Talk given for the Charles Dickens Museum’s opening of the special exhibition, “To Be Read at Dusk.”
Dickens’s opinions on the possibility of spectres seem to be as complicated and contradictory as the author himself. Though he drew upon concepts of the Victorian spectre in his works and practiced the science of mesmerism for most of his adult life, at the same time he doubted the desire and ability of ghosts to communicate with the living through séances and the “rappings” that were claimed by the spiritualist movement. In an 1858 issue of Household Words, Dickens wrote that his “presumption was strongly against those respected films taking the trouble to come here, for no better purpose than to make supererogatory idiots of themselves” (Dickens “Rappings” 217). In the October 5, 1861 issue of All the Year Round, Dickens wrote the preface to a first-person account of a ghostly encounter called “Mr H’s Own Narrative.” Dickens wrote that there was “no possible doubt of [Mr. H] being a real existing person and a responsible gentleman...” but Dickens would not make any theor[ies]...towards the explanation of any part of th[e] remarkable narrative” (36).[1]From this duality in his beliefs in the pseudo sciences, Dickens’s writings work to create a bridge between nineteenth-century science and the paranormal. He often uses ghost experiences as dream sequence encounters for his characters, concluding that the ghost was actually another aspect of the character’s psyche, a split self.
Two examples are the short story “The Queer Chair” contained within The Pickwick Papers, and his 1844 novella, “The Chimes.” However, just as frequently, he suggests that the spectres are real entities, like the ones who haunt Scrooge and the Signal-Man. Of the reality of spirits, Dickens stated rather ambiguously: “My own mind is perfectly unprejudiced and impressible on the subject of ghosts. I do not in the least pretend that such things cannot be” (Dickens qtd. in Haining 21).[2]
In Jennifer Bann’s doctoral thesis for the University of Stirling in 2007, she outlined some of the literary rules of using ghosts in fiction. She states that ghosts in literature are “something separate from and other than human…and their appearance serves as narrative shorthand to establish this. Ghosts that lack sufficient signifiers in their apparel may exhibit their equivalent in behaviour” (155-156). She also cites that ghosts were seen as “communicat[ing] with the living to bring…moral and spiritual advancement, or to suggest social restructure under wiser spirit guidance” (48-49) and that ghost stories written prior to the spiritualist movement typically referred to the phantoms with the depersonified pronoun “it,” which further served to separate these spirits from the physical world. Before Dickens’s works, we can see that supernatural characters always followed a preconceived code that was written for them. This code changes when the Spiritualist movement became a more accepted belief and my focus is to demonstrate that Dickens’s writing helped to create a new type of ghostly character. When Dickens began integrating ghosts (who followed the “ghost code” mentioned) as prominent characters in his supernatural Christmas tales (and these tales proved popular), their ghostly aspects became transferred to his physical characters in subsequent stories: people he meant to present as the living dead. These individuals, exhibited using the same descriptors as Dickensian phantoms, have undergone a metaphorical death of the soul due to their respective losses of love, marriage, and family; in short, everything that is associated with the normal course of human life. For the purposes of this talk, the focus of the living dead characters will be Lady Dedlock, although he creates many others that fit this moniker.
The first reference of an actual ghost story in Bleak House is only a hundred pages into the text, with references to the haunting of Chesney Wold’s Ghost Walk.
