It is the summer of 1853. Charles Dickens has been working to publish his novel Bleak House in monthly installments since March 1852, and the public has been eagerly devouring the story. London is a densely-populated metropolis with a population of 2.4 million, making its ninety square miles the most heavily populated city in the world (Johnson 12). Social problems have arisen from the sheer number of people within the city limits, creating a foul taste in the mouths of all that are every bit as essential to London's class system as the cultivated thought of the upper classes. As a result of this waste, London became an ideal breeding ground for disease. In Bleak House, we see the results of this explosion, showing how a lack of care towards the city as a whole has begun to crack society. Disease in Bleak House is seen as a physical …show more content…
In that way, it represents the upper classes keeping to themselves and seeing their lives as isolated. They are not harming anyone else, and can live their lives without thought to the lesser people of London. By contrast, Jo’s disease is very contagious. It is something public, something that has the potential to harm anyone, no matter what your class or your background. Gout is considered the family secret; Jo's condition is something you cannot hide. Disease was something that Victorians were striving to conquer, with their modern medicinal practices; if Jo had been socially able to seek help, there was a chance that he could have survived. Sir Leicester, on the other hand, chooses to suffer in silence, rejecting any help that the modern doctors could offer him. In that way, he can be seen resisting this new medical model, remaining firmly rooted in the ways he has always used. It is the stubbornness of the upper classes that will cause the poor to die off if no action is