overall idea of something gloomy and undefined. This idea contrasts with the reader previous expectations for the extract to be about something as rational and defined as law is. At the end of the description there is again the figure of the main protagonist. Therefore  the meaning structure is circular.

considering the semantic field, all the words come from the language of sense impressions. The only sense analyzed is sight: sounds are indirectly evoked by onomatopoeic words such as splashesd, slipping and sliding. Even sounds appear to be oppressed by fog.

Taking onto consideration all that said before, think the ideal reader should be someone  who had lost confidence in the effectinness of law and needed to find something else to trust.