Mrs Rouncewell relates this story to her grandson and the young maid Rosa. Interestingly, Mrs Rouncewell mentions that it is the present Lady Dedlock over anyone else in the house who claims to hear the sound of the ghostly footsteps. Lady Dedlock operates from a world in decay as Chesney Wold is presented to us as an isolated domain which “cannot hear the rushing of the larger worlds” (Dickens Bleak 55). Part of Lady Dedlock’s isolation is that she has effectively chosen a life that she would not have envisioned for herself under better circumstances. When she sees Hawdon/Nemo’s handwriting, the writing of a man she has until that moment believed to be dead, she “asks impulsively: ‘Who copied that?’” (Dickens Bleak 61). Shocked to find this familiar script in an unfamiliar time and place, Lady Dedlock is haunted by the papers that Hawdon’s hand (now known to be alive) has touched, and she faints. Her lips go white, like that of a corpse, and she states that while she is only “‘faint…it is like the faintness of death’” (Dickens Bleak 62). This choice of words to describe her fainting fit aligns Lady Dedlock with death itself. Through viewing the handwriting of someone she had thought forever lost, she experiences an interaction with death. Further, Hawdon’s handwriting is haunting to Lady Dedlock because it is presented to her at Chesney Wold, a world Hawdon should never be able to enter, since he and his memory reside in a separate sphere. In proclaiming, “Don’t speak to me” after she revives from her faint, Lady Dedlock recedes further from humanity and chooses to move into a dimension with which communication is not possible (Dickens Bleak 62). She knows that she is separated from the living by her secret, a secret that now has been resurrected.
The second clue that Lady Dedlock operates from the world of the undead is her portrait. Guppy sees this portrait of Lady Dedlock and is bizarrely “fixed and fascinated by it,” feeling that he “must have had a dream of that picture” because of how familiar it seems (Dickens Bleak 138). When he comes out of the room where the portrait hangs, he is in a “dazed state” and wanders through the rest of the rooms in Chesney Wold “with a confused stare, as if he were looking everywhere for Lady Dedlock” (Dickens Bleak 138-139). The anonymous narrator has described Lady Dedlock’s portrait as something that exercises an almost hypnotic mind control over the viewer (Guppy), a trait that is held by other literary supernatural “living dead” characters such as the later Victorian villains, Svengali and Count Dracula.[3]
The portrait acts as a portal through which Lady Dedlock can continue to haunt Chesney Wold even while she is not physically present, and as well, it exhibits the “mind control” trait indicative of a supernatural character. Later, when Lady Dedlock is in London attempting to find more information about Nemo, the narrator tells us, “My Lady is at present represented, near Sir Leicester [while he is at Chesney Wold], by her portrait” (Dickens Bleak 272). With this description, the portrait is confirmed to be an avatar for Lady Dedlock, an object that enables her to continue to haunt Chesney Wold with her customary air of ennui. Additionally, the portrait raises the possibility that Lady Dedlock is also enacting a type of basilisk mind control over Sir Leicester.[4]
Although not as menacing a figure as Dracula or Svengali, both of whom seek to destroy the world around them and draw something from the desolation via blood and/or mind control, Lady Dedlock does share the supernatural trait of hypnotism with these characters, though perhaps it is unintentional on the Lady’s part. Furthermore, Dickens, and later Stoker and du Maurier, imbued their characters with this trait in order to follow the rules for the usage of ghostly and/or supernatural beings; to align them with a world that is separate from our own.
Lady Dedlock mixes the physical and the nonphysical worlds when Esther meets her for the first time in the quiet country church near Chesney Wold. Esther describes her initial view of Lady Dedlock with language that one might use to describe meeting a ghostly presence, proclaiming: “Shall I ever forget the rapid beating at my heart, occasioned by the look I met, as I stood up! Shall I ever forget the manner in which those handsome proud eyes seemed to spring out of their languor, and to hold mine!” (Dickens Bleak 304). Esther’s sublime description of seeing her mother for the first time without knowing the woman’s true identity can be likened to Dame Edith Lyttleton’s spiritualist description of viewing her dead son’s body. Lyttleton writes that she experienced a “‘wonderful moment by his dead body [which] has been the strongest influence in my life. I can date from it all the belief and hope that have upheld me’” (Lyttelton qtd. in Jalland 367). Dickens focuses acutely on the face in this scene of the meeting between Lady Dedlock and Esther, and the imagery brings about a deep knowledge in the latter, a sense that is in some way akin to telepathic. This telepathic connection is also representative of the novel as a whole.
