Bleak House

“He is surrounded by a mysterious halo of family confidences, of which he is known to be the silent depository.”

Tulkinghorn is respected and feared because he knows so many secrets about the English elite. He functions as a living embodiment of the legal system and societal norms, policing decorum through his existence alone. The description of his “halo of family confidences” indicates that his power and authority derive from the trust placed in him by the same rich and powerful people who fear him (16). The irony of this elevated status is that he is ultimately murdered by a disgruntled and unemployed servant.

“Her natural cruelty is sharpened by a jealous fear of their regaining their liberty.”

The cat preying on any birds who escape from their cages is a metaphor for the dangers of the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. The characters are trapped by their obsession with the potential inheritance and preyed upon by lawyers and advisors—people who profit from the case’s continuation, and who eventually drain the inheritance of all its money.

“I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east.”

Jarndyce’s fear of the East Wind symbolizes his lack of control. As a claimant in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case, he has given up any hope of the case ever being resolved. This huge part of his life is entirely out of his control and seems to have a corrosive and corrupting effect on all those around him.