The text “in Chancery” is the first chapter of “Bleak House” written by Charles Dickens. “Bleak House” is a satire, a literary work that makes fun of human vice and folly.

Considering the title, an intelligent reader can understand that the story is focalized on a Court that is part of the High Court of JUstice. So the reader can expect that the chapter speaks about an event or a place.

 The structure is organized in five paragraphs. The first one starts with the word “London” and immediately after there is the name of a character (Lord Chancellor). The narrator immediately gives important information: the chancery is in London and “Lord chancellor” is the most important chancellor of the court. This information make the reader understand that you are talking about the Court of Chancery, which was the english legal body that examines and decides disputes, opposing to the Common Law. Indeed, the first paragraph describes the day. It was November and there was the usual characteristic weather of the month in fact there was a lot of water and mud on the streets. The narrator to create irony about the situation and to scorn the weather, he says that “it would not to be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus”. Then there were dogs and horses full of mud and people walking on sidewalks slip because it was all wet.

The second paragraph describes the fog, which covers everything in London. Indeed, this paragraph starts with “fog everywhere” to introduce the argument that is described in the following lines.

The third paragraph is about people, completely surrounded by fog.

The fourth paragraph has an exaggeration: “the raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest and the muddy streets are muddiest”. This represents the difficult and exaggerated situation of the day.

The last paragraph represents the relationship between the weather and the Court. “Never can there come fog too thick, never can there come mud and mire too deep”  highlights that such a bed weather has never happened and this is closely connected with the legally of the court. Court has never been so corrupt and there was a need of reform. Furthermore, the fog so intense represents confusion and repression of people necessary for the non-functioning of the Court. In this situation men get lost.

Considering the characterization, Dickens uses a characterization of London’s weather to express the situation of the Court. He describes people, animals, the fog, all the structure of London submerged in fog to underline the repression of the environment. This repression compared to the repression of the Court: it didn’t follow legality and was corrupted. Furthermore, the pressure of the fog on the city represents people’s mood, who are subdued to the Court.

Dickens uses an external and omniscient narrator, who does not attend in the narration but with the description of the weather and he proposes his idea about the corruption of the Court. Moreover he does not use dialogue to underline the situation even more but he uses only a description that very clearly highlights man’s suppression.

Concluding, the overall effects created from the text highlights people’s and Court’s condition. The description of London, makes clearly understand the repression and the difficulty of men to react to the wrong law. People are surrounded by fog (corruption) and they can’t act.