75
He is not as bad as his wife, whom Caddy blames for everything
(Ch 14, 237-8)but he is bad enough. The other example of total
neglect is Harold Skimpole, whose wife and children, in Esther's view,
rarely 'presented themselves to his cosmopolitan mind' (Ch 18, 308)
His sons having run away from the 'child' that is their father he is
left with his Beauty daughter, his Sentimental daughter and his
Comedy daughter who adorn his life when he wants them. Everything
this world has to offer is there just for him, and he is the supreme
model of neglect of responsibility in the novel ('I cannot be responsible').
The case of Mr Turveydrops is already more serious; he does not only
neglect his children, he lives on them, as Dickens points out in very
clear terms (Ch 23, 382).
But things can be worse than this. Mary of the children in the book
would have been a lot better off with less attention than they get and
a misguided view of responsibilities is shown to be a very important
aspect of the responsibility theme. The Pardiggle children understand
ably look 'absolutely ferocious with discontent' (Ch 8, 151) with all
their charitable activities. Esther's feeling of guilt towards her
Godmother, who 'if she had ever smiled would have been - Esther used
to think - like an angel' is induced by the fact that 'she never smiled'
(Ch 3, 63); and though it leads Esther on to a path of virtuous industry
9
we are not expected to credit Miss Barbary with that In the Smallweed
family, as far as methods of crewing as much money out of as many people
as can be had; and for the one child in the family that is left, a
cushion is enough to teach her what she needs to know. Mrs Woodcourt
ties her son to the family name Morgan ap-Kerrig (Ch 17, 292); and
even Mrs Rouncewell, however goc nd devoted a mother sne may be,
does, in her devotion to the Dedi-^ks, relinquish her second son to a
future in the Wat Tyler way of life. Down to characters mentioned
only in a passing the vice is shown: the 'inanimate, dissatisfied
mamma' of 'a not very hopeful pupil, a stubborn little girl with a
sulky crehead' forces her child to dance, obviously against her
will (ch 23, 380)
Lady Dedlock merits some closer attention. She, of course, has done
nothing at all towards educating her child, just because she has never
known that it is alive. Still, there seems to be a certain sensivity
in her on this point. We hear, in the scene in which she is introduced
