79
The connection between responsibility in the family and in society is
also touched on by Robert Donovan** 'When parents will not or cannot
take care of their children, when husbands refuse to be masters in their
own houses, above all when these relations are not illuminated and
softened by love, it is useless to expect those public institutions in
which the relations of the family are mirrored to supply their defects
This of course is quite true as a general statement. But the link
between family and society is made more explicit than this and the
criticism of society provided in BLEAK HOUSE is made more damaging
consequently. Mr Bucket may claim that his wife 'is as fond of children
as myself' (Ch 49, 730) but this fondness turns out to be of a
professional kind, in the service of society. His public duties
apparently are Bucket's favourite child, just as they are Mrs Jellyby's
(Ch 23, 387), though the differences are obvious, the Buckets having
no children. And not only are children treated only for what they are
worth to society, they are also blamed for what society does to them;
to Chadband, for instance, it is quite clear that the reason that Jo
is devoid of flocks and herds and gold and silver and precious stone,
and above all devoid of parents, is that he is devoid of the 'the
ray of rays, the sun of suns, the moon of moons, the star of stars
the light light of Terewth' (Ch 24, 414).
All this becomes even more damaging when the reverse happens; when,
instead of society imposing itself on children and the family,
society is treated in term of the family (and the failing family at
that)We see this in the way the poor are treated. Real care for
them is scarce; childisness 'is the favourite device, many people
deeming it quite a subtlety to talk to them like little spelling
books' (Ch 46, 684). This effect is reinforced when Chancery starts
acting as a parent. 'It has engendered in him Richard a habit of
putting off and trusting to this, that and the other chance,
without knowing what chance and dismissing everything as un
settled, uncertain and confused' and on the whole the conclusion must
be that 'the Lord High Chancellor, at his best, appeared a poor
substitute for the love and pride of parents' (Ch 3, 78).
Realization of the fact that 'we are all children of one great mother,
Nature' (Ch 43, 656) is no solution either, for it does not keep
Harold Skimpoles baker from being angry. Even 'the universe