The most important aspect of this scene is that Dickens imbues Lady Dedlock with powers of mesmerism, a practice with which he had been affiliated since meeting with Dr John Elliotson in the late 1830s. Elliotson had been putting patients at the University College Hospital in London under mesmeric trances as well as conducting his own mesmeric experiments, and Dickens learned the skill of mesmerism under Elliotson’s instruction.[5]
Adin Ballou in his 1852 text on spiritualism and mesmerism states that mesmerism puts the subject “in a sort of trance partially or completely, [and] brings all his powers more or less under the control of the magnetizer, and sometimes gives rise to very powerful demonstrations” (85). In Bleak House, Esther functions as the subject while Lady Dedlock is the magnetizer. Dickens portrays Esther as falling under the power of Lady Dedlock, and it is as if the Lady (who is perhaps unaware of her own mesmeric capabilities) wishes Esther to know of their hidden connection, though she herself lacks a conscious knowledge of it at this point. Anton Mesmer stated that there is a fluid which connects all things, and that this essence or force functions in a sense like mirrors: “Its action is exerted at a distance, without the aid of any intermediate body [and] it is intensified and reflected by mirrors, just like light” (Mesmer qtd. in Connor 3). Additionally, Fred Kaplan cites that patients undergoing mesmeric treatments with doctors such as Elliotson, were often induced into trances by mirrors, crystals or other bright objects. Esther states that she is under the “power” of Lady Dedlock, and that she sees herself broken into pieces like a mirror that reflects images of Lady Dedlock (Dickens Bleak 305). Having studied mesmerism, Dickens would have been well aware of Mesmer’s writings, and the description of mirroring here is not coincidental.[6] In seeing Lady Dedlock, Esther recognises herself, and through the power of mesmerism, she perceives the greater connection of the two women. But at this early stage, the impact of the recognition is overwhelming. As was common with a mesmeric subject’s first experience, Esther is unable to deal with the thoughts that ripple from her initial meeting with her unknown mother. Most importantly, Dickens is identifying his character with the paranormal powers that he practiced himself. As the mesmerizer, Lady Dedlock is once again invoking an otherworldly power over others, hence Dickens (via his character) is bringing credence to this paranormal science.
Her most obvious ghostly alignment is when Lady Dedlock goes to London disguised in her maid’s clothing in order to glean information from Jo about Nemo. Throughout her meeting with Jo, “her face is veiled,” and it is repeated twice that “she never turns her head” but walks resolutely past Jo and then beckons to him (Dickens Bleak 276). Dickensian readers would recognise a similarity between this description of Lady Dedlock and those of ghosts in Dickens’s other works, specifically the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in A Christmas Carol. This Phantom hits all the markers for a spiritual encounter; the narrator describes how “The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached…It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand…The Spirit answered [Scrooge] not, but pointed onward with its hand” (Dickens Carol 80) (see fig. 1). In Hablot K. Browne’s 1853 etching “Consecrated Ground,” Lady Dedlock’s face is not merely veiled as the text tells us, but is covered completely like that of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. She wears a bonnet in this illustration that juts out beyond her face, obscuring it from view with dark shadows (see fig. 2). Even though Lady Dedlock still resides among the living, in this London sequence she follows the preordained literary rules for the use of ghostly presences in Victorian gothic novels. While Lady Dedlock is not a literal ghost, her character is meant to be interpreted as one.
Fig. 1. John Leech, The Last of the Spirits, 1843, Wood engraving, Scanned by Philip V. Allingham for the Victorian Web, https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/carol/7.html
Fig. 2. Hablot K. Brown, Consecrated Ground, 1853, Etching, Scanned by George P. Landow for the Victorian Web, https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/11.html.
