Chancery, The Parasite That Plagues the Victorian Society In Charles Dickens Bleak House, Chancery is portrayed as a disease that plagues the Victorian society. Dickens uses the suits and the lawyers of Chancery to display its effects on the whole society. The suits are "slow, expensive, British, constitutional kind of things" 25 that stifle and bemuse those that come in contact with them. In Ms. Flite's case, the suit has deteriorated her life. She attends Chancery regularly expecting a judgement that is never to come and yet, she lives a "pinched" 73 lifestyle, unable to help herself or others. In...
kidnaps Joe, bribes him, threatens him to stay away from London and leaves him to fend for himself. However, Joe falls ill and returns to London where he eventually dies.

Thus, Dickens successfully portrays how Chancery diminishes people's way of life, whether they are of a lower class like Joe and Ms. Flyte, or are of an upper class like Robert and Lady Dedlock. I personally believe that the message is that the cause and the need for change are present and people need to work together despite their differences or social classes to bring on the necessary change.