Bleak House: Court of Chancery: Role Play Response

1. Capture the creative/brainstorming process.

Kelly Wedlake

Within the court group, we quickly decided to portray the two court cases that we had been presented with within Bleak House, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce and Gridley v. Gridley. Both of the cases presented themselves as familial disputes concerning money, and with Gridley v. Gridley we had the opportunity to act out the case as it was told to us directly from Mr. Gridley in the work. With the Jarndyce case, we were able to take more of a creative liberty. Our group first created a character list, and dictated the amount of time that would be given to each case within our role play. We then divided up writing the character descriptions, and later divided up the writing of the script, with Hannah taking on the portion dedicated to the Gridley case and Nick taking on the portion dedicated to the Jarndyce case. I (Kelly) wrote and created the opening presentation. Rebecca and Casey each came up with the closing questions, and Rebecca compiled and kept track of the works cited.

Early on, we decided to stick to Dickens’ script for the Gridley case, choosing to showcase a simpler dispute within Bleak House. For the Jarndyce case, however, we decided to take some creative freedom and apply it to the case, offering a surprising twist involving the characters that we’re already familiar with from Bleak House. We used Household Words, All the Year Round, and Victorian Web to help familiarize ourselves with court cases of the time, along with general information for the opening presentation.

2. Create a list/collage of the excerpts from HW and ATYR that were used as inspiration; explain what about these pieces brings Victorian culture to life.

In our role play for the Court, we used 2 articles from Household Words as inspiration for writing our role play. The first article we used was titled “Law at A low Price” which we took the name Mr. Ficker. The reason we used Mr. Ficker as a lawyer is because he was an attorney of law in this article, so he knew what he was talking about. He was also a cheap lawyer to hire as well so we thought that it would be neat to have him in as well. The second article was used was titled “Myself and My Family” which a young kid wrote about his family and where he uncle was an important lawyer named Mr. Beecham. We used both of these pieces to capture how lawyers were important but maybe cheap as well back then.

3. Recapture the experience of the role play in class (like a news report). Incorporate the pictures into the blog (include the surprising high points and what went wrong!)

Today, a group of students from Loras College role played their interpretation of the Court of Chancery from the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Students acted out scenes which featured two court cases Gridley and Gridley and then also Jarndyce and Jarndyce which were two particular cases from Bleak House. While these were not exactly how the cases played out in the novel, it allowed students to gain a complete understanding of how crazy and confusing the courts were in the Victorian era.

Surprising times found during the case was the judgment sent down from the Lord Chancellor that Lady Deadlock had won the everlasting Jarndyce and Jarndyce case and was to be paid what John Jarndyce was inherently worth. We learned that the end of the trial that Jarndyce was only worth five pounds and also that Lady Deadlock was now the guardian of Richard, Ada, and Esther and that she would have to support them. After results were read Lady Deadlock asked for a new trial as she was deeply aggravated by what Jarndyce was worth.

Students had an interesting time with the role play and many of the students that were not in the “court group” actually played their roles with enthusiasm. This only made for a much better experience and students could gain a better understanding and put into context what they have read from Bleak House. Our group may have could done a better job of getting the students who played the “gallery” involved, but we best wanted to simulate the courts to our best interpretation.

4. Explain how the characters from Bleak House transformed through the “contact” with the Victorians.

Hannah Swart

In our role play, the characters were brought to life in a different way than in Bleak House. Since we had more flexibility with the plot and character development, we were able to bring together many characters and have them interact in unique ways. I think we saw the main characters, such as Lady Dedlock, Mr. Jarndyce, and the Gridleys transform into different characters in our role play, as we brought out different traits to emphasize. The characters also transformed depending on how each student in our class acted out their role. A few examples of transformations are portraying Lady Dedlock as someone who, although she wanted to win the case, was not actually too concerned with Mr. Jarndyce’s money. We showed her caring side in wanting to raise the wards. Another example is Mr. Gridley’s brother; since he is only ever mentioned in Bleak House, we created a name, personality, and characteristics for him.

5. Capture the reflections from the group in an interview format about the role play process, and from the class about what they gained from the experience.

Nicholas Estrada

Kelly thought it was interesting to recreate these cases. She said that it gave more context as to what was actually going on in Bleak House. It also gave the class a way to see how the courts worked, even though it was a creative interpretation in an actual live role play. Hannah also felt this was an interesting experience because we actually got to see a court case in action without just reading about it in the book. She also thought the chaos of the court was displayed as well. This was the interpretation we were going for and it seemed to work because a lot of things were much disorganized. She also said the class was able to see the characters come to life through Dickens interpretation. Casey made the point along with everyone else in saying that it was interesting to see how the court would actually carry out the cases. He thought that there was a good example for the class to see how there was not really any general flow to the court and how each case jus ends abruptly with a lot of confusion, along with how it is in Bleak House. Rebecca thought it was important for the role play that we put our own spin on what will happen in the book with the Jarndyce case. It was also important for the class to act out the court and how it was back then because it provided a more lifelike interpretation of how these characters are in real life.