Like the ghosts in A Christmas Carol ten years previously and the spectre of “The Signal-Man” ten years later, Lady Dedlock appears, speaks some rather ambiguous and mysterious lines, then disappears quite bizarrely (Jo turns his head to look at her but finds he is alone), leaving behind a befuddled witness. Marley’s ghost joins the “mournful dirge” of the phantoms outside Scrooge’s window, and “Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded them, he could not tell” (Dickens Carol 27). The Ghost of Christmas Present states that its life on earth ends that night, and as Scrooge looks about for it, he “saw it not” (Dickens Carol 79). In its place is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come “draped and hooded, [who came] like a mist along the ground, towards [Scrooge] (Dickens Carol 79). This spirit later folds in on itself and dematerialises, becoming Scrooge’s bedpost. To Jo, Lady Dedlock behaves in this same confusing manner. Just as Scrooge is puzzled and alarmed by the entities that appear and disappear through supernatural means, Jo is likewise confused by Lady Dedlock’s seemingly ghostly appearance and disappearance. This would explain one of the reasons why Jo later fixates on the idea that she is a malevolent entity, one that perpetually haunts him.
Jennifer Bann argues in her thesis that “it is thanks to the Victorians that ghost stories in the forms we recognise them today continue to garner such popularity” (300). She goes on to write that it was largely the spiritualist movement that shaped Victorian ideas of spectres, transforming them from quiet, ghostly shadows into personalities that the living protagonists could “understand and experience” (300). It can be argued that such experiences are still being sought today, as is evidenced by the numerous “ghost hunts” advertised at tourist havens like Warwick Castle and the Red Lion Inn in Avebury, both of which offer possible ghost sightings enmeshed within the historical context of the locations (my boyfriend and I even went on a Halloween "ghost tour" of Little 5 Points, a part of Atlanta only developed in the early 20th century!). Every year, countless movies, television programmes and video games draw upon our longing to have a ghost encounter; we are still looking to hear the stories of the dead, even if we know they are fabricated. As I have demonstrated with this work, Dickens’s aim with his spectral characters was to educate his living ones (and thus his readership) through ghostly experiences. He understood the voyeuristic desire to be spooked, to enjoy being afraid, and he himself cited the gothic tradition as a factor that had been influential on him; stating that stories from his childhood dwelt within “the dark corners [of his mind that he was] forced to go back to” (Dickens “Uncommercial” 518). The protagonists of Dickensian ghost narratives all learn from their supernatural encounters; they are moved to change their ways and reform, bringing the teachings of Humanist version of Christianity into their lives. But while a ghostly pedagogue is an effective literary device to influence character development, one can hypothesize that Dickens felt it was becoming a bit predictable with multiple usages. As someone who “liked ghost stories…but only if they were not true,” it becomes more apparent that in his later works, Dickens began to move away from spectral characters in which he had a hard time believing, preferring instead to shape his antiheroes into living ghosts (Miller 326). The living dead come from the same world as that of the protagonists; therefore, without the necessity for any suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader, these human characters are better suited to teach.
[1] In the Volumized Ghost Stories edited by Haining, Haining asserts the original “Four Ghost Stories” published in All the Year Round was written by Dickens. Dickens confessed this to Forster and was then surprised that the version he anonymously wrote as fiction had actually happened to someone. This perhaps is why he was so drawn to say in his preface to Mr. H’s story that no one “stood between us and Mr. H in this matter” (36). [2] There always seems to have been a cultural fascination with Dickens’s involvement and beliefs (or non-beliefs) in spirits. An edition of The Spiritual Magazine in 1860 shows to what extent Dickens’s contemporaries discounted his scepticism: “We can hardly believe that Mr Dickens does really disbelieve in haunted houses, nor in other phases of spiritual phenomena” (qtd. in Ruffles). “The Ghost Club” of London (established in 1862 and still meeting today) investigates “paranormal phenomena associated with ghosts and hauntings” and claims Dickens as one of its founding members. However, I have not been able to find any concrete evidence of Dickens’s membership other than the Club’s initial assertion. In 1873, only three years after Dickens’s death at Gad’s Hill, Thomas P. James of Vermont, U.S.A., claimed that the spirit of Dickens communicated to him the last half of the author’s uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. [3] In Dracula, Jonathan Harker attempts to kill the Count while he sleeps in his coffin: “But as I did so the head turned, and the eyes fell upon me, with all their blaze of basilisk horror. The sight seemed to paralyze me, and the shovel turned in my hand and glanced from the face” (Stoker 71). George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby depicts Svengali causing Trilby’s transformation into a talented singer via his powers of hypnotism. Thus, both characters (Dracula and Svengali) manipulate other characters via mind control. [4] While the reader can interpret this as a sign of Sir Leicester’s unwavering love for his Lady, it equally can be seen as an effect of the power she continues to exert over him with her hypnotic gaze, the gaze she uses to bend the wills of others. Additionally, the unnamed narrator’s final chapter concludes Sir Leicester’s story with him benevolently visiting Lady Dedlock’s mausoleum in order to pay her memory a minute’s silent respect. This visit could be yet another example of Lady Dedlock’s continuing influence over Sir Leicester as he feels compelled to enact this ritual despite being “invalided, bent, and almost blind” (Dickens Bleak 928). However, just as importantly, it can be viewed as an example of Sir Leicester’s understanding of the forgiving love of Christ. Lady Dedlock’s death moves Sir Leicester to learn a similar lesson to that of Scrooge and Redlaw: that through the redemptive power of Christ’s love, all transgressions can be forgiven. [5] Steve Connor chronicles Dickens’s education in and practice of mesmerism in “All I Believed is True: Dickens under the Influence” (2010). Fred Kaplan also writes on Dickens’s interest in and study of mesmerism in Dickens and Mesmerism: The Hidden Springs of Fiction (1975). [6] The idea of spirits using mirrors to mesmerise the living is also used in “The Chimes” when Toby sees the spirits of the Bells haunting the sleep of the townspeople: “he saw them flashing awful faces on the troubled rest of others, from enchanted mirrors which they carried in their hands” (Dickens “Chimes” 154).
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Ballou, Adin. An Exposition of Views Respecting the Principal Facts, Causes, & Peculiarities
Involved in Spirit Manifestations. Edward Howell, 1853.
Brown, Hablot K (Phiz). “Consecrated Ground,” 1853, Etching, Scanned by George P. Landow for the Victorian Web, https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/bleakhouse/11.html.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. The Modern Library, 2001.
-----. Bleak House. Penguin Books, 1971.
-----. “Mr H’s Own Narrative.” All the Year Round. 6.128 (1861): 36-43.
-----. “The Uncommercial Traveller.” All the Year Round. 3.72 (1860): 517-521.
-----. “Well-Authenticated Rappings.” Household Words. 17.1. (1858): 217-220.
Leech, John. “The Last of the Spirits,” 1843, Wood engraving, Scanned by Philip V. Allingham for the Victorian Web, https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/carol/7.html.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Penguin Books, 2002.
Secondary Sources
“A Very Brief History of the Ghost Club.” The Ghost Club, 2012, https://www.ghostclub.org.uk/history.html. Accessed 13 September 2022.
Bann, Jennifer. “Spirit Writing: the Influence of Spiritualism on the Victorian Ghost Story.” Diss. University of Stirling, 2007.
Connor, Steve. “All I Believed is True: Dickens under the Influence.” 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, No. 10 (2010). 10.16995/ntn.530. Accessed 15 July. 2013.
Haining, Peter. Introduction. The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens. Ed. Peter Haining. Franklin Watts, 1983. 1-21.
Jalland, Patricia. Death in the Victorian Family. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Miller, Andrew H. “The Specters of Dickens’s Study.” Narrative, vol. 5, no. 3, 1997, pp. 322–41. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20107127. Accessed 20 July 2013.
Ruffles, Tom. “A Hankering After Ghosts: Dickens and the Supernatural.” Blogspot. Blogspot, 6 Dec. 2011. https://tomruffles.blogspot.com/2011/12/hankering-after-ghosts-charles-dickens.html. Accessed 28 July 2